PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY BY THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720

No. 76 October 1980

^When Sara Comes,

It's Always a Holiday!"

In one of his all-too-few novels, Mark Schorer wrote: Memory selects, distorts, organizes, and by these, evaluates; then fixes! This is the artistic process, except for that final step beyond process which makes of the work an object capable of life and meaning out­ side ourselves, independent. The reader of Poet and Suffragist, Sara Bard Field's memoir recorded by the Bancroft's Regional Oral History Office during a four- year period from 1959 to 1963, is presented with just such an independent work; as her daughter, Katherine Caldwell, writes in an "Afterword," the interview is marked by "clarity and astonishingly remembered de­ tail." Left unfinished because of the memoirist's fragile health—she was ill during much of the time prior to her death in 1974—the tapes have now been transcribed and bound into a volume of six hundred and sixty-one pages. Sara Bard Field by W. E. Dassonville, c.iQ20.Sara Bard Field was born in Cincinnati on September 1st, 1882, and three years later moved with her family to Detroit. Eleven days follow­ ing her eighteenth birthday she was married to Albert Ehrgott, a Baptist minister more than twice her age, and accompanied him to a missionary post in Rangoon, Burma. In July, 1901 her son, Albert Field, was born under extremely painful conditions which soon made it evident that Sara would have to return to Detroit for crucial surgery. Shortly thereafter the Ehrgotts were called to Wallingford, Connecticut, from which they moved to New Haven, where Sara helped to supplement the family income by teaching English to German immigrants. She gained permission to audit Professor Robert Lounsbury's survey of nineteenth century poets at Yale University, and later assisted the ailing scholar by reading to him a few hours each day. It was while they were discussing certain poetic passages, Sara recalled, that he said to her: %You know, I have an idea you're a poet. Have you ever tried to find out?' As busy as her life was at that time, she managed to write "only because of the fact that youth seems to have an eternal inner strength" and, further, "I used to wake up at night sometimes and write after I had had an hour or two of sleep."

[1] clusion of her gracefully-written "After­ The years from 1903 to 1910 were spent in eventful years leading up to the adoption of But the crowded life of San Francisco, mak­ the Nineteenth Amendment to the United ing it impossible for them to devote time to word" to this distinguished memoir: "For Cleveland, where the Reverend Ehrgott Sara Bard Field Wood, although she tried served a poor parish. His wife opened first a States Constitution. Their car having been poetry, forced the Woods to seek a quieter stalled in a rainstorm outside Emporia, Kan­ location and in 1925 they started to construct bravely to carry on alone, her life, in its deep­ kindergarten and later a soup kitchen, activi­ est meaning, ended with his." ties which came to the attention of that city's sas, Sara had gone to seek help from a neigh­ a house in the hills at Los Gatos, on the western reform mayor, Tom Johnson, through whom boring farmer, and when she finally checked edge of the Santa Clara valley. Known as "The Cats" and provided with a separate studio she met Eugene Debs. Her friendship with into her hotel her clothes were wet and muddy. John Barr Tompkins, Clarence Darrow also began at this time. The The next morning the hotel arranged to building where the two poets could work in complete privacy—their letterhead bore the family, now increased to four with the birth send my clothes immediately to a cleaner, 1907-1980 of Katherine, moved to Portland, Oregon, but not before William Allen White inscription "Visits Only By Appointment"— it was to be their home for the remaining nine­ where they bought a home "way out in the . . . came to see me. I had to see him in For many who became Friends of the Bancroft suburbs." Shortly thereafter, through Darrow, bed, with I hope enough proper covering, teen years of their life together. Here Kath­ erine Field was married to James Caldwell, in the 1950's and 1960's, visiting the Library Sara and her husband were introduced to Col­ and he was both highly amused and ex­ meant seeking the assistance of Dr. John Barr onel Charles Erskine Scott Wood, a by-then tremely awed by the whole project. who would become Professor of English at Berkeley and who said of his mother-in-law's Tompkins, who had been appointed its first legendary Indian fighter and sometime poet They became fast friends and visited through Head of Public Services. With his staff, which who had become Portland's leading attorney. the years. Following the trip she summed up infectious gaiety: "When Sara comes, it's al­ ways a holiday!" for many years included Helen Harding Bret­ He had the most beautiful complexion her thoughts in a letter: nor and Robert H. Becker, he set the tone of and the keenest and kindest eagle blue- The cross-country trip meant waking up Mrs. Wood recounts visits from Lincoln the then-spacious Reading Room. When he gray eyes I think I have ever seen. I think a nation to national suffrage. The ten days Steffens and his wife Ella Winter, at whose retired early in 1974 as Curator of Pictorial it is an extraordinary combination, where in Washington meant trying to convert a wedding in Paris she and Colonel Wood had Collections, he had completed almost a quar­ keenness is combined with kindness. great government and a not too fearless been the only witnesses, and also from the ter century in Bancroft (Bancroftiana, June Colonel Wood, hearing that Sara had taken a party leader. The national awakening was young John Steinbeck, talking of ongoing work on The Grapes of Wrath: "I can remem­1974). course in poetic criticism, asked her to look in a sense accomplished. Never has any We note with sadness his death in Berkeley over a galley proof of his sonnets and advise suffrage activity had the press at its feet. ber him sitting on the floor at our house with a bottle of our good red wine next to him, and on July 25th, following a long illness. His as to their worth. Locally and nationally, this little gasoline widow, Dorothy, has suggested that contri­ Sara Bard Field's life might be viewed in flight across country and the message of before the evening was over the whole bottle was consumed." James D. Phelan as well as butions may be sent to the John Barr Tomp­ terms of a three-movement symphony: the loyalty to women which it bore has ap­ kins Fund for Pictorial Collections in The first thirty years of childhood, youthful mar­ peared in the papers in every form and in Fremont and Cora Older were near neighbors. Of her husband, Sara wrote in 1929: Bancroft Library, so that JBT's name may riage, and children; the second thirty years every guise . . . continue to be linked with the Library in the comprising her fife with Erskine Wood; the Colonel Wood's business affairs and his fam­ My Beloved Companion sits near inscrib­ ing some books to his numerous grand­ form of additions to the collections he helped last thirty years of loneliness. By 1911 her ily kept him in Portland until 1920; then he to develop and control. growing activity in the woman suffrage move­ and Sara occupied a house on the corner of children. The wonder of him grows al­ ment both in Oregon and nationally, together Broadway and Taylor Street on San Fran­ ways. How tightly-knit, how seaworthy with the realization that she could no longer cisco's Russian Hill. They established and al­ he is. He never is ravelled, never uncer­ Sutter on Stone share her husband's strongly conservative re­ most single-handedly supported the San Fran­ tain in the core of his being. He is like ligious beliefs, made a break inevitable, and cisco School of the Arts of the Theater, and Pericles or Goethe or any of the Olym­ From the fund established in memory of Edith her deep affection for Wood, reciprocated by they provided funds to the young sculptor pians who as Goethe has beautifully said, M. Coulter, The Bancroft Library has recently him, led to a crisis. Following a short stay in a Beniamino Bufano so that he might go to built up the pyramid of their existence. purchased a rare lithographic portrait of J. A. tuberculosis sanitarium in Pasadena, Sara and China to study ceramic glazes. The memoir is Erskine Wood died in 1944, shortly before Sutter, published in San Francisco by Peirce & her daughter settled in Goldfield, Nevada to rich in recollections of Albert Bender, who his ninety-second birthday; Sara Bard Field Johnson in 1852, and entered for copyright await the divorce, which became finali n 1914. underwrote Sara Bard Field's first book of was then sixty-two. She continued to five at during the same year. Measuring about ten She then moved to San Francisco where she poetry, The Pale Woman, printed in a limited "The Cats" until 1955, when she moved to and one-half by eight inches, the portrait was might see her children on weekends, for their edition by William Edwin Rudge in 1927; of Berkeley. In 1949 she saw through the press an drawn on stone by Joshua H. Peirce, a pioneer custody had been given to the Reverend Ehr­ John Cowper Powys and his brother Llewelyn; edition of her husband's collected poems, for of 1849, who arrived in California already gott, now established in Berkeley at the Thou­ of Genevieve Taggard—"She and Erskine and which another old friend, WilHam Rose skilled in the art of lithography. sand Oaks Baptist Church. I would have long talks on the subject of po­ Benet, wrote an introduction. To Amelia Fry, The lithograph was printed by Benjamin F. who conducted this series of interviews, Mrs. In the fall of 1915 Sara accompanied two etry in which we began to discuss the possi­ Butler, also a '49er, in his shop on Broadway, bility that poetry ought to be able to serve Wood described her marriage and the suc­ between Kearny and DuPont Streets. Butler Swedish ladies in their open touring car from ceeding years: San Francisco to New York, to publicize the the human needs in other ways than merely had been the first man to establish a lithogra­ cause of woman's suffrage. The account of aesthetic ones." She notes that it was George . . . the long loneliness is the test, because phy plant in San Francisco, and he is particu­ that journey, and its stirring conclusion in Sterling who "was the first one to recognize I am very lonely at times—most of the larly noted as an early lithographer of por­ Washington, D.C. where she spoke from the Robinson Jeffers" when he sent to them a copy time. And yet I'd rather be, as I've said, traits. The finalbi t of information recorded on steps of the Capitol, is indeed spirited and adds of Tamar with the message that "This is the lonely alone than lonely with someone. this print states that it was copied "from a colorfully to the documentation of those greatest poet that California has produced." Her daughter would agree, noting at the con­ Portrait by S[tephen] W. Shaw," another art- [»' 3]

© Copyright 1980 The Friends of The Bancroft Library an affiliate of the Universidad Nacional Auto­ held by the Bancroft is a small mid-fourteenth mimmmm smaller than that of the painting—a perspec­ tive diminution which would occur naturally nomy de Mexico and the Universidad Auto- century Vulgate, with sixty-four decorated if the artist sat several feet from the Shaw por­ noma de Baja California. Speakers at the cere­ initials and nine marginal illuminations, from trait as he made his copy for transfer onto the monies included members of these two the collection of James K. Moffitt, for thirty- lithographic stone. An extra effort was also organizations, Arquitecto Ruben Castro Bo- six years a University of California Regent. made to reverse this drawing on the stone so jorquez, Rector of UABC and Maestro Ro­ The Wycliffite version of the New Testament that it and the handsome facsimile of Sutter's berto Moreno de los Arcos, Director of the is represented by two manuscripts, both in the signature would produce a positive copy—not a Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas of John Purvey recension. The earlier, from the mirror image. It is evident that the publishers UNAM, and the Centro's Coordinator, Li- library of the Tollemache family of Helming­ intended to produce a convincing and accurate cenciado David Pinera Ramirez. Professor ham, Suffolk is one of a very few large illumi­ representation of the original painting as it ap­ W. Michael Mathes of the University of San nated copies made before 1400 (see Bancroft­ pears to the viewer. The pose and the costume Francisco introduced other guests from the iana, February 1978 for a detailed description); are precisely the same in both versions, and the United States, including former Berkeleyan the later one, made sometime between 1400 eyes of both engage the viewer with self- John Swingle of the Alta California Bookstore and 1450, comes from the collection of Isaac contained firmness. and William O. Hendricks of the Sherman Foot, Member of Parliament and writer on Sutter's fortunes were waning fast during Foundation. Cromwell, whose library was purchased for 1851 and 1852, but one feels that he still con­ The afternoon program was followed by a the University of California in 1961. Finally, sidered himself the first citizen of New Hel­ buffet, and in the evening a colloquium on from the collection of Hubert Howe Bancroft vetia. In spite of a few minor weaknesses, such Baja California history concluded the festivi­ comes a 1596 manuscript consisting of scrip­ as the poorly rendered chair back and the ties. Participants were two husband-and-wife tural readings for weekdays, Sundays, and smudged area on Sutter's right cheek, this print teams: Maestro Roberto Moreno de los Arcos major Feasts translated into Nahuatl, once is an impressive piece of work, taking an im­ and Licenciada Maria Refugio Gonzalez Mo­ owned by Jose Fernando Ramirez, member of portant place among the incunabula of Cali­ reno de los Arcos, and Doctor Miguel Leon- the Supreme Court of Mexico, and used in the General John A. Sutter by Joshua H. Peirce,forni 18$2.a lithography . It seems likely that this Portilla and Licenciada Ascencion Hernandez native missions. lithograph, in its turn, provided the inspiration de Leon-Portilla. Of course, the first substantial book printed ist who came to California in 1849, leaving for a later painting of Sutter by Samuel S. Os­ V. C. F. from movable type was the Forty-two line behind his promising career as a portrait paint­ good which now belongs to the New-York Bible, produced in part under the direction of er and as the Director and instructor at the Historical Society. A study of the relationships The Bancroft's Bibles Johann Gutenberg, c. 1454, from which Ban­ Boston Athenaeum. By 1850 Shaw was well- between Shaw's and Peirce's versions of the croft holds a leaf, containing Numbers 20-21; established in San Francisco, and he is said to Sutter portrait provides useful insights into For some years the Rare Books Collection of the facsimile of the Forty-two line Bible, have painted over two hundred Masonic offi­ mid-nineteenth century artistic practice, and it The Bancroft Library has sought to bring to­ printed at Leipzig by the Insel-Verlag (1913- cers as well as other notables of California. also demonstrates, beyond any reasonable gether editions of the Bible as part of its ma­ 14), is also available at the Library. Bancroft's Shaw's connection with the creation of this doubt, that our 1851 oil painting by S. W. terial related to the intellectual and artistic earliest complete printed Bible is the Vulgate lithograph is of particular interest for the Ban­ Shaw is in fact the original source for this history of western civilization. From the time produced at Venice in 1476 by Franciscus croft because the Library already owns his oil earliest published "official portrait" of General of Ulfiias (c. 311-3 81), who created an alpha­ Renner de Heilbronn and Nicolaus de Frank- portrait of General fohn A. Sutter which is John Augustus Sutter. bet for the Germanic languages in order to fordia. Surprisingly, the Greek New Testa­ signed and dated June, 1851. This beautiful L.D. translate the Scriptures into Gothic, and Jer­ ment did not appear until 1516, in an edition and well-preserved painting, measuring eleven ome's Latin Vulgate finished in 405, through printed at Basle by Johann Froben, who had and one-half by nine and one-half inches, was Tijuana Festivities the music of J. S. Bach and the writings of T. S. commissioned Desiderius Erasmus, the best a gift to the University of California from Eliot, the scriptural texts have influenced the Greek scholar of the day, to prepare a text. Phoebe Apperson Hearst, and for the last quar­ Since the Bancroft has been engaged in a co­ literature, art, and music of the West. The Erasmus consulted only six manuscripts, but ter century it has been on exhibition in The operative microfilming project of Baja Cali­ Bancroft collections include biblical manu­ his text became the textus receptus. Both this Bancroft Library. It is not known where Re­ fornia land and title records with the Centro scripts, early editions of western language ver­ and the second edition of 1519 are held by gent Hearst acquired the painting, but it is not de Investigaciones Historicas UNAM-UABC, sions, translations into native American, South Bancroft. impossible that it came directly from the artist, it was only natural that the Library be included Pacific, and Far Eastern languages, and Bibles Parallel language texts are an important himself, who continued to live in the Bay area in festivities on July ist to celebrate the open­ printed by important typographers. aspect of the study and printing of the Scrip­ until his death at the age of eighty-three in ing of new and expanded offices for the Centro The Library's oldest biblical text is a nearly tures. The earliest such biblical text was the 1900. in Tijuana. Mrs. Vivian C. Fisher, a member of complete Latin manuscript of the Epistles of famous Polyglot Psalter of 1516, printed at A comparison of our lithograph with Bancroft's staff for twenty-five years, repre­ James, Peter, and John, probably made in Genoa by Petrus Paulus Porrus. In five lan­ Shaw's oil painting establishes the fact that the sented the Library which presented to the France in the first half of the twelfth century. guages, the text was edited by Agostino Gius­ print is an accurate and faithful "translation" Centro several items to commemorate the Also from this century in France comes a fine tiniani, Bishop of Nebbio, whose gloss on the of the oil portrait into lithographic terms. The event. example of a glossed Latin text of Genesis, once Nineteenth Psalm includes the earliest known two correspond in every point except that the The Centro, having as its field of research owned by the eminent classicist, Michael Wod- account of Christopher Columbus. The Ban­ actual image of the lithograph is somewhat the history of the Baja California peninsula, is hull (1740-1816). The earliest complete Bible croft copy on paper is bound in vellum. In [4: [5 1614 there appeared the so-called Diglot Psal­ comes from the library of Kenneth and Nancy ter, a Latin and Arabic text printed at the press Bechtel (see Bancroftiana, July 1978 for a de­ of Savary de Breves, Ambassador of Louis XIII tailed description). In 1539, Coverdale brought to Constantinople. The Bancroft's copy comes out another version, known from its size as the from the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, con­ Great Bible, from which comes the Psalter troller-general under Louis XIV. used in the Book of Common Prayer. The A major step in the history of biblical text, Bancroft holds the second edition of 1540, the Complutensian Polyglot, in four languages, which bears on the title page the words was produced in six volumes under the patron­ "Apoynted to the use of the churches." But it age of Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros at Al- was soon replaced in popular favor by the cala, Spain, by Arnaldus Guillelmus de Bro- Geneva Bible of 1560, the earliest to provide cario, the New Testament being printed in verse divisions. The Bible of English writers 1514, the Old in 1517. Because it lacked a papal from Shakespeare to Bunyan, the Bancroft permit, circulation did not begin until 1522, copy is bound in polished calf. From the title page of the Coverdale Bible, 2535. thus enabling Erasmus to receive credit for the Meanwhile at Rheims, Roman Catholics first appearance of the Greek New Testament. brought out an English translation of the Vul­ neva version can be seen in the revised text of of Matthew (New York, 1871) and in the The Bancroft is fortunate to have in addition gate New Testament (1582), which exerted David Martin, French Protestant minister Gospel and Epistles of John translated by the the remaining three great Polyglot Bibles, considerable influence on the King James ver­ exiled to Utrecht, in a two-volume Amster­ Presbyterian missionary George Ainslie (Phila­ Plantin's (Antwerp, 1569-72), Vitre's (Paris, sion of 1611. The translation of the Vulgate dam edition of 1707. The so-called Port Royal delphia, 1876). Western Cree is typified in 1629-45), and Walton's (London, 1655-57). Old Testament into English by Roman Cath­ translation of Isaac Louis Le Maistre is repre­ William Mason's translation of the whole The latter, edited by Brian Walton, later olics was published at Douai in 1609-10. Car­ sented by the New Testament (1668) and nu­ Bible for the British and Foreign Bible Society Bishop of Chester, is one of the earliest publi­ dinal William Allen, who established at Douai merous individual books of the Old Testa­ (London, 1861-62). William Thomas Smith cations printed by subscription in Great Brit­ a college to train priests for England, assisted ment, including Ecclesiasticus (1684), Deuter­ and Stephen Return Riggs translated the ain. Bancroft's copy includes the original, or with both Testaments, each in the Bancroft onomy (1685), and Song of Songs (1694). Scriptures into Dakota for the American Bible "republican," form of the preface, acknowl­ collections. Of special note is the Library's Because of its Jansenist origin, this version, de­ Society (New York, 1879), the firstvolum e of edging the support of Oliver Cromwell. copy of the Baltimore, 1837 edition of the spite its popularity, never won the approval of which is in The Bancroft Library; their Psalms The original Hebrew text of the Old Testa­ Rheims-Douai Bible, in the revised text of the Roman Catholic Church. Supported by were used in the 1875 Dakota Book of Com­ ment can be seen in several noteworthy vol­ Bishop Richard Challoner of London. This the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel mon Prayer, also in the Library's collections. umes, beside the Polyglot Bibles. From the volume, in a home-made leather carrying case, as well as the British and Foreign Bible So­ Nahuatl is represented in the Gospel of Luke Goldyne Hebraica Collection comes a copy of the gift of Fr. Lucien Galtier to Patrick Breen, ciety, Joseph Dacre Carlyle and Henry Ford's (London, 1833). the Pentateuch, Five Scrolls, and Haftaroth, accompanied Breen on the ill-fated journey of The Holy Bible in the Arabic Language (New­Scripture translation, in fact, reflects the printed at Sabionetta, Italy by Tobia Foa, the Donner Party during the terrible winter of castle-upon-Tyne, 1811), is typical of Ban­ wide range of Christian missionary activity. c. 1554. In 1584 at Antwerp, Christophe Plan- 1846-47. croft's wide range of holdings in non-western The Hawaiian Missionary Society brought out tin brought out a Hebrew Bible, with the Because of criticism of the Geneva Bible, languages. There is, for example, the so-called a series of translations in Hawaiian, each book Greek text of the Apocrypha appended. In­ King James I of England gave support to a new Gipsy Bible of George Borrow (1837); the being separately printed and several bound to­ cluded is a Latin interlinear translation of both version, made by Oxford and Cambridge linguist produced this version of the Gospel of gether at a later date (see Bancroftiana, July Old Testament and Apocrypha, the earliest scholars under the direction of Lancelot An- Luke in Gitano (or Romany) but attempts at 1978 for a detailed description). From the li­ Latin version made in modern times, by the drewes, then Dean of Winchester, and others. distribution led to his imprisonment. brary of Thomas W. Streeter comes a Tahitian Hebrew scholar Sanctes Pagninus of Lucca, The so-called King James Version appeared in The earliest biblical text to be printed on the version of selected Epistles, dated 1829 in the which first appeared in 1528. Both Bancroft 1611, and was based on the Hebrew and Greek North American continent, and the first in any colophon, as well as a Tahitian Psalter made copies are bound with Plantin's 1584 edition texts, although the English represented the native American language, was John Eliot's by the London Missionary Society (1832). of the Greek New Testament. tradition begun by Tyndale and Coverdale. translation of the New Testament into Massa- James Calvert and E. Hazlewood, linguists and The history of the printed English Bible be­ Frequently referred to as the Authorized Ver­ chuset (Cambridge, 1661). He had previously Wesleyan missionaries, produced a complete gins with William Tyndale's New Testament sion, there is no evidence that the 1611 Bible prepared the text of the first book printed in Bible in Fijian (London, 1864-67). Bancroft brought out secretly at Cologne in 1525. The ever received Parliamentary or ecclesiastical the American colonies, the Bay Psalm Book also holds texts in two languages from the Bancroft holds the earliest of the illustrated sanction. The Bancroft copy is a first,o r "He" (1640). The Bancroft's copy of the second edi­ Loyalty Islands: S. Ella and his wife, of the quarto editions of his text, printed at London impression. The Library is also fortunate to tion of Eliot's complete Bible (Cambridge, London Missionary Society, were responsible by Richard Jugge in 1552. Miles Coverdale, have the earliest complete English Bible 1685) comes from the library of Kenneth and for the Psalms and Gospel of Matthew in Uvea reform advocate and Bishop of Exeter, is rep­ printed in the United States; the work of Rob­ Nancy Bechtel. This earliest known Protestant (1867) and the Gospel of Mark by John Coler­ resented by his Bible of 1535, printed at either ert Aitken of Philadelphia, this edition of the missionary translation is also represented at the idge Patteson, later missionary Bishop of Mel­ Cologne or Marburg by Eucharius Cervicor- Authorized Version was commended by a Bancroft by an edition of his Psalter in Massa- anesia, is the first complete biblical book in nus and Johannes Soter. The Library's copy, in resolution of Congress, September 12th, 1782. chuset, printed with the Gospel of John (Bos­ Lifu (Auckland, 1859). full morocco by Tuckett, Binder to the Queen, Other languages have strong representation ton, 1709). Nez Perce can be seen in the second Bancroft also holds many editions of the is one of seventy-seven known copies, and in the Bancroft's collections. The French Ge- edition of the American Bible Society's Gospel Scriptures which are significant as specimens [6] [7] of fine printing and the typographic arts. both illustrated by Valenti Angelo. of authors will be represented only by first and were being carefully read, and reread, last Known both for his editing of classical texts From the beautifully illuminated Gospel other significant editions, and a third group year, a satisfactory answer to this particular and for the excellent press work done under texts of the seventh-century Book of Kells and will be more selectively represented only by question had not been found—and was not his supervision, Robert Estienne produced a Book of Durrow, available at Bancroft in fine first editions of their major printed works. found until the last moment. The way in which series of biblical texts. Especially noteworthy facsimiles by Urs Graf-Verlag, to Blair Hughes- Papers are sought by both gift and purchase, it was supplied, rather serendipitously, may is his Latin Bible of 153 8-40, the Bancroft copy Stanton's illustrations for Genesis (Allen Press, and following established practice the Library serve to illustrate the great value of the Mark being from the library of John Henry Nash. 1970), from Christophe Plantin's Hebrew will not purchase papers of faculty and staff of Twain letters and documents that continue to His third folio edition, it includes illustrations Bible of 1585 to John Stuart's Gaelic version the University of California. find their way to the Project from every by Franciscus Vatablus, Regius Professor of of the Bible (Edinburgh, 1807-13), from the Black writers some of whose books are al­ imaginable source. Hebrew at Paris, and prints the Prayer of metrical Psalms of Thomas Sternhold and John ready represented in The Bancroft Library Among the special problems confronting Manasses in both Greek and Latin for the first Hopkins (London, 1576) to the Blues of the include Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mark Twain's editors is the author's well time. John Baskerville, typefounder and print­ Sky, paraphrases by David W. Rosenberg Langston Hughes, Leroi Jones, Bob Kaufman, known interest in, and use of, American slang er of Birmingham, is represented in the Library (New York, 1974), a wide range of biblical Ishmael Reed, and Al Young. In keeping with and regional dialects; he prided himself on re­ by his magnum opus, a 1763 edition of the material is available at Bancroft. Here are sig­ the general regional focus of Bancroft several liable, firsthand knowledge of such matters, Authorized Version, also from the Nash col­ nificant sources for surveying religious and additional writers have been listed because and with good cause. In 1872, Colonel John lection. The Doves Press, founded in 1900 by cultural influences of Judaeo-Christian thought. they have worked for a substantial part of their Hay said in the New York Tribune that Mark careers in the Bay area. These include George Twain was "the finest living delineator of the Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson and Sir P.J.R., JR. Emery Walker, is similarly represented by its Barlow, Ernest J. Gaines, Ted Joans, Cleo true Pike accent" (the literary dialect in which Over street, Eugene B. Redmond, Clyde R. Huck Finn, as well as Simon Wheeler, and to most important publication, the Doves Bible Afro-American (London, 1903-05). From William Randolph Taylor, and Joyce Carol Thomas. The Library some extent Hank Morgan speak). As few also seeks to acquire the records of black the­ scholars or lexicographers of slang can match Hearst's library at San Simeon comes the Writers Collection Golden Cockerel Press's The Song of Songs atrical companies of the West, such as original him word for word in this realm, the Project (Waltham St. Lawrence, 1925), notable for its playscripts of first performances, correspond­ editors have gradually accumulated a store of The rich and varied cultural contributions of English and American dictionaries, both of wood engravings by Eric Gill. In 1925-27, the Afro-American writers in the Far West have ence, publicity, and related materials, which Nonesuch Press of Sir Francis Meynell brought would augment the Bancroft's extensive thea­ slang and the language as a whole, as well as become the focus of a new collecting venture several monographs on Mark Twain's usage out an edition of the Authorized Version; with for The Bancroft Library. In building an ar­ ter collections. fine engravings by Stephen Gooden, the work The development of this new Afro-Amer­ and the practice of contemporary humorists. chive of these writers, Bancroft will be com­ And, as a further tool, the editors maintain an was printed at the Oxford University Press. plementing the collection formed over the past ican Writers Collection is an exciting enter­ prise not only because the field is relatively un­ ongoing card file of unusual words and spell­ Martin Luther's German Bible is represented fifteen years by the General Library which has ings drawn from his manuscripts. by an edition published at Munich by the not attempted to gather authors' manuscripts developed but because it will extend the Bremer Presse (1926-28), known for its work or letters since the collecting of such papers is Library's association with contemporary crea­ However, in the case of "labrick" even these in integrating scholarship and book design. Bancroft's special responsibility. tive writers. From time to time Bancroftiana resources had failed to solve the problem of its Black-letter type was especially cut for this This collection will relate closely to the will describe major acquisitions in order to source, meaning, or pronunciation. Modern Bible, edited by Carl von Kraus, specialist in holdings of other manuscript records in Ban­ keep the Friends aware of the Collection's references did not contain it—with one excep­ Middle High German. Also of note from the croft such as the papers of the Western Office growth. tion. Mitford Mathews' Dictionary of Amer­ continent is the work of Giovanni Marder- of the NAACP for the years 1946 to 1970 and P.E.H. icanisms (Chicago, 1951) said in part: "labrick steig's Officina Bodoni, seen in the Library's C. L. Dellums' assemblage of the papers of the . . . n. Mo. [Origin unknown.] A fool. Slang. copy of its edition of the four Gospels (Verona, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, both When is a Knight —1889 Mark Twain Conn. Yankee xxx.382 1962), printed with woodcuts by Bruno Bra- valuable for the study of the Afro-American As a rule, a knight is a lummux, and some­ manti from a 1495 Lectionary. experience in the West. The new literary col­ a Labrick? times even a labrick." But as the author him­ self might say, "that cat wouldn't fight:" it American typography is perhaps best repre­ lection will also extend Bancroft's purely lit­ erary materials for its collections of publica­ "As a rule," Hank Morgan says to the reader was a definition based on the problem the edi­ sented by Bruce Rogers. His work can be seen tors began with. in Bancroft copies of his Lectern Bible, printed tions by regional writers naturally include in chapter thirty of Mark Twain's Connecticut at the Oxford University Press (1935), and the some that have been created by significant Yankee, "a knight is a lummox, and sometimes Then, in the tradition of Mark Twain's so- World Bible, printed by A. Colish (1949). authors who happen to be black. even a labrick." To most readers, perhaps, called "mental telegraphy," came an unsolic­ Following the publication of a new Latin Subject specialists in the General Library and "lummox" is clear enough: an "oaf" or "lout" ited letter from Margaret R. Leavy of New translation of the Psalms for liturgical use, Bancroft, aided by some black writers them­ according to the Oxford English DictionaryHave n who explained that her grandfather, sponsored by Pope Pius XII, William Everson, selves, have compiled lists of the authors whose (which provides a half dozen examples of its Benjamin E. Smith, had been managing editor poet and printer, produced a special folio edi­ works are to be collected. Some will be col­ use). But what is a "labrick?" of the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia in its tion (Los Angeles, 1955); the Library's copy lected in depth so that not only will their pub­ This is a typical problem for the staff of the first edition (1891) and had, by 1906, become bears the bookplate of Estelle Doheny. From lished writings in first and other significant Mark Twain Project who are editing the editor-in-chief in charge of an extensive re­ the Bay area may be noted, among others, two editions be represented, but an effort will also author's Papers and Works on the fourth floor vision and expansion of its text. Mr. Smith was volumes printed by the Grabhorn Press in be made to collect their papers, including let­ of The Bancroft Library. As the galley proofs apparently as interested in the meaning of 1926, The Book of Job and The Book of Ruth,ter s and original manuscripts. A second group of their recent edition of Connecticut Yankee"labrick " as we had been, and he did what we [8] were unable to do: he asked Mark Twain what the Minister of War Pedro Maria Anaya in an nition and other cargo, and the two hundred it meant. His granddaughter had, fortunately attempt to justify his actions while in California twenty-nine soldiers left after many had de­ for us, preserved the author's reply, a copy of and to explain the reasons for the revolutions serted along the way, protesting their deten­ which she generously sent to the Mark Twain that occurred during his rule. tion on a waterless island near the port pending Project in time to supply the deficiency in In this report Micheltorena not only com­ last arrangements. Thus, in four vessels there Yankee's explanatory notes. The answer speaks ments on the political and economic condi­ were about fifteen hundred persons, less than for itself and is given here in full for the first tions he found in Alta California at the time of half of them capable of taking up arms, some time: his arrival, mentioning its rudimentary form of them criminals from presidios and prisons, August 6. 1906. of government and inadequate financial re­ one of them a known murderer of fifteen peo­ Dr. Benjamin E. Smith sources, but also depicts vividly and in great ple, others ignorant, untrained farmers drafted The Century Co. detail the multiple frustrations encountered in by the government, accompanied by fifty ill- New York. preparing for the long and arduous expedition equipped soldiers from San Bias, requisitioned Dear Sir: from Mexico. He had expected to be provided at the last moment to escort the colonists, re­ I am authority for the fact—which is a fact with a budget of six thousand pesos with which luctantly leaving their families behind. A fur­ —that the term labrick was in constant use by to defray all expenses, and to maintain some ther expense was incurred in providing the all grown men except certain of the clergy in four hundred fifty men and to pay the salaries dirty, tattered prisoners with new clothing, the state of Missouri when I was a boy. It had of the officers as well. When funds, promised after forcing them to wash in the sea before a very definite meaning & occupied in the him in Guadalajara, failed to materialize, and boarding the ships. On the third night out, matter of strength the middle ground between when, after lengthy delays, he realized there Micheltorena squelched an incipient mutiny scoundrel & son of a bitch. were not enough vessels on the coast to em­ which he discovered only when he realized Sincerely Yours, bark the entire expedition, the general was the stars appeared in the wrong direction for SL. Clemens faced with a serious dilemma, for he had too the course that had been charted. Some of his P.S. But I think you are serious about this. If Wilma Seavey Ogden by Johan Hagemeyer, ig34. little money to turn back and no facilities to men had seized the helm, evidently hoping to you are, let me brush aside the ornamental & stay on. In addition, the time of the winter return to Mexico with the little remaining give you the plain & authentic definition of Mrs. Ogden, an alumna of the University in its Class of 1930, had, with her husband, faith­ equinox when the south seas would not be money. the word. Labrick is substantially ass, a little navigable was drawing near. After arrival in San Diego, Micheltorena's enlarged & emphasized; let us say, labrick is a fully attended the Annual Meeting of the Friends for a number of years and was par­ Micheltorena decided to forge ahead to Ma­ report concerns the difficulties of training raw little stronger than ass, & not quite as strong as zatlan, with one vessel making two trips. Once recruits in the rudiments of handling rifles and idiot. ticularly impressed by the annual awards made to doctoral candidates whose research de­ again the promised funds were not forthcom­ marching, the disciplinary problems occa­ SLC ing, and only by dint of many negotiations, sioned by the thefts and pillages committed by (Copyright 1980 by the Mark Twain Foundation) pended wholly or in large part upon materials held in The Bancroft Library. The Bancroft some in the form of personal loans, did the these same recruits, and the paucity of revenues Of course even this expert testimony leaves general manage to scrape together a few pesos for paying the salaries of the government offi­ unanswered the questions of etymology and Fellowships provide a stipend and cover Uni­ versity fees; the additional funding will con­ to equip the ships and to continue his journey. cials and soldiers. He further stated that to no pronunciation, but the immediate question of He soon noticed that no brandy, coffee or tea avail he repeatedly requested assistance from Mark Twain's meaning is fully answered by it. tribute in diverse ways to the well-being of our scholars. had been stocked for the officers, an oversight the distant Mexican government, and sought The Friends will be glad to know that the to be immediately remedied in quantities suf­ permission to return the worst offenders. The Library's international reputation continues to ficient for a voyage of at least forty-five days. governor somewhat glosses over his own offi­ attract voluntary contributions of this kind, Micheltorena's Micheltorena also purchased bugles, drums cial duties from 1842 to 1844, except to indi­ and to provide for Mark Twain's editors, and and flutes, deemed essential for a well-run cate that his conduct was exemplary, that he his readers, new insight into the works and ccCalifornias" army. Although he initially had obtained all established and maintained good relationships words of America's greatest humorist. he needed in the way of weapons and ammu­ with such key figures as Jose Castro and Juan R.H.H. In his chronicle of events in California from nition, just prior to his departure General B. Alvarado, that under his regime govern­ 1842 to 1845, which ends with an assessment Santa Anna ordered them left behind, since ment became more complex and effective, and Wilma Seavey Ogden of the governorship of Manuel Micheltorena, such materials, he said, were readily available that he never tampered with public funds and Hubert Howe Bancroft states: "I have not at Mazatlan. Micheltorena belatedly and rue­ that, indeed, he had even advanced his own Purse found his [Micheltorena's] report to the gov­ fully discovered that though there was indeed money on occasion. ernment." Such a document, apparently un­ sufficient powder, there was no lead, and too Micheltorena goes on to record the events A gift in memory of his wife which will pro­ published and hitherto unknown, was recently few cartridges, and those of the wrong size for of November, 1844, asserting that this earlier vide for the personal and professional needs of acquired for The Bancroft Library in part as a the rifles and carbines which he had on hand. revolution was not directed against him or his the Bancroft Fellows has been donated by Paul gift from its Friends and in part purchased from The four vessels finally set sail from Mazat­ administration, but rather against the criminal Ogden of Walnut Creek. The recipients are the Peter and Rosell Harvey Memorial Fund. lan at five o'clock in the afternoon of July 25 th, elements he had been forced to bring as mem­ Daniel Allardyce Cornford and Susan Kay The ex-governor and general penned his offi­ 1842, Micheltorena in command, there being bers of the expedition. He comments on his Gillman, this year's Fellows whose activities cial forty-seven page dossier, entitled "Cali- no marine officer on board. With him were alliance with Sutter, and describes the long were noted in the last issue of Bancroftiana. fornias," in Mexico City and addressed it to officers and their families, equipment, ammu­ journey south during the wet winter of 1845 h°: [" in pursuit of the revolutionaries headed by correspondence with Sutter, Alvarado, Castro, Castro and Alvarado, whose ranks had been and Mariano G. Vallejo, leading up to or con­ considerably augmented by southern Califor- cerned with the revolutions of 1844 and 1845, nios. The general reported with great indigna­ and a copy of the Treaty of Cahuenga. tion that he arrived in Santa Barbara to dis­ This informative report is a most welcome cover that Pio Pico had illegally convoked the addition to the Library since it complements assembly (a power belonging solely to the the substantial holdings of manuscripts relating governor) and had even usurped the governor­ to or emanating from Micheltorena threaded ship. Micheltorena continued his march, finally throughout many of the original Bancroft col­ almost catching up with the elusive revolu­ lections, and it reveals hitherto unknown data tionaries near the San Buenaventura Mission concerning the California expedition—namely in a narrow place where the road was flooded, financial details, numbers and categories of but the enemy successfully retreated beyond people on the expedition, and the sea voyage the mission. By this time his men, many with­ itself. Here, too, we have Micheltorena's own out shoes and ill-fed on unsalted meat, were version of the California uprisings, biased footsore and weary after travelling for twenty- though it may be, as well as his extensive ac­ six days in the rain. count of the physical hardships of the march Then ensued the battle of San Fernando, in southward and of the battle scenes, narrated which Micheltorena's troops captured enemy from a military point of view, all of which artillery during the first day without the loss contrast with and complete existing descrip­ of a drop of blood. The rebels soon fledt o Los tions given by many other individuals in their Angeles, taking Sutter with them as prisoner. portrayal of both sides of the revolution. Sutter, knowing the rebels were in a position M.B. to cut off all food supplies from troops already decimated and suffering from hunger, en­ COUNCIL OF THE FRIENDS treated Micheltorena to surrender. In the meanwhile information received from the Henry K. Evers, ChairmanStephe n G. Herrick William P. Barlow, Jr. Kenneth E. Hill north indicated the brewing of other potential Miss Mary Woods Warren R. Howell revolutionary forces, so that the general at this Bennett David McDaniel point reluctantly agreed to capitulate, the Mrs. Philip K. Bradley John R. May Treaty of Cahuenga was formulated and Mrs. Jackson Chance James E. O'Brien A. Lindley Cotton Norman Philbrick signed on March 26th, 1845, Micheltorena de­ James M. Gerstley Atherton M. Phleger parting for Mexico shortly thereafter. Mrs. Richard P. Norman H. Strouse An appendix, consisting of copies of forty- Hafner, Jr. Daniel G. Volkmann, Jr. James D. Hart George P. Hammond, five justificatory documents and one printed Robert P. Hastings Honorary decree, contains statements concerning finan­ Mrs. Edward H. Heller cial matters and accounts prior to leaving Mex­ ico, along with unsolicited testimonials from Editor, Bancroftiana:]. R. K. Kantor various government officials and missionaries Contributors to this issue: Marie Byrne, Lawrence in California, praising Micheltorena's efficien­ Dinnean, Vivian C. Fisher, Peter E. Hanff, Robert cy as governor. Also included are copies of H. Hirst, Paul Machlis, Patrick J. Russell, Jr.

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