Journals and diaries

When I began my trek years ago into the works of Mabel Loomis Todd in order to tell her Hog Island story, I found myself at the Sterling Library at Yale where the Todd Bingham family archive is housed.  As a ten-year public school teacher at the time and a newly-initiated graduate student, it was the first time I had ever delved into anybody’s archive, let alone one cataloged at prestigious, ivy league Yale.  It was a memorable experience for this Midwest kid to sit in the reading room, poring over boxes of files that allowed me to personally handle Mrs. Todd’s papers.  

Back then, I was interested in finding materials related only to Hog Island in an archive collection that spanned “51 linear feet (124 boxes).”  I read recently that the Todd-Bingham collection is a treasure trove for historical researchers since both Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Bingham seemed to save every scrap of paper they ever created.  While I don’t know if that’s exactly true, the women surely had an eye on posterity as they worked on Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters, as well as recording the myriad other things they experienced in their lives.  

Lucky for me, there was a Hog Island section in the Yale collection that provided all I needed for my graduate project.  Still, that left many, many boxes and files undiscovered at the time.

As mentioned before, my intention for The Dressy Adventuress is not to re-hash the Dickinson-Todd story told so well by Polly Longsworth, Richard B. Sewall, Lyndall Gordon, and other biographers.  I am relying heavily on what those scholars have already reported to retell the Dickinson-Todd part of the story for my readers.  I am attempting to look more deeply into Mrs. Todd’s affinity for Nature to flesh out a part of her story that has not been well told to date.  Nature and Hog Island get mentions in most texts referred to above, but only briefly. 

Recently I realized that I need to look more carefully into another part of Mrs. Todd’s archived works where I have not yet been: her journals and diaries.  The Hog Island files worked well enough for grad work, but if I want to know more about what she was thinking summer 1908 when the Hog Island epic began, I really should look at her diaries and journals for insights.  

While I was figuring I would need at least another week at Yale to see what I could find, I discovered that Mrs. Todd’s diaries and journals are available on microfilm via interlibrary loan.  It would be much more cost effective if I could peruse those works here at home.  Unfortunately, I have discovered that my home university will not let alumni -- even one expanding on work done as a graduate student -- to borrow works via ILL.  But all is not lost.  I am currently working with a Wright State faculty member to secure those journals and diaries for me.  I am hopeful all will work out.   

Still, there will have to be at least one more trip to the Sterling Library before I finish my book.  In addition to assorted pieces of correspondence and lecture texts I’d like to get my hands on, Yale also holds “50.0 linear feet (94 boxes)” in the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection.  I suspect there are a few gems therein that will enhance the appeal of my book.  Now to find those images and make arrangements with Yale to publish them.   After all, a picture is worth a thousand words --  and looks mighty good in publication. 

In the meantime, I’m eager to get my hands on those journals and diaries.  More on that adventure as it develops.

Image:  Untitled (c. 1915) from The Todd-Bingham Picture Collection.  I call it “High Tide at Mavooshen.”  Foreground:  the family launch, Takusan, flying Japanese colors.  Background:  A woman stands at the door of ‘the lobster house.’  Farther back in the woods:  a torii gate.  Japan-rich, indeed.  

The Mavooshen 'puzzle'

Some months ago when I committed myself to another serious round with The Dressy Adventuress, I realized I needed to have an outside consultant who could offer some insights about any number of issues I’d be confronting.  In addition, I figured if I had someone else to report to, perhaps he/she could help hold my feet to the fire to a higher degree and I would see more progress.  

As mentioned in my last blog entry, that academic friend is David Dominic, Earth & Environmental Sciences department chair at Wright State University.  I might mention that David presented at the AWP conference in Boston a couple weeks ago on a panel discussing ‘Knowledge and Manifestation: Science in Contemporary Poetry.’  We are scheduled to meet next week and I’m eager to hear how things went.

I focus on Dr. David today because of an observation he made in an email over the winter that got me to thinking about my writing process.   Here’s what he wrote in response to a comment I made on my difficulty making progress:  

I do know that writing is hard work and is best approached as such. To students, I stress the ability to write non-linearly, by which I mean the opposite of the directive given to the White Rabbit: 'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'  If you can see the whole, you should be able to write parts of any piece. I think this is critical for getting around ‘blocks.’

That got me to thinking.  Indeed, I have organized The Dressy Adventuress in outline form a number of times now.  Each new iteration seems a bit tighter and I find that a good thing.  And as new/remembered ideas come up in my thinking, I can add them by hand onto the hard copy outline that is my master blueprint.  

Up to now, though, I figured I’d be starting with chapter one and progressing until finished, as the White Rabbit was advised.  With David’s suggestion that writing does not have to work like that, I reset my thinking and came to the conclusion that writing a book can be very much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle.  Assemble the border first [outline], then sort pieces by color and content, working the myriad variables until they find their long lost partners.  

Since David’s suggestion, I have continued my research by reading and note taking, then writing ‘concept pieces’  about that research in three to five page documents.  I liken the process to sorting and organizing the jigsaw pieces.  I figure sometime down the road these segments will come together in some logical order awaiting segues and transitions that will render the book organized, and thus readable.  

Life still consorts to keep me from my book writing tasks.  For the last week I have been in Hilton Head with the lovely Cindy Lou, giving her an opportunity to shed some winter blues and get her feet in some warm sand.  I figured I’d be note taking while she sunbathes, but such hasn’t been the case.  Being this close to the beach is too tempting!  

So upon our return home this weekend I’ll reinstall myself in my basement writing post next week and get back into the process of assembling my Camp Mavooshen puzzle.  Such seems workable.  Stay tuned.    

Today’s elder idea:  Science fiction is more than just our collective dreams for a human race that reaches to the stars.  In many ways, the dreams of yesterday are becoming the realities of today and the path for tomorrow.  

George Takei, from his internet book, Oh Myyy!

Reading Mr. Sulu was more fun that working on my writing this week.

image:  Millicent Todd Bingham cutting birthday cake with long time camp director Carl Buchheister standing by.  (1960)

From the Hog Island Audubon Camp picture archive.

February 2013 update

One of my New Year’s commitments to self and community was to gear up my work on The Dressy Adventuress, my book on the Nature side of Mabel Loomis Todd, the first editor of the Emily Dickinson poetry.  And I must report, so far, so good. 

And as a way to handle two things at once (I hesitate writing ‘killing two birds with one stone’ in this scenario), I thought I would publish monthly book progress in the same blog entry posted on both my blogs, The Back Porch and The Dressy Adventuress.  If you are reading this, then you’ve found at least one of them.  

Let me briefly recap my story with Mrs. Todd for those who might be unaware of how the woman has impacted my life.  Back in 1980, I was encouraged by an administrator in the junior high school where I taught to get working on a masters degree.  I had been teaching for nine years at the time and was, indeed, ready to continue my education.  

Within short order I was enrolled as a graduate student in a new academic offering at Wright State University, a master of humanities program.  By the third quarter of study I signed up for a workshop on Emily Dickinson facilitated by a favorite prof of mine, Jim Hughes.  The following summer I was awarded a grant by the Dayton Audubon Society to attend the Audubon Ecology Camp in Maine on Hog Island, a lovely 330 acre site in Muscongus Bay.  Three years later I finished my MHum with a monograph entitled ‘The Epic of Hog’: The Todd Bingham Family and the Establishment of the Audubon Ecology Camp in Maine.  As it turned out, the island was ‘saved’ from clearcutting in 1908 by the one and only Mabel Loomis Todd.  

My masters project was good in what it tried to accomplish:  placing Mabel Loomis Todd in the framework of American conservation history.  But it wasn’t really enough.  There was so much more of her story to tell. 

By the time I retired from teaching in 2002, I was active with Friends of Hog Island, a newly formed organization dedicated to help the Audubon camp flourish as an environmental education center into the future.  At the time, the summer program was hemorrhaging cash for Audubon and the camp’s future was uncertain.  

About that time I committed myself to enlarging my focus on island history and write a publishable piece that Hog Island lovers, Mainers, Emily Dickinson aficianados, and Auduboners everywhere might like to read.  And so, in due course, The Dressy Adventuress was born. 

For a few years I tried to figure out a writing schedule as I dusted off old files and collected new ones.  Books that I had read about during the masters project that were not available for purchase at the time, had in the interim become available with the dawn of ‘print on demand’ technology.  At this time I have a shelf full of old books newly printed and acquired.  

I also determined that the January through May timeframe would be the best for me to focus hard on the book.  Other months of the year draw me into perennial volunteer projects, travel, and summer grandchild care.  The winter months seemed perfect for getting lost in writing.  And that’s where I am now.  

In order to hold my feet to the writing fire, I figured I should report to you all in my blogs monthly (January-May).  I also solicited the help of an academic friend, David Dominic, Earth & Environmental Sciences department chair Wright State, to meet with me regularly for a writing update.  I am pleased to report progress in both of those areas.  

My hope for these monthly updates is to let you know a bit about what I’m learning and how the book is developing.  Here’s where I am today: 

When I first organized the book in prewriting, the working title was Nature’s people which intended to compare the Nature loving behavior of both Ms. Dickinson and Mrs. Todd, different as they were, yet similar.  As of January, the nine chapters initially conceived were condensed into six.  

I had been advised to consider each chapter as an extended essay, and I figure the fewer chapters, the fewer essays.  If I need to expand into other chapters I will, but for the meantime, I feel good about the compression of topics.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been focused on researching the year 1908, which was the summer Mabel Todd observed forest cutting on Hog, an island she had no connection to prior.  That same year President Theodore Roosevelt held the very first national governor’s conference in Washington with focus on the ‘new’ concept of conservation.  1908 also marked Henry Ford producing his company’s first Model T for the masses, as well as the Wright brothers mastering controlled flight for extended periods.  It was a very important year in American history.   

Currently I am looking into ship building in the Hog Island region to fill in details about the first structure on the island, a ships chandlery.  I am also intent on unraveling the mystery of Howard Hilder, an artist friend of Mrs. Todd, who graced the main camp building with two fine murals painted c. 1922.

As mentioned in previous blogs, this is my first book and I have been working hard trying to figure out how that process works.  I think I have things moving in the right direction and am energized to continue.  Tune in here again the first week of March and I’ll let you know how it’s going. 

Comments and encouragement always welcome!  ;-) 

Today’s elder idea:  We must handle the water, the wood, the grasses, so that we will hand them to our children and our children’s children in better and not worse shape than we got them. 

Theodore Roosevelt

current epigraph for chapter 1

images:  (above) Mabel Loomis Todd’s Camp Mavooshen main building following restoration by Friends of Hog Island.  (summer 2012)

(below)  Detail of Howard Hilder’s mural of nesting osprey.  (summer 2011)