H05062 WESSEX POEMS ILLUSTRATIONS 7/26/05 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES ____________________________________________________________________________
From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: DRAWINGS
Date: July 26, 2005 8:03:24 AM PDT
Dear All,
In your opinion, why did Hardy illustrate Wessex Poems? It was, and remained
unique among his works, and I don't know why...
Thanks,
Maria
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From: segr@segr-music.net
Subject: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 26, 2005 8:30:46 AM PDT
Not unique if you include the "Queen of Cornwall"
which has a drawing of his "reconstruction" of
the castle at Tintagel.
Roy Buckle.
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: Rif: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 26, 2005 8:42:45 AM PDT
Yes, it is true Roy, but I 'm referring to the poetry. I wonder why Hardy
has illustrated Wessex Poems and Other Verses, but he has not added drawings
to any other volume of poetry.
Anyway, I would like to know in your opinion why he has added images to the
poems...
Thanks!
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Rif: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 26, 2005 1:25:40 PM PDT
While I'm here-- evidently a Fulltime Forum Bum, this week - perhaps I shd chime in.
Hardy held his illustrations to *Wessex Poems* in low esteem. However, he was inundated with letters of praise for them. He told Florence Henniker that they were poor drawings - that he was out of practice - and that they had been an indulgence on his part ( he was a fine draughtsman and went watercolour paining in his youth). He may have found the interest in them rather unsettling (taking attention away from the verses) --at any rate, he suggested to Macmillan that they be excluded from the 1912 (?) edition. The Pocket edition and I think the Mellstock, retained them. Hardy gave the drawings away to a museum in Birmingham and (albeit ambivalent about them) refused Brennecke permission to publish them.
So perhaps the answer to your question is that it was a passing fancy to illustrate his first book of poems but that Hardy was not proud of the drawings and wished the poems to stand alone. With hindsight he regretted wasting time on the "sketches" (his word) when he could have been more profitably employed revising the poems instead.
Hope this helps,
Rosemarie
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From: segr@segr-music.net
Subject: RE: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 26, 2005 2:42:16 PM PDT
You asked, Mary, for an opinion
about this. I feel I can only
hazard a guess although guessing often seems
to be permitted, here, when it comes to talking
about what was or even might have been in our
author's mind. And why not: these things can go
on endlessly sometimes...
Without delving through the Hardy correspondence,
etc., for possible written proof the idea naturally
occurs that the drawings are attached so as to add
deeper significance to what is in the words (prose or verse).
Perhaps the pictures were intended to hint at what Hardy
would like to have said about, say, his personal involvement
in the scenes they depict. As they are not to be identified as to
location (except in the "Queen of Cornwall)perhaps he drew the pictures
originally as a kind of acknowledgement of this involvement as much
to himself as to anybody. It was then a mild act of daring
("what the hell!") to offer them for actual publication.
(What would Emma think let alone his female admirers! Would she be
inclined to admire his draughtmanship?)
Just a few thoughts, Maria.
Not too late in the day, I hope...
Regards
Roy.
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: RE: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 26, 2005 4:45:22 PM PDT
Mary -- if you'd like to read through the *Letters* you'll find plenty of comments on the illustrations. I think I summarised them in my last posting but you should read the comments yourself if this is a major issue for your thesis. There should be no guesswork in a thesis. Every major point you make should be backed up by evidence from primary sources.
This is one such "comment" from the *Letters*. (my bold)
To FLORENCE HENNIKER from TH
Page hardy.v2.203
MAX GATE, | DORCHESTER. | Monday. 17. 10. 98
Page hardy.v2.203
My dear friend:
You thought your last letter dull, but I am afraid this will be worse, for I am just in the middle of the tedious business of discovering printer's & other blunders in the proofs of these "Wessex Poems". I am afraid that the paragraphs in the papers have raised expectations which the volume will sadly disappoint. I would readily have told you about the sketches if I had attached any importance to them, or thought they would interest you. I had mentioned them to nobody (except here) before I did to you, & how the paragraph alluding to them got into the papers is a mystery. They are small pen-& ink drawings -- much the worse from my years of unpractice. You please me by your caring about them.
END OF QUOTE
Good Luck.
Rosemariie
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 27, 2005 1:19:10 AM PDT
Thank you very much for your mails!! I think that I will write that there
was for Hardy an element of self-indulgence in making the drawings, but, in
the meantime, he ramained unwilling or unable to articulate what he
perceived as the function of the drawings as integral elements of Wessex
Poems.
It is striking, however, that sometimes the illustrations were judged better
than the poems themselves by the critics, like, for istance, the Glasgow
Herald, which declared that the sketches not only helped to give force to
the poetry, but were themselves poems!
I think that a complete scholar edition have to regard also the images and
their history: Hardy did not add them in all the editions of his verses and
it is very interesting for my thesis!
Dear Miss Morgan, can I quote your forum in my thesis? I would like to add
the link of the THHA in a footnote and to explain how beautiful is your idea
and your work.
If this could be a problem, however, I do not say a word!!
Thank you and Roy very much for helping me with so much patience!
Maria
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: RE: Postdocs please skip this
Date: July 27, 2005 3:20:41 AM PDT
Maria --
You are free to cite TTHA's Forum at any time but please do not assign the assumption below* to this agency. If you wish to give evidence of "unwilling" or "unable" you should go to the primary sources and make the appropriate quotation together with details of publication. Paraphasing what you interpret as "unwilling" or "unable" could get you into trouble with your examiners since neither word accurately describes the situation. I have not read every single one of TH 's letters. But I have read most of them in this context. I found no evidence of "unwillingness," or of "inability. "Ambivalence" might be a fair assessment -- but even so you should cite page and number in order that your compeers and examiners can take up the issue if desired. These are basic thesis-writing protocols
I was also struck -- as you were- with the popularity of the drawings. If you wish to draw an inference from Hardy's reaction to this popularity it is best to (again) quote his words rather than state, on his behalf, what his feelings were. Assumptions are always dangerous. Assigning "intention" to an author is equally problematic. If you read the letters you'll see for yourself how one day he feels "x" and on another day "y". Emotions and thoughts are never static -- although they might run along certain lines. .But all depends on how central this is to your thesis. If it is but a marginal issue then simply cite page and number (of his letters and words) in a footnote and let folks figure it out for themselves. You might footnote with something like "For Hardy's reaction to the popularity of his sketches see ....." However, if it is important to your argument in some way then you should embed full citations in your text and discuss them fully.
Good Luck Maria -- I think you are courageous indeed to take on a non-Italian author..
Cheers,
Rosemarie
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: DRAWINGS
Date: July 27, 2005 8:18:27 AM PDT
You have been very explicit and I thank you because it is very important for
me to understand what is better to say in a thesis on Thomas Hardy.
The sentence I told you "he remained unwilling or unable to articulate what
he perceived as the function of the drawings as integral elements of Wessex
Poems" is by Pamela Dalziel and I will quote her, but I will develop also
my personal thought about the drawings made by Thomas Hardy.
By now, I has already red several letters of Thomas Hardy and I am sure to
be able to give my own judgement about this theme. As you said, it is very
difficult and not really correct, to label the feelings and emotions of a
man because they go on changing, but it is also sometime necessary to give
an opinion and to propose a theory, isn't it?
Many thanks for keeping on helping me to improve my thesis.
Mary
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From: wwmorgan@ilstu.edu
Subject: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 27, 2005 10:38:53 AM PDT
Hello, Maria--
You will find that Samuel Hynes's edition, The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982-95), the most recent scholarly edition of Hardy's poetry, reprints the illustrations for Wessex Poems (in vol. 1) and offers a brief commentary on them (pp. 388-9).
Other editions that reprint the illustrations are the Pocket Edition (London: Macmillan, 1908), a modern reprint of Wessex Poems, published by Woodstock Books (Oxford and New York) in 1994, and another introduced by Trevor Johnson and published by Ryburn Publishing/Keele University Press in 1995. This last edition also offers a brief essay on the illustrations (pp. 45-50).
Best of luck with your work.
Bill Morgan
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: DRAWINGS
Date: July 27, 2005 10:52:40 AM PDT
Thank you very much Bill,
I'm just studying Hynes's edition and I find it very useful!
If I don't fault from the Wessex Edition onward Hardy omitted the
illustrations and the focus of my question is to understand why he did that.
I will look for the books you have suggested me, many thanks!
Maria
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: DRAWINGS
Date: July 27, 2005 12:21:27 PM PDT
Excellent!
Mary -- let me know how you progress with this (offlist). As you have perceived, I think, to presume TH is "unable to articulate" anything at all is to skate, somewhat arrogantly, on perilously thin ice! (the clumsy nature of the sentence may well betray the writer's awkwardness with this notion -- just for starters). TH was unwilling to let Brennecke have the drawings but then he disliked Brennecke intensely and even tried to get Brennecke's so-called authoritative biography of TH banned from distribution in the UK. There are however instances where TH is willing -- albeit diffidently -- to say what he feels about the sketches (which compounds the ambivalence--to my mind). So get back to me on this -- offlist please. I can't help much because I am way behind on my own deadlines. But I can certainly give you some pointers -- primary sources.
All best,
Rosemarie.
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