THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1806

September 5, Friday: Karl Wilhelm Isenberg was born at Barmen in the industrial sector of western Germany. He would translate the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER into Marathi and Amharic and assist in revision of translations of the BIBLE into Amharic and Marathi.

The Emperor Napoléon, who definitely did not enjoy being opposed, fearful he said that there was some sort of international conspiracy going on against France (Lord knows why!), called to service 50,000 conscripts and 30,000 reservists.1

At the “Lewis and Clark” encampment south of what has become Decatur, Nebraska, at a lake formed by a cut-off oxbow on the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis was “still in a convalescent state” from having been shot in the butt by Pierre Cruzatte (Pierre had only one eye, and the Captain had been mistaken, in his buckskin outfit, for an elk).

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

1. Have you died for your nation yet? HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1810

January 11, Thursday: Johann Ludwig Krapf was born into a Lutheran family of farmers at Derendingen, near Tübingen in Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. He would be found to have a gift for languages, and would initially studied Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, adding more and more languages throughout his life.

The Emperor Napoléon and Joséphine de Beauharnais, age 46, formally ended their childless marriage (on March 11th, petitioner would remarry, by proxy, with Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Therese Josepha Lucia von Habsburg-Lothringen of Austria, age 18 and never been kissed).

In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 1st M 11th// At Meeting the mind was rather barran & dry, tho’ before & since a good degree of life has been experienced —I feel oppressed & depressed with my infirmities within & trials without — Called at brother D R’s thins eveng & set a little while very pleasantly — —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Johann Ludwig Krapf HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1820

January 16, Sunday: Johannes Rebmann was born at Gerlingen near , Germany. He would become the initial European to sight the snows of — and be ridiculed.

Commodore James Barron wrote a duel challenge letter to Commodore Stephen “Our Country Right or Wrong” Decatur: “Sir: Your letter of the 29th ultimo, I have received. In it you say that you have now to inform me that you shall pay no further attention to any communications that I may make to you, other than a direct call to the field; in answer to which I have only to reply that whenever you will consent to meet me on fair and equal grounds, that is, such as two honorable men may consider just and proper, you are at liberty to view this as that call. The whole tenor of your conduct to me justifies this course of proceeding on my part. As for your charges and remarks, I regard them not, particularly your sympathy. You know no such feeling. I cannot be suspected of making the attempt to excite it. I am, sir, yours, etc., James Barron.”

Two Russian vessels, the Vostok and the Mirny, Captain Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, in expedition led by Thaddeus von Bellingshausen, reached 69° 25 minutes South and 1° 11 minutes [West?] and were halted by the Fimbul Ice Shelf. They sighted the Antarctic continent on their horizon, the 1st human beings to do so.

In the diary of Thomas Nuttall we find: “Interest, curiosity, and speculation, had drawn the attention of men of education and wealth toward this country, since its separation into a territory; we now see an additional number of lawyers, doctors, and mechanics. The retinue and friends of the governor, together with the officers of justice, added also essential importance to the...”

In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 17 [?] of 1 M / The Morning meeting was silent till near the close of it when our friend D Buffum was engaged in a short & very lively testimony & the meeting closed under a good savor. —Silent in the Afternoon. — Anne Dennis came home with is & took tea & set the evening, her company was very pleasant. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1827

Johann Ludwig Krapf matriculated at the Basel Mission Seminary in Switzerland. He would discontinue his studies there when he experienced doubts about a missionary vocation.

NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Johann Ludwig Krapf HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1829

Johann Ludwig Krapf matriculated at Tübingen University in Württemberg, Germany as a student of theology.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Johann Ludwig Krapf HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1834

Johann Ludwig Krapf graduated from Tübingen University in Württemberg, Germany.

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Johann Ludwig Krapf HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1836

Johann Ludwig Krapf was serving as an assistant village pastor in Germany when he met a Basel missionary who encouraged him to resume his missionary vocation. He prepared himself for missionary work in Ethiopia by learning the ancient Ge’ez and the Amharic language of the Ethiopian highlands.

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

Johann Ludwig Krapf “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1837

The Reverend Johann Ludwig Krapf left Basel to work with the Anglican Church Missionary Society in Africa. Landing at Tadjura in Ethiopia, he followed the trade route to Shewa and presented himself to its ruler or Meridazmach, Sahle Selassie.

December: The Reverend Johann Ludwig Krapf arrived at Massowa in Africa. He would accompany the Meridazmach, Sahle Selassie, on a military campaign in southern Shewa and find that his pietist background in Germany had not prepared him to appreciate Ethiopian Christianity, especially its emphasis on saints, liturgy, and traditional reliance upon Ge’ez, a language no longer available to the general population.

All nine of the slave ships that we know were entering American waters during this month were flying the Portuguese flag. The Constitucion and the Carlota, masters unknown, out of unknown areas of Africa on one or the other of their two known Middle Passages, were arriving in Cuban waters. The Maria Segundo, master J. Garcia, out of Angola with a cargo of 573 enslaved Africans on one of its numerous known Middle Passage voyages, was arriving at Campos, Brazil (possibly this negrero stopped off first at a port on the coast of Cuba). The Liberal, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 348 enslaved Africans on one of its four known Middle Passage voyages, was arriving at the port of Sao Sebastiao, Brazil. The Lusitania, master unknown, out of Mocambique with a cargo of 800 enslaved Africans on one or the other of its two known Middle Passages, was arriving at Campos, Brazil. The Josefina, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 300 enslaved Africans on one of its twelve-count-’em-twelve known Middle Passage voyages, was arriving at the port of Alto Moirao, Brazil. The Henriqueta, master unknown, out of Cape Lopez with a cargo of 319 enslaved Africans on its second of two known Middle Passages, was arriving at Campos, Brazil. The Esperanca, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 382 enslaved Africans on one of its ten-count-’em-ten known Middle Passage voyages, was arriving at a port in Brazil. The Dois D’Abril, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 283 enslaved Africans on one of its three known Middle Passage voyages, was arriving at the port of Copacabana, Brazil. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

Johann Ludwig Krapf “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1840

Imam Sayyid Said, ruler of Oman (1806-1856), made Zanzibar, a small island off the east African coast, his capital. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1842

The Reverend Johann Ludwig Krapf received a doctorate from Tübingen University for his research into the Ethiopian languages. He was forced, however, to go on furlough from Ethiopia, because all western missionaries were being expelled. He found his way to Gondar blocked by the aftermath of the Battle of Debre Tabor, and retraced his steps to the court of Adara Bille, a chieftain of the Wollo Oromo, only to be stripped of his supplies. Krapf and his servants escaped and, begging of the local inhabitants, managed to find their way back to the coast, to Massawa. He made his way to Alexandria, Egypt and got married.

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

Johann Ludwig Krapf “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1843

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf returned to Massowa on the coast of Ethiopia. Sultan Sayyid Said of Zanzibar, who then controlled this coast of the African continent, gave the Reverend a permit to start a missionary station at the coastal city of Mombasa. The missionary started again, by learning the languages of the local Mijikenda people and also Swahili (since this was at the time the East African lingua franca). He centered his interest on the Oromo (then known as the Galla), traditional believers in southern Ethiopia. He began to translate parts of the NEW TESTAMENT. For the British & Foreign Bible Society, he revised Abu Rumi’s BIBLE translations into Amharic. The Reverend Krapf and the linguist Carl Wilhelm Isenberg prepared a memoir of their time in Ethiopia, JOURNALS OF THE REV. MESSRS. ISENBERG AND KRAPF, MISSIONARIES OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, DETAILING THEIR PROCEEDINGS IN THE KINGDOM OF SHOA, AND JOURNEYS IN OTHER PARTS OF ABYSSINIA, IN THE YEARS 1839, 1840, 1841, AND 1842. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, A GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF ABYSSINIA AND SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA, BY JAMES M‘QUEEN [sic], ESQ. GROUNDED ON THE MISSIONARIES’ JOURNALS, AND THE EXPEDITION OF THE PACHA OF EGYPT UP THE NILE. THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED BY TWO MAPS, ENGRAVED BY ARROWSMITH (Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, Fleet Street, London).

JOURNALS OF THE MISSION HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1844

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf traveled to Zanzibar. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1846

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf, bringing his pregnant wife Rosine Krapf, and another southwest German Lutheran missionary in the service of the Anglican Church Missionary Society, Johannes Rebmann, journeyed to the east coast of Africa aboard the Arrow. After their arrival in Mombasa the wife gave birth to a daughter but both mother and infant soon succumbed to malaria. The Reverend Krapf therefore relocated his mission station to higher ground at Rabai in the coastal hills. There he wrote the first dictionary and grammar of the . He started studying other African languages, drafting dictionaries and translating sections of the Bible. Working with a Muslim judge, Ali bin Modehin, he translated the book of GENESIS. He went on to translate the NEW TESTAMENT, as well as the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Most of this would remain unpublished but would be useful while revising a translation in a more southern version of Swahili.

First recognition of sickle cell disease-like symptoms in the New World recorded in a paper by R. Lebby, “Case of Absence of the Spleen.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1848

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann journeyed into the interior of and Rebmann became the initial Europeans to sight a mountain he was told was “Kilimansharo” which stood above the clouds “topped with silver.”2 They encountered the Maasai, “dreaded as warriors, laying all to waste with fire and sword.”

2. Their report of Rebmann’s sighting of snow in Africa would be endlessly ridiculed by experts in Europe and England. One of the round dozen glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro is now named in honor of Johann Rebmann, the initial white explorer to report the presence of snow there. (Various legends, that King Solomon was buried on this mountain, remain unconfirmed.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1849

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf became the initial European to sight Mount .

From hydrological information he inferred correctly that glaciers would be found on this mountain.3

3. These reports of snow in Africa would be endlessly ridiculed by experts in Europe and England. One of the eleven glaciers on is now named in honor of Krapf. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1850

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf went back to Europe on furlough, and prepared a VOCABULARY OF SIX EAST-AFRICAN LANGUAGES (KISUÁHELI, KINÍKA, KIKÁMBA, KIPOKÓMO, KIHIÁU, KIGALLA).... HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1851

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf returned to his travels/travails in Africa. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1853

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf, in poor health, returned to Germany. He brought with him some old Swahili manuscripts, including copies of the Book of the Battle of Tambuka, the earliest Swahili manuscript. In Korntal he would continue his linguistic studies and provide advice and counsel to the Christian missions in Africa. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1854

In Palestine, The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf met Bishop Gobat. He prepared a VOCABULARY OF THE ENGÚTUK ELOIKOB, OR OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE WAKUAFI-NATION IN THE INTERIOR OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA, and SALLA SA SUBUCI NA JIONI SASALLIWASO KATIKA KIRIAKI JA KIENGLESE SIKU SOTHE SA MUAKA. I.E.: MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS SAID IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH DAILY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. TRANSLATED INTO KISUAHILI BY THE REVD DR. L. KRAPF. He challenged the Church Missionary Society to make the grave of his wife and infant daughter, near Mombasa, the starting point for the Christian conversion of East Africa. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1855

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf was in Switzerland when “discovered” the Victoria Falls. The “slug map,” showing a single huge lake in the center of Kenya, was presented to the Royal Geographical Society in London (where it would stimulate a good amount of controversy before it finally became established that such a lake did not exist). HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1858

The Reverend Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf’s REISEN IN OST-AFRIKA AUSGEFÜHRT IN DEN JAHREN 1837-55 VON J.L. KRAPF, PHIL. DR. (Kornthal: Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers. Stuttgart: In Commission bei W. Stroh). HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1860

TRAVELS, RESEARCHES, AND MISSIONARY LABORS, DURING AN EIGHTEEN YEARS’ RESIDENCE IN EASTERN AFRICA; TOGETHER WITH JOURNEYS TO JAGGA, USAMBARA, UKAMBANI, SHOA, ABESSINIA AND KHARTUM; AND A COASTING VOYAGE FROM MOMBAZ TO CAPE DELGADO. BY THE REV. DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF, SECRETARY OF THE CHRISHONA INSTITUTE AT BASEL, AND LATE MISSIONARY IN THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN EASTERN AND EQUATORIAL AFRICA, ETC., ETC. WITH AN APPENDIX RESPECTING THE SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN AFRICA; THE SOURCES OF THE NILE; THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE OF ABESSINIA AND EASTERN AFRICA, ETC., ETC. AND A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCHES IN EASTERN AFRICA UP TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE UYENYESI BY DR. LIVINGSTONE, IN SEPTEMBER LAST, BY E.J. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S. (Boston: Ticknor and Fields).

REV. DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

Henry Thoreau would soon be copying materials from this volume into his 2d Commonplace Book. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

1876

October 4, Wednesday: Johannes Rebmann died of pneumonia at the age of 56.

A report from Walt Whitman: “Specimen Days”

Cloudy and coolish; signs of incipient winter. Yet pleasant here, the leaves thick- falling, the ground brown with them already; rich coloring, yellows of all hues, pale and dark-green, shades from lightest to richest red — all set in and toned down by the prevailing brown of the earth and gray of the sky. So, winter is coming; and I yet in my sickness. I sit here amid all these fair sights and vital influences, and abandon myself to that thought, with its wandering trains of speculation. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1881

November 26, Saturday: Johann Ludwig Krapf died at his home in Korntal, Germany, on his knees.

The Boston Liberty reported, on its page 3, about a new edition of Walt Whitman’s LEAVES OF GRASS: Liberty has received from the publishers, and joyfully welcomes Leaves of Grass, the collective title of Walt Whitman’s poems. It is a convenient, compact, and tastefully “got up” volume of 382 pages, and contains a number of hitherto unpublished poems, besides those of the earlier editions. Leaves of Grass have lost nothing of their original native simplicity, freshness, and vigor from being more carefully arranged and placed in a more artistic, though it may be a more conventional vase. The book will be more readily purchased and read, at any rate; and that is the main point. The titles of some of the poems have been changed, and the table of contents newly arranged and made much more convenient for reference to special passages. We have not discovered that the book has lost anything of its characteristic outspoken independence, nor that any concession has been made to Mrs. Grundy. It still retains all its naked truthfulness and purity, like its prototype in marble, the Greek Slave. Walt Whitman is preeminently, above all and before all, the poet of innovation, the poet of change, the poet of growth, the poet of evolution. There is not a drop of stagnant blood in his veins. Every fibre of him quivers with life, energy, and fire. His spirit is at the same time the spirit of content and discontent. He is satisfied with whatever is and as it is - for to-day, but not for to-morrow, nor that for any future tomorrow. Urge and urge and urge, Always the procreant urge of the world. That seems to him to be the key-note of the universe.

A study, “By Blue Ontario’s Shore,” affords a good idea of what he himself considers his mission, and shows how thoroughly one in purpose that mission is with Liberty’s. He shall speak for himself from that poem. [there follows a 79-line extract]

The Chicago Tribune reported, on its page 9, in regard to “Walt Whitman’s Claim to Be Considered a Great Poet”: Walt Whitman has issued a new and complete edition of his poems, with the same title as that given to his first volume, published in 1855, and reissued at Camden, HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

N. J., some twenty years later. In his volume all the objectionable passages which were the cause of so much complaint at the time of their first appearance are given entire without a word changed or omitted. It was said of Mr. Mallock by an English reviewer, that in his last novel he had introduced “the beastly into literature.” Considering some of the unexpurgated lines in this volume, Mr. Whitman is entitled to the honorable position of the apostle of the beastly in poetry. Nothing that Swinburne — a kindred unclean spirit, of greater intellectual power, however — ever wrote compares with the foulness of some of the “good gray poet’s” verse. The lines might be appropriate over the portals of a bawdy house, but not in a volume of poetry from a respectable publishing firm, intended for general circulation. Mr. Whitman has been so long silent that the leading facts in his career are generally forgotten. He is now in his 63d year, having been born in 1819 at West Hills, on Long Island. His father was an Englishman and his mother from Holland. During his life he has worked as printer, carpenter, school-teacher, army-nurse, and clerk in the office of the Attorney-General. He has traveled quite extensively, and has suffered of late years from partial paralysis. For a proper appreciation of his poetry a peculiarly cultured taste is required. Claiming to be a writer for and of the people, those to whom Whitman appeals have shown the least sympathy with him and the greatest ignorance of the inspirations of his muse. Possibly we do not comprehend Whitman. Certainly we fail to enjoy what he is pleased to call his poetry. To any of Carlyle’s heavily-capitalized pages the same title might be applied with equal force. The difficulty is to understand why it would not be equally effective and striking if entitled “prose.” Take as an instance the poem entitled “Our Old Feuillage”: Always our old feuillage! Always Florida’s green peninsula — always the priceless delta of Louisiana —always the cotton-fields of Alabama and Texas, Always California’s golden hills, and hollows, and the silver mountains of New Mexico — always soft-breath’d Cuba, Always the vast slope drain’d by the Southern Sea, inseparable with the slopes drain’d by the Eastern and Western Seas, The eighteen thousand miles of sea-coast and bay-coast on the main, the thirty thousand miles of river navigation, The seven millions of distinct families and the same number of dwellings —always these, and more, branching forth into numberless branches, Always the free range and diversity — always the continent of Democracy; HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, travelers, Kanada the snows: Always these compact lands tied at the hips with the belt stringing the huge oval lakes —

Thus, in the same strain, this so-called poetry runs on for four pages without a single period! It is true that Walt Whitman has been praised by such high authorities in literature as Emerson, Tennyson, and Ruskin. Their eulogies, however, were rather on the thoughts and sentiments of the author than praise of his versification. His power is rugged and his controlling impulse, apart from his egotism, is to say whatever occurs to him at the moment, whether relevant or irrelevant. He lacks both rhyme and rhythm. His is imaginative, but not metrical, composition; the fruit of an excited imagination, but without measured form. If we call him a great poet, and judge him by his writings, where shall we assign our Longfellow or Whittier, tried on the same kind of evidence? Macaulay has as broad and liberal a definition of ars poetica as anyone. “By poetry,” he says, “we mean the art of employing words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colors.” Now, if we take one or two of Walt Whitman’s best efforts, how does he fulfill these requirements? Here is a little bit called “Aboard at a Ship’s Helm”: Aboard at a ship’s helm, A young steersman steering with care. Through fog on a seacoast dolefully ringing, An ocean-bell — O a warning bell rocked by the waves. O you give a good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place. For as on the alert O steersman, you mind the loud admonition. The bows turn, the freighted ship tacking speeds away under her gray sails, The beautiful and noble ship with all her precious wealth speeds away gayly and safe. But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! Ship of the body, ship of the soul, voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.

Or take a few lines from another poem: Sauntering the pavement or riding the country by road, lo, such faces! Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ideality, The spiritual prescient face, the always welcome common benevolent face, The face of the singing of music, the grand faces of natural lawyers and judges broad at the back-top, The faces of hunters and fishers, bulged at the brows, the shaved blanched faces of orthodox citizens, The pure, extravagant, yearning, questioning artist’s face, The ugly face of some beautiful soul, the handsome detested or despised face. This now is too lamentable a face for a man. Some abject louse asking leave to be, cringing for it, HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

Some milk-nosed maggot blessing what lets it wrig to its hole. The face is a haze more chill than the Arctic sea, Its sleepy and wabbling icebergs crunch as they go.

Milton defines poetry as “thoughts that voluntary move harmonious numbers”; and Chatfield says, “Poetry is the music of thought, conveyed to us in the music of language.” Joubert happily puts it, “Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.” Let us see, then how a few lines from Whitman’s “Song of Myself” come up to the requirements of these authorities: I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air. Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back awhile sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.

Take some of the shorter poems. Here is an ode to “Beautiful Women”: Women sit or move to and fro, some old, some young, The young are beautiful — but the old are more beautiful than the young.

Here is another, entitled “Thought”: Of obedience, faith, adhesiveness; As I stand aloof and look there is to me something profoundly affecting in large masses of men following the lead of those who do not believe in men.

Ruskin considers that “It is a shallow criticism that would define poetry as confined to literary productions in rhyme and metre. The written poem is only poetry talking, and the statue, the picture, and the musical composition are poetry acting. Milton and Goethe, at their desks, were not more truly poets than Phidias with his chisel, Raphael at his easel, or deaf Beethoven bending over his piano, inventing and producing strains which he himself could never hope to hear” — and this great critic, Ruskin, say Whitman’s admirers, has praised our hero! So be it! Phidias and Raphael and Beethoven were judged in accordance with the merits of what they produced. Their “acted poetry” stood the test of the most acute analysis and was given prominent rank HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

because it was perfection. In the same manner “talking poetry,” by whoever written, must satisfy the eye, the ear, the mind, the heart, all the higher mental faculties in order to be classed as true, genuine inspired poetry. Does this short poem meet these demands: A GLIMPSE A Glimpse, through an interstice caught, Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a barroom around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner, Or a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand, A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest, There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.

See how easily Whitman’s verse becomes prose, and what would be the spontaneous criticism on any author who should write such prose: Thou orb aloft full-dazzling, thou hot October noon! Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand, the sibilant near sea with vistas far, and foam, and tawny streaks and shades and spreading blue; O sun of noon refulgent! My special word to thee. Hear me illustrious! Thy lover me, for always have I loved thee, even as basking babe, then happy boy alone by some woodedge, thy touching-distant beams enough, or man matured, or young or old, as now to thee I launch my invocation. Thou that with fructifying beat and light, o’er myriad farms, o’er land and waters North and South, o’er Mississippi’s endless course, o’er Texas’ grassy plains, Kanada’s woods, o’er all the globe that turns its face to thee shining in space; thou that impartially infoldest all, not only continents, seas; thou that to grapes and weeds and little wild flowers givest so liberally, shed, shed thyself on mine and me, but with a fleeting ray out of the million millions. Strike through these chants. Nor only launch thy subtle dazzle and thy strength for these; prepare the later afternoon of me myself — prepare my lengthening shadows, prepare my starry nights.

There is no thought of melody, of the mechanical requirements of verse. It is simply a combination of words like unto the bits of glass in the child’s kaleidoscope. Is it the language of a real genius or the voice of a ponderous fool? Whitman himself partially answers the question in a song from which we have already quoted. He is: Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son, Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking, and breeding. No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women, or apart from them. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

No more modest than immodest. I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious.

This is the pen picture of himself by the man claiming to be the apostle of a new art, instead of being really the apostle of a great art in its most degraded form.

There is no necessity for further quotation. We can admire the native, rugged strength of Whitman’s unhampered genius. His active, brilliant imagination and his far-reaching enthusiasm seeking expression in language — in words that shall fire the heart and excite the mind — are characteristics of an extraordinary nature. So too his command of language and, apparently inexhaustible vocabulary is remarkable in a man with such antecedents and personal history. But these qualities do not make him a great poet. And to rank him as such is, to our thinking, to establish an entirely new standard from that which we have been wont to apply to the great masters of song. If they are true poets, then is Whitman a false one; if he is a poetic genius, then were the most honored names of literature but poetasters and “pitiful rhymers.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1968

August: Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence put out a collection of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s previously published short fiction, as WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE. His CAT’S CRADLE was translated into Japanese by Itô Norio and published by Hayakawa Shobô as NEKO NO YURIKAGO.

On St. Helena, Thornton and Metelercamp, trading as SATIC, purchased the majority of shares in Solomon’s.

Carlos Baker’s “The Slopes of Kilimanjaro” appeared in Volume 19, Issue 5 of American Heritage Magazine. In August, 1935, Ernest Hemingway completed the first draft of a story about a writer who died of gangrene on a hunting trip in what was then Tanganyika. The nonfiction “novel,” GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA, was already in press and due for publication in October. But the book had not used up all the material which Hemingway had accumulated in the course of his shooting safari of January and February, 1934. The new story was an attempt to present some more of what he knew, or could imagine, in fictional form. As was his custom, he put the handwritten sheets away in his desk to settle and objectify. Eight months later, on a fishing trip to Cuba, he re-examined his first draft, modified it somewhat, got it typed, and gave the typescript one final working over. Then he mailed it to Arnold Gingrich for publication in Esquire magazine in August, 1936, exactly a year after its inception. Although he had sweated mightily over the title, as he commonly did with all his titles, his ultimate choice displayed the true romantic luminosity. It was called “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” The new story was curiously and subtly connected with Henry David Thoreau’s WALDEN. Thoreau had lately been in Hemingway’s consciousness. “There is one [author] at that time [of the nineteenth century] that is supposed to be really good,” he had asserted in GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA. “I cannot tell you about it [WALDEN] because I have not yet been able to read it. But that means nothing because I cannot read other naturalists unless they are being extremely accurate and not literary. — Maybe I’ll be able to [read it] later.” If he ever read the second chapter of WALDEN, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” Hemingway would certainly have been struck by Thoreau’s statement about his reasons for the sojourn at Walden Pond. He took to the woods in order “to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” He wanted to learn the lore of nature as early as possible so that he would not reach the point of dying only to discover that he “had not lived” in any real sense at all. It is of course a far cry from Thoreau’s asceticism to Hemingway’s aggressive hedonism. Yet the passage from WALDEN, slightly modified, embodies the theme of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” For Hemingway’s protagonist, Harry, dying of an infection on the plains of Africa, is made to reflect bitterly upon his failure to set down the results of his experience of HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

life in the forms of fiction. Although Hemingway wisely changed his mind before the story appeared, it is a curious fact that his original name for the dying writer in “The Snows” was Henry Walden. The revised typescript of the story was garnished with a pair of epigraphs, neither of them from Thoreau, but both from “other naturalists.” One was drawn from a remarkable book called SPEAK TO THE E ARTH: WANDERINGS AND R EFLECTIONS AMONG E LEPHANTS AND M OUNTAINS (1935). Its author was a naturalized Englishwoman named Vivienne de Watteville, an exact contemporary of Hemingway’s, a friend of Edith Wharton’s, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She was the daughter of Bernard de Watteville, a distinguished Swiss naturalist from Berne. She had been orphaned at the age of twenty-four when her father was mauled to death by an African lion. She had been with him when he died and subsequently wrote a book called OUT IN THE BLUE, based on her diaries from that safari. She returned to Africa again four years later, recording her adventures in a second volume, SPEAK TO THE EARTH. There Miss de Watteville wrote of her determination to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. An adviser who had already made the ascent drew her a rough map of the trail up the mountain and told her that she “could pick up a guide and porters at Moshi.” “This,” she said, “fired me more than ever to make the attempt. I had, of course, no climbing outfit with me; but the difficulties, he said, were not in the actual climbing. It was a long grind, and success depended not on skill but on one’s ability to withstand the high altitude. His parting words were that I must make the attempt soon, before there was any risk of the rains setting in.” Hemingway’s second epigraph, composed by himself, stated simply that “Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai ‘Ngàje Ngài,’ The House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.” Hemingway had gleaned his facts from the guidebooks he had used in preparing for his trip to Kenya and Tanganyika. He had heard the story of the leopard (whose carcass was still there in 1967) from Philip Percival, his white hunter, during an evening’s conversation on safari in 1934. The two epigraphs had in common the idea of immense height.... HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

1971

April 15, Thursday: Charles Walker Bassett’s “Katahdin, Wachusett, and Kilimanjaro: the Symbolic Mountains of Thoreau and Hemingway” appeared in the Thoreau Journal Quarterly.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Johann Ludwig Krapf HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: March 12, 2015 HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF

ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE REVEREND DR. J. LEWIS KRAPF JOHANN LUDWIG KRAPF