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 explanatory narrator comments—is a very well done abridgement of the letters themselves. At 500+ pages, the Correspondence (the letter collection) is daunting. If you’re interested in the relationship and want to know more about it, I recommend that you start with Georgia and the Butch, which is available in several formats. Big thanks to Sandra for her comment and kudos to Carolyn Gage for this outstanding and accessible abridgement of the Correspondence!

2. Linda Hope is probably speaking for many when she writes: “If you were to steer me to one O'Keefe biography, which would you choose? So much more to learn!”

Yes, there’s never an end to what we can learn! My thought: Your choice depends on your interest in O’Keeffe. If it's her art and her career as an artist that fascinates  you , I'd suggest Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life, by Roxana Robinson. If you're interested in her personal life, especially her years in New Mexico, I'd suggest Jeffrey Hogrefe’s O'Keeffe: The Life of an American Legend. Robinson’s book is what is thought of as an “authoritative” biography. Hogrefe’s is more impressionistic, based in on his acquaintance with Juan Hamilton and on interviews with other O’Keeffe friends and acquaintances. And there’s one other valuable bio, if the O’Keeffe/Stieglitz relationship that intrigues you: O'Keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance, by Benita Eisler. (Of course, you could always read all three, and think about the ways each chose to reconstruct O’Keeffe.)

3. Nancy E. reminds us that Monday, September 18, was Maria’s birthday (110!) and pointed to the O’Keeffe Museum’s nice tribute on Instagram. Other sources say she was born on September 19. Happy birthday to Maria! And thanks, Nancy.

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A big thank-you to the participants for your interesting comments and questions. You can scan them all here. Also, I want to point you to Story Circle’s upcoming virtual conference. SCN is the nonprofit women’s writing organization your paid subscriptions to Place & Thyme help to support.

I’ll be back on Monday with a LifeScapes post. Until then, have a great weekend, everyone!