Footnotes #2

Some comments on the 9/18 BookScapes discussion

Several interesting things popped up in the community discussion after Monday’s post on the origins of my upcoming novel. Someone Always Nearby. I want to mention them briefly here, so they don’t get swept under a virtual rug and forgotten. The links go to the comments, so you can read the full exchange if you’re interested.

1. A valuable and timely comment came from Sandra de Helen, who wrote: “I first learned of this relationship [Georgia O’Keeffe and Maria Chabot] from a fellow playwright and friend, Carolyn Gage, who wrote a play (Georgia and the Butch), which is an adaptation of the letters from 1941-1949.”

I had heard about Gage’s play but didn’t know it was available. I jumped online, bought a copy, and immediately dove in. To my great pleasure, Carolyn Gage and I share very similar views about the friendship defined in the letters. More importantly for all of us, her play—made up of excerpts pulled directly from the letters and arranged in a clear time/place order, with a few ex…