BIBLIOASIA JUL - SEP 2019 VOL. 15 ISSUE 02 FEATURE

Dr Meira Chand’s nine novels reflect her multicultural experiences, having lived in and before moving to in 1997. A National Library Dis- tinguished Reader, she has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Western Australia and is actively engaged in nurturing young Singaporean writers. On

As a young writer many years ago, it thrilled me to go to the Reading Room of the British Museum in . This amassive circular room with a soaring glass-domed ceiling opened in 1857, and and Their it quickly became a mecca for writers (Facing page) A panoramic view of the interior of the British Museum Reading Room in 2006. Situated in from all over the world, who came here the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, this used to be the main reading room of the British to research and write, and breathe in its Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras in London. Image from rarefied literary atmosphere. Wikimedia Commons. Until its closure in 1997 and its (Above) Meira Chand is an award-winning novelist of Swiss-Indian parentage, who is now a Singaporean citizen. transformation into an exhibition space in the British Museum, many famous writers and luminaries used the Reading know it is absolutely rotten. A couple Not yet published and unsure of my Room, including the likes of Oscar Wilde, of months later you wonder if it may own worth as a writer in those early days, Karl Marx, Sun Yat Sen, George Bernard not be all right after all. it was easy to question the value of stor- Shaw, H.G. Wells, Virginia Woolf and Sir ing so much paper and, in exasperation, No great work of literature is completed in just one draft. In an age where Arthur Conan Doyle, to name but a few. Whenever I pick up, in a library or sometimes even throwing it all away. writers have gone paperless, novelist ponders over the value of There were glass cases in the Reading bookshop, the published volumes of those Indeed, I did dispose of early typed drafts Meira Chand Room, in which were displayed the hand- very manuscripts I had gazed at in awe in of my first novel, thinking them to be of manuscripts, and what they might reveal about a writer’s thought process. written manuscripts of famous authors: the British Museum – still being printed no consequence until my first publisher in Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and many and read by modern readers – I can only London alerted me to the fact that I might more. I used to stare at these sheets of marvel at the unchanging quality of the regret such impulsive action at a future paper in awe. Thin and yellowed with age, writer’s imagination through time. These stage in my writing career. I understood they were crammed with inky words that, memories came back to me recently in this sentiment when I made my donation in a long ago moment, had fallen fresh Singapore when I donated my own manu- to the National Library. from the minds of these great writers. scripts and associated research materials I have written nine novels over several A flow and urgency were apparent in to the National Library. decades, but have lived an itinerant life for the writing, the dark hatching of corrections the most part, residing for long periods of thick upon the pages, as were the occasional time in different parts of the world. After ink blobs, smears and fingerprints. So much several decades of living in Japan I finally of the writer’s emotion seemed evident in In the digital age, most, if not all, work is made my way to Singapore in 1997; among the handwriting, in the choice of paper, produced on a computer, the document the things I brought with me were drafts of and even the strength of the pen marks. saved to a file in the hard drive and finally some of my novels. As a professional nove­ It was humbling to realise that before me emailed to a publisher, who will likely read list, I have continued to write through my was the rawness of the creative process it on a computer screen. Increasingly, long residence in Singapore. As the number in the seminal moments of a classic work. writers accumulate paperless manuscripts of my published books accumulated, so This moment is beautifully described and, because of this, original handwritten have the paper drafts of those works that by Agatha Christie: manuscripts, such as those of the classics I still need to work on. Over the years, the I saw in the British Museum, hold ever boxes of stored manuscripts have taken You start into it, inflamed by an more fascination for us. over my study, stacked shoulder high, idea, full of hope, full indeed of Old habits die hard, and although the span of my writing life grown up like a confidence… know just how you are I now work in a largely paperless way, I forest around me. going to write it, rush for a pencil, and still like to correct and edit on a printed When the librarians from the National start in an exercise book buoyed up hard copy. When I began my career as a Library came to view the materials, it with exaltation. You then get into young writer in the days before computers, amused me to see how delighted they difficulties, don’t see your way out, manuscripts were bulky things comprising were at the emergence of the most hea­ and finally manage to accomplish many physical drafts. As a result, the writer vily worked manuscripts. Not only were more or less what you first meant to invariably ended up with stacks of paper, these manuscripts thickly pencilled upon accomplish, though losing confidence boxed or bound with string, all heavily with corrections, but many pages were, all the time. Having finished it, you worked with corrections and edits. quite literally, cut and pasted together. In 02 03 BIBLIOASIA JUL - SEP 2019 VOL. 15 ISSUE 02 FEATURE

Some of the manuscripts and ephemera for The grounding the objectivity of the object in spend large sums of money to acquire those deepest parts within us. It is this wish Painted Cage that Meira Chand donated to the the subjectivity of the subject. To Kant, the the manuscripts of famous writers. Two to share in the direct experience of the National Library. Work on The Painted Cage started imagination preconditions our very expe- hundred years ago, nobody would have writer that fuels the push within libraries several years prior to its publication in 1986. She also visited museums and heritage sites in Japan rience of the world, rather than coming bothered to archive contemporary literary and archival institutions around the world to gather information on foreigners who had lived from a transcendent place beyond man, work. Today, in the digital age, manuscripts to build archives of primary materials. there in the 19th century as part of her research. as some earlier philosophers suggested. have acquired both a meaningful and a This is why the librarians from the To the writer, however, when caught magical value. National Library welcomed my own in the heat of inspiration, the seemingly For the student of literature, the humble, handwritten exercise books, the days before computers, this is what unstoppable flow of words can come meaningful is found in what a writer has the sheets of manuscript padded with all writers did – a pair of scissors and a only from a Divine Mind. The poet cut out or changed in the manuscript, the pieces of cut and pasted text, and even an tube of glue were part of any writer’s William Wordsworth provides a wonder- variations of each draft presenting a men- unrelated shopping list hastily scribbled kit. When I now click the “cut” button on ful metaphor for the way all writers feel tal map of the writer’s intention, struggle into a margin. The extraordinary journey my Mac, and then slide the cursor down when writing. He speaks of withdrawing and literary journey. The magic, however, of literary creation holds us in awe as we and select “paste”, I never fail to draw a from the world to the “watchtower” is found in the mystery of artistic genius. view a manuscript. From the intimacy of breath of deep gratitude for the wonders of his solitary spirit. Perhaps it is this While viewing a manuscript, we can, as the written page, the writer appears to of modern technology. heightened state of awareness and its it were, stand at the author’s side at the reach out across time and space, linking While assessing and sorting through connection to our common humanity that very moment their imagination is pushed us in direct and authentic experience to the many boxes in my study, the National the writer seems able to command that beyond the boundaries of human ability. the work being produced. Library people noticed that most of the imbues literary manuscripts with such Literature’s invaluable gift to society manuscripts were of my later books. romantic power for the public. is found in the human sharing of spirit and REFERENCES “Where are your earliest handwritten In our modern world, the interest experience. The reader enters the writer’s Brock, J.A. (2018, January 8). 100+ famous authors manuscripts?” they asked me. Although in literary manuscripts has grown enor- mind, and the writer enters the reader’s and their writing spaces. The Writing Cooperative. Retrieved from The Writing Cooperative website. I had indeed handwritten my first four mously. Many institutions, particularly in mind. Together, they journey through the Gioia, D. (1996). The magical value of manuscripts. The novels, and laboriously typed them up on the United States and the United Kingdom, imagination to unknown worlds and to Hudson Review. Retrieved from Dana Gioia website. an old typewriter, in the intervening years only to them. Joyce destroyed an early cushioned by the literal cutting and pasting of relocating from one place to another, I play, A Brilliant Career, leaving just the together of text that I did in those days. had forgotten where I had stored them. title page with the words “To my own soul It was a strange feeling to open up THE MAGIC OF MANUSCRIPTS achievement both as a novel and as a social that was longlisted for the Booker Prize in But I was certain they were not lost. I dedicate the first true work of my life”. those old dog-eared exercise books, to document...” 1986 and reissued by Marshall Cavendish By Michelle Heng, Literary Arts Librarian, The poet Philip Larkin kept very personal look down at the flow of my own firm National Library, Singapore While living in Japan, the author (Singapore) in 2018. diaries throughout his life, but wished them writing, and to see the pressure of emo- visited various museums and heritage sites Meira Chand’s authorial drafts and destroyed upon his death as he did not tion, the urgency to capture the torrent Dr Meira Chand's first donation to the to gather information for her early novels. research materials capture the magic of Manuscripts do get lost for many different want controversial elements of his life to of thoughts, the cross-hatching of correc- National Library, Singapore, in 2014 These Japanese- and English-language a writer’s creative process and provide a reasons, and there have been some famous be revealed. His request was honoured by tions, the smears and finger-marks, the included manuscripts, typescripts and ephemera – including brochures and fascinating behind-the-scenes peek into losses in history. In 1597, the playwright his long-time secretary, who burned the lot. stain of a coffee cup. And remembering research materials relating to drafts for booklets – on old European-style mansions her works. One of the key functions of Ben Johnson, a contemporary of William My own early manuscripts were not how I had stood before the writings of A Different Sky (Random House: London, inhabited by expatriates in Japan from the National Library is the collection and Shakespeare, wrote a play, The Isle of Dogs. lost for any such dramatic reason; I had Dickens and so many other literary immor- 2010), an Oprah Winfrey-recommended the mid-19th to early 20th-century were preservation of documentary materials The subject matter so offended the govern- just forgotten where I had stored them. tals in the Reading Room of the British novel that follows the arc of modern donated to the National Library, along with relating to Singapore’s history and heri- ment that Johnson was arrested and orders Museum so long ago, I felt humbled to Singapore history. a reproduction of a 1865 plan of the Yoko- tage. Dr Chand’s donation to the library's given to burn his script. Unfortunately, have shared with every writer across time, Her most recent donation in 2018 hama Foreign Settlement. The author used Donor Collection augments the growing there is no record of the contents of the in my own very small way, the miracle of includes typescripts of The Bonsai Tree these materials as research for The Painted collection of research materials gifted play; we only know that it was written by Last summer, with my family, I visited our human imagination. Walt Whitman (John Murray: London, 1983), a novel Cage (Century Hutchinson: London, 1986), by authors associated with Singapore’s Johnson and subsequently fell victim to a home I still own in the mountains of described it most evocatively: about a young English woman who mar- a murder mystery set in 1890s Yokohama literary development. the censorship of the day. Nagano, northwest of Tokyo, the residue ries the Japanese heir to a textile empire In more modern times, the Polish of my many years in Japan. The house has “The secret of it all, is to write in and her many travails at a time when Jewish writer Bruno Schultz, aware of the a dusty attic that, to my grandchildren, the gush, the throb, the flood of foreigners were reviled by conservative threat to his life (he was murdered by the was magically intriguing. Exploring the the moment – to put things down Japanese society. The author’s reworked Nazis in 1942), entrusted the manuscript attic in excitement, they found, under without deliberation – without editions and handwritten markings on of his last novel, The Messiah, to the care a pile of old carpets, a leather suitcase worrying about their style – without these typescripts offer a glimpse into of friends. After his death, his biographer and four large boxes of manuscripts. I waiting for a fit time and place… the painstaking process that goes into searched in vain among his friends for this had forgotten I had stored them there By writing at the instant, the very the birth of a literary work. The British missing work. The manuscript has never when relocating to Singapore, and hadn’t heartbeat of life is caught.” Book News stated in October 1983 been found. noticed them beneath the carpets while that, “The Bonsai Tree is a considerable Following her suicide in 1963, Sylvia previously cleaning out the attic. I was Plath’s estranged husband, Ted Hughes, filled with enormous relief and emotion destroyed her last writings because he at the sight of all this yellowing paper, as Philosophers have examined the miracle The author’s copious markings in her own did not wish their children to read the if a lost child had been returned to me. of the imagination across the ages, from handwriting on the time-ripened pages of her contents. Similarly, William Blake’s liter- In the boxes and suitcase that I Sophocles to Paracelsus to those of our manuscripts for her novel, The Bonsai Tree, offer ary executor deliberately destroyed some unpacked upon my return to Singapore, modern times. Breaking with earlier ideas a glimpse into the painstaking creative process. Previously published by John Murray (London) in of his works, believing that they were the many notebooks and binders in which about the source of the imagination, the 1983, The Bonsai Tree was reissued by Marshall inspired by the Devil no less. I had handwritten my first four novels philosopher Immanuel Kant saw it as the Cavendish (Singapore) in 2018. The novel was Many writers, such as James Joyce, finally emerged. I also found the early hidden condition of all knowledge. He longlisted for the Booker Prize in 1983. destroy their own work for reasons known typed drafts of these novels, all heavily speaks of it as being transcendental, of 04 05