Center Michaelondaatje Mexico Modern Knopfin Translation MAGAZINE

FALL 2017 center MichaelOndaatje Mexico Modern Knopfin Translation MAGAZINE

“ Years ago, while traveling with the architect Anjalendran in the southern provinces of Sri Lanka—he was looking for some pillars and window 4 frames and other odds and ends—he paused, bending over to look at some medieval rain spouts that are still used in Sri Lanka, and he remarked, “In Sri Lanka 90 percent of architecture is loitering.” And I thought to myself, of course this is true of literature too. In fact in any art you spend your time searching or waiting for some small anecdote or the remarkable accidental discovery. How an architect gathers and how a writer gathers, how they assemble and collect it all into some organic shape and try and unite them, is not that different. And what is unearthed will influence not just the content of the story, but its style, its very language.” –Michael Ondaatje, Traveling with Anjalendran

Laura Wilson, Michael Ondaatje, Petaluma, California 3/25/10 ContentsFALL 2017

24 Deadline 2028 By 2028, we may lose many analog audiovisual recordings as formats go out of use and materials degrade.

12 Orchestrating the Mexican Moment in New York Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins on the city’s outsized influence on Mexico’s mid-century arts scene.

18 The Attempt to Keep Day and Night Together Dean Echenberg on the origins of his war poetry collection, a recent acquisition and one of the largest of its kind in the world.

A Glutton for Books 20 Researcher Victoria Livingstone on the influential Knopf translator at the heart of the Latin American literary boom.

A Family Affair 23 Kate O’Toole on choosing the right “family” for her father’s legacy.

What did 1920s & 1930s Texas DEPARTMENTS moviegoers hear when they went Around the Plaza...... 2 Membership. 8 to “the pictures”? Artifact . 10 Lone Star Melody Makers | pg. 27 Ask a Book Conservator . . . 11 The Archivist’s Archive. . . . 29 Cover and page 6: Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), Untitled [Self-portrait with thorn necklace hummingbird], 1940. O il on canvas mounted to board, 62.5 x 48.0 cm. © 2017 Banco de México Diego Rivera Museums / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Mexico, D.F. Trust, AROUND THE PLAZA

Director’s note Community THE ARCHIVE WILL SEE YOU NOW

This spring, we welcomed the Dell Medical School’s first-year cohort of medical students and Dr. Steve Steffensen. Steffensen collaborated with Ransom Center Head of Instructional Services Andi Gustavson and Graduate Research Associate Reid Echols to teach a session.

This issue of the Ransom Center Magazine The class covered Duchenne de Boulogne’s (1806–1875) use of early contains a wealth of stories about the photography, the beginnings of the field of neurology, and the use creative figures represented in the of applied electricity to study human facial expressions. Discussion Center’s collections, and it is also the centered on medical ethics, Duchenne’s adoption of new technologies, debut of an appealing redesign of the and modern concerns of privacy, consent, and the doctor-patient Center’s newsletter—the first redesign relationship. in 11 years. You’ll notice a new name, an acknowledgement of the expanded page count and in-depth features. You’ll find GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ here stories about how the Center’s ONLINE ARCHIVE collections continue to grow—whether it be the arrival of early printed books of Launching this November: the sixteenth century, a generous gift by a dedicated collector, or the acquisition 25,000+ pages of the literary archive of one of our finest contemporary writers. The cover 219 photographs story presents the informing narrative of our current exhibition Mexico Modern: 22 scrapbooks Art, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920–1945, and I hope it will prompt you to visit. The Ransom Center Magazine is also 1,110 your guide to how to be a part of this local K-12 students toured our exhibitions last year. Wow! creative community whether through research and study, through rich program offerings, through membership, or via CONNECT WITH US @ransomcenter social media. UT Austin APSI Whatever form your participation takes, @UTAPSI @sunflowergala Taking advantage of I invite you to be a part of this creative Pre-AP High School the world class library community. English’s trip to that houses our @ransomcenter this cultures‘ creativity summer was such and genius. an enriching addition I love to visit here. #parallelperspectives STEPHEN ENNISS to the training week! #harryransomcenter Director, Harry Ransom Center #TBT #UTAPSI

2 | Ransom Center magazine Scholarship & Research

CURRENT GRANT-FUNDED PROJECTS

Recent grants are helping us to preserve, catalog, and share the archives The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $195,000 for “Writers Without Borders: Creating Global Access to the PEN International and English PEN Records.” The archive spans 1912–2008 and contains more than 100,000 letters. It documents the formation, history, and activities of PEN and its global centers. We will digitize 4,400+ images for the web. The Council on Library and Information Resources awarded $24,000 for “Preserving the Interview Recordings of Mel Gussow, American and British Theater Critic.” Gussow was the lead cultural critic for the New York Times and recorded interviews with stars and lesser-known figures of the American and Mexico Modern: Art, British theatre. We will digitize 75 rare cassette audiotape interviews with actors, Commerce, and Cultural playwrights, writers, and directors for the web. Exchange, 1920–1945

APPLY FOR RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS Through January 1, 2018 The Ransom Center awards fellowships to postdoctoral, dissertation, and Widely acknowledged independent scholars to support research in our collections. Applications are due by 5 p.m. CST on November 15, 2017. as a critical chapter in Details on our website. the history of twentieth- century art, the rise of RECENTLY CATALOGED modernism in Mexico COLLECTIONS was activated by artists,

• Iain Sinclair Papers museum curators, gallery • House of Bonaparte Collection owners, journalists, and • Pierre Cordier Photography Collection publishers. This exhibition • Hillyer Family Photography Collection explores two decades of See more of what’s been newly cataloged, updated, dynamic cultural exchange and brought online at http://budurl.com/cataloged. between Mexico and the United States.

FALL 2017 To change your contact information, please notify: The publishers have made Suzanne Krause, Editor | [email protected] every effort to contact Volume 1 | Issue 1 all copyright holders for permissions. Those we Suzanne Krause Editor have been unable to reach Ransom Center Magazine is published Anne-Charlotte Patterson Designer are invited to contact us so biannually for members and friends that a full acknowledgment Leslie Ernst Art Director of the Harry Ransom Center at may be given. Daniel Zmud The University of Texas at Austin. Webmaster Unless otherwise noted, photography by Pete Smith. © 2017 Harry Ransom Center. All rights reserved.

Phone: 512-471-8944 | www.hrc.utexas.edu

hrc.utexas.edu | 3 RECENT ACQUISITIONS A Nomad’s Writing Finds a Home RANSOM CENTER DIRECTOR STEPHEN ENNISS INTERVIEWS POET AND NOVELIST MICHAEL ONDAATJE

The Ransom Center has acquired the archive of Michael Ondaatje, widely regarded as one of the finest English language novelists writing today.

Michael Ondaatje began his career as a poet but is best known as the author of the 1992 Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient, which was made into a critically-acclaimed motion picture. He was born in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1943; he moved to Canada at age 18.

The archive documents in great detail Ondaatje’s working methods and demonstrates his centrality to the literary and cultural communities of Canada and the broader world over more than 50 years.

SE: Your archive contains a number of notebooks which you have made into scrapbooks and interspersed with found images of different kinds. What is the relationship of your novels to this visual imagery?

MO: Well these so called “notebooks” are what I actually write the novels in. I usually write about four drafts of a book by hand before it moves to a typewriter or computer. After that I keep reworking it, printing it

Ondaatje’s first draft of The English Patient

4 | Ransom Center magazine out, rewriting it by hand. So during those early limit you. But I need stages of handwriting the novels, I sometimes to ground myself in need a few visual breaks along the way; I a precise location might stick in someone’s poem fragment, just or time period—a a few lines, or perhaps a stray visual image of farm in California, a party at Oxford where quite a few are drunk Louisiana in 1912— that I came across in a magazine. There might in order to let the be perhaps some subliminal influence. That book evolve without party scene got totally recast into a scene where drifting off into Almasy imagines meeting Katharine when she something surreal was young, long before he actually met her. or unstructured. I When I came upon that long ago notebook need the historical years later—that was the first time I realized moment, a time and recognized its influence on a scene in The period. So in that limited setting the English Patient. Often I glue in an image on top characters who emerge and act are freer, are able of a section of prose that had been re-copied to discover themselves and others. They might into the next notebook, so the notebooks are not come together from different countries perhaps, quite chronological. Anyway, they are not just but the story takes place then, there… it could be scrapbooks. This is where the novel gets writ- a convent where strangers meet and are altered. ten and thought out, each notebook reflecting a This might be because my life has been nomadic specific stage in the making of it. I always enjoy to a certain extent, so the sense of place has the look of these handwritten books more than a become more important. typed manuscript. Ideally I would like to publish a novel that way, but my handwriting is terrible, Does your poetry inform your novels, or vice Ondaatje unreadable, even to me sometimes. versa, or are they separate creative activities? dictates his I never imagined I would be a writer. And when Many of your characters have been displaced handwritten I began writing poetry, I never thought I would by historical events, yet you’ve noted the novels and has end up a novelist as well. But certainly being a importance of place in your process of poet hugely influenced my prose writing, and I them typed. composition. What is the role of place for suspect the structure of my novels as well. One characters who have no place to call of the essential wishes in poetry is to suggest, so their own? the reader participates, and in a way completes When I begin a novel, I don’t begin with an idea the poem. You do not have to say everything, or theme. Ideas and themes run or cover everything. I always want that quality out after a few pages, in a novel. I don’t want to be led around too or they can carefully. Also there is the aspect of the “leap” in poetry that I did not want to lose when writing prose. Just as rhyme is not just a sound but can become a visual echo. At the beginning I could write poems and novels at the same time. Now I have to focus on one or the other. R

hrc.utexas.edu | 5 EVENTS

George Flaherty

Mark Klett (American, b. 1952), Tea Break at Teapot Rock, After O’Sullivan, 1997. Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 in. Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of Photography Acquisitions Endowment, 2014:0012:0001 © Mark Klett Mark Klett

Roger Reeves Credit: Beowulf Sheehan

Anna Wright

Lynn Nottage

Paul Strand (American, 1890–1976), Plaza, State of Puebla, 1933; printed 1940. From the portfolio Photographs of Mexico. Photogravure, 12.8 x 16.1 cm (image). Harry Ransom Center, Gernsheim Collection, Purchase, 964:0030:0010 © Aperture Foundation, Inc., 6 | Ransom Center magazine Paul Strand Archive FALL 2017

Unless otherwise noted, events are free Calendarand take place at the Ransom Center. CONVERSATION POETRY ON THE PLAZA 14 THURSDAY 7 PM 20 WEDNESDAY NOON Photographer Mark Klett and curator Jessica S. Anna Wright of Actors From The London Stage reads the work McDonald discuss Klett’s enduring engagement with of contemporary British poets. the changing American landscape. Since participating in the renowned Rephotographic Survey Project PANEL DISCUSSION (1977–1979), Klett has investigated time, perception, 21 THURSDAY 4 PM and the history of photography in projects such as George Flaherty, Assistant Professor of Latin American and U.S. Revealing Territory (1982–2004), Reconstructing the Latino Art History at The University of Texas at Austin, speaks with View (2007–2010), and Camino del Diablo (2013–2015). colleagues about cultural exchange and representation in the exhibition Co-sponsored by the Department of American Studies. Mexico Modern: Art, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920–1945.

READING TUESDAY 7 PM 26 Roger Reeves, Associate Professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin and author of King Me (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), gives his inaugural reading. Reeves’s poems have appeared in journals such as Poetry, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Best American Poetry, and Tin House. Co-presented by the Department of English and the New Writers Project. SEPTEMBER

GALLERY TALK CLASSICAL MEXICAN CINEMA SERIES

11 WEDNESDAY 7 PM THURSDAYS 7 PM George Flaherty, Assistant Professor In Distinto Amanecer (1943), an exemplar of the cabaretera genre, of Latin American and U.S. Latino Art Andrea Palma stars as Julieta, the disaffected wife of a civil History and Co-director of the Center 2 servant (Alberto Galán), who helps a former friend (Pedro Armendáriz) for Latin American Visual Studies as he tries to elude would-be assassins. Directed by Julio Bracho; (CLAVIS), offers his perspective on cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa. Spanish the exhibition Mexico Modern: Art, with English subtitles, 108 minutes. Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920–1945. Dolores del Rio and Pedro Armendáriz 9 star in the drama María Candelaria (1943), a story of prejudice and romantic trag- edy on the eve of the Mexican Revolution. LECTURE María Candelaria won both the Grand Prix and 24 TUESDAY 6 PM Best Cinematography at the Cannes Film

JESSEN AUDITORIUM Festival in 1946. Directed by Emilio Fernández; Over the past 25 years, Lynn cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa. Spanish

OCTOBER Nottage’s plays—Crumbs from the with English subtitles, 102 minutes. Table of Joy, Intimate Apparel, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning dramas Ruined Set during the Mexican Revolution, and Sweat—have established her as 16 an aristocratic young woman (María one of the most original and incisive Félix) falls in love with a rebel general (Pedro NOVEMBER voices in theatre. Join Nottage as she Armendáriz) in Enamorada (1946). Directed by offers insight into her creative process Emilio Fernández; cinematography by Gabriel and reflects on the current state of Figueroa. Spanish with English subtitles, the American theatre. 99 minutes. hrc.utexas.edu | 7 MEMBERSHIP Member Events FALL 2017 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 Book Club: Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick. Related archival items on display during discussion

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 Behind-the-scenes tour for upper-level members

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 Exhibition-themed Central Market cooking class

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 Book Club: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. Related archival items on display during discussion

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 New member open house

I was going for a walk during a 36-hour visit to Austin, wrestling with whether to move here from Manhattan. Up ahead I Windows of saw, memorialized in the Ransom Center’s glass, the New York Yankees, Alfred Hitchcock, Igor Stravinsky, Eadweard Muybridge, Opportunity and Eliot Elisofon’s Duchamp. I walked in and saw the First SUSAN SCAFATI Photograph by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The building was silent A chance encounter with the and no one was around. Having these sorts of private experiences Ransom Center’s iconic glass with iconic works in spaces, where art has the room just to be, changed etchings prompted a change my perception of art that I’d been looking at for years in books, on screens, and in crowded venues, and drew me to the area. of perspective—and address— for this contemporary artist. I started making trips to the Ransom Center as a sort of refuge to sink into the why and how of the creative process. I was in awe of the extent that the private, public, and creative lives of my art heroes were preserved, and the expertise on hand to navigate the vast systemization of information housed in the archives. I’m selective with the institutions I support, and the Harry Ransom Center is a priority to me.

Being a member has enriched my life as an artist and culture lover. It’s a hometown retreat.

8 | Ransom Center magazine the Refractor. What was that? CHRIS, BARTENDER WITH PINK AVOCADO CATERING

For Kaleidoscope, the opening party for Stories to Tell, I wanted something both universally appealing with a visual element befitting the theme of the event. After enjoying a particularly well-done cocktail in New Orleans, I had become obsessed with finding an excellent recipe for homemade grenadine. After some internet sleuthing and kitchen trial and error, I found the perfect recipe: POM pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, unbleached sugar, and orange flower water. The addition of a half-ounce of this grenadine floated over a gin sour made with fresh lemon juice and demerara syrup made for a tasty drink with a fun visual flair that Ransom Center guests really enjoyed.

Recommended for the experimental home bartender: Drinking the Devils Acre by Duggan Mcdonnell Members Shake. Stir. Sip. by Kara Newman sipped on the Regarding Cocktails by Sasha Petraska “Plumed Serpent” during the Mexico Modern opening party. Naming the party cocktail for each exhibition opening is a group effort. Here are some staff ideas that didn’t make the pour.

Gradient Sour

MuseYUM Gin Spectrum Pantone 704 XGC

Observation of Beautiful Forms. The literal translation of “kaleidoscope.” The Wavelength Odd Aliquot hrc.utexas.edu | 9 ARTIFACT

Lady Anne’s Works AARON T. PRATT PFORZHEIMER CURATOR OF EARLY BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS

n May, the Ransom Center acquired two volumes of IAmbrose’s Works in Latin; the edition of this Christian Church Father was published in Basel in 1567. What is been “curiously most compelling about these particular books, however, is bound, the Covers adorn’d with less the Ambrose, as such, and more their story as books. In several guilded Frets (commonly call’d the Harringtons 1616, the widow Anne Harington leveraged land owned Knots) and Ex Dono Dominae Annae Harringtonae Baronessae by her late husband, John, 1st Baron Harington of Exton, Printed and pasted in the Title Pages.” The bindings to establish a fund for the relief of the poor throughout of the Ambrose volumes now at the Ransom Center the county of Rutland, where she lived. At roughly the probably predate the donation and lack the custom same time she did this, she also used her resources to decoration Wright describes, but a printed label proudly establish a small library in the parish church of Oakham. proclaiming Harington’s donation—and her status as Lady According to the antiquary James Wright, who wrote in and Baroness—remains prominent in each volume. Not 1684 that her charity “ought to be better remembered,” only did the philanthropy of Anne Harington provide a she donated around 200 volumes “for the use of the Vicar group of provincial clergy with food for thought, it also of that Church, and accommodation of the Neighbouring occasioned one of the earliest donor labels (or plates) made Clergy.” Wright further indicates that these books had for an English woman. R

10 | Ransom Center magazine CONSERVATION

Ask a Book Conservator OLIVIA PRIMANIS, HEAD OF BOOK LAB

Harry Ransom Center senior book conservator Olivia Primanis addresses some common questions.

How can I best take care of my book—it is a family heirloom? To preserve books, we suggest providing them with the best possible overall climate and environment. Recognizing that keeping a house close to 50% ±5 relative humidity and 70°F ±5 would be difficult for many, particularly our Texas readers, we advise people to keep books in rooms that are naturally cooler. Also, air circulation can mitigate some of the effects of higher humidity and deter mold growth. Keeping books out of direct sunlight—and high light levels in general—reduces deterioration and fading. Good housekeeping can diminish the chance of insect infestations. And, as you might guess, an archival enclosure can protect books from many of these problems.

I have a book that is damaged. Can you tell me if it can be repaired? If a book does need repair, usually a conservator has to handle it in per- son to determine its condition. First, a conservator would examine the text block to see if the paper is flexible or brittle or if there are many tears, losses, or tape repairs. For older books, a conservator would look at the sewing structure to see if it is intact and if the thread is strong or broken. The cover would then be examined. Is the cover detached from the text? Is the cover material—cloth, paper, parchment, or leather—strong or chemically dete- riorated, like leather often is, with “red rot”? Although a damaged book cover might be the most noticeable problem, paper and sewing structures must be serviceable or they need to be repaired before the cover of a book can be reattached.

If you would like to have a book repaired, you can find a private conservator through The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (AIC) at http://www.conservation-us.org/.

hrc.utexas.edu | 11 Orchestrating the Mexican Moment in New York o

Donald Albrecht & Thomas Mellins

12 | Ransom Center magazine Fritz FritzHenle, Henle, Tehuanas, Tehuanas 1936 In the eighteen years since the wild men of Mexican art first bombshelled the gente culta M of the capital with their ideas, behavior, and pictures, their work has become established as the first original and powerful modern art in America.”

So noted Anita Brenner in the December 1, 1940, Many powerbrokers and tastemakers, reaching out issue of the magazine Harper’s. Brenner, an anthro- to an interested public, were drawn to Mexican art pologist and author who grew up and lived in both and culture because of its expression of radical poli- Mexico and the United States and served as a cultural tics and social commitment. Others were compelled ambassador between the nations, went on to assess by post-revolutionary Mexican culture’s embrace of dern exic the impact of modern Mexican modernity and antiquity, o art and culture—the Mexican “high” fine art and “low” tra- Renaissance—on the United ditional craft. These fusions States. Important museums were often seen as welcome and collections had acquired contrasts to the standard- Mexican art, universities ized consumer culture that and other institutions had was significantly reshaping commissioned frescoes by twentieth-century America. Mexican muralists, and every- day Americans had brought Institutions and individuals Mexican art into their homes by from San Francisco to way of prints, reproductions, Los Angeles, Chicago, and “dime-store decorations.” Detroit, and Hanover, New “Like every other considerable Hampshire, played their parts product of Mexico,” Brenner in orchestrating the Mexican asserted, “art has become an Moment between the world export commodity.” wars. While the phenomenon was apparent across the At the same time that United States, however, New Mexican art and craft were York City, as the nation’s commodified by the United cultural mecca, arbiter of States, the Mexican Renaissance Travel poster ca. 1940s. artistic production, and was also recognized as one of strongest link to international the most significant features of twentieth-century art art networks, played an outsized role. There, Mexican the world over. In the United States, America’s own art was widely shown, Mexican artists visited to gente culta (“educated people”) embraced the work. paint and pursue commissions, and observations

, 1936. Gelatin silver print, 33.7 x 27.3 cm. Harry Ransom Center Photography Collection, Purchase, 983:0024:0018 © The Fritz H enle Estate 1909–1993), Tehuanas Fritz Henle (American, b. Germany, 1940, 97.2 x 73.3 cm. Poster for Mexican tourism, published by Asociación Mexicana de Turismo, hrc.utexas.edu | 13 continued

about Mexican art and culture were written, translated, and published.

The publishing firm of Harcourt Brace was the first to produce an English-language book on the Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera, Ernestine Evans’s The Frescoes of Diego Rivera, in 1929, the same year New York publishers brought out Brenner’s cultural study of Mexico, Idols behind Altars, and Metropolis. The latter was a limited-edition work by the Mexican poet Manuel Maples Arce, translated by American novelist John Dos Passos.

The New York–based concern to most prolifically produce books on Mexican art and culture for Americans, however, was Alfred A. Knopf. He and his wife, Blanche, brought out the English language edition of the Mexican artist and educator Adolfo Best-Maugard’s influential Method of Creative Design (1926), which served as an important template for artists in both Mexico and the United States seeking a modern interpretation of traditional Mexican motifs. The Knopfs also published numerous books with the Mexican artist, illustrator, and curator Miguel Covarrubias, who had come to New York in 1923 and became most well-known for his stylish caricatures in glossy magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker. In the realm of literature, the Knopfs published D. H. Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent in 1926; the novel was set during the Mexican Revolution.

Beginning in the 1920s, politically focused journals published in New York were drawn to Mexico, specifically its governmental pursuit of egalitarian ideals. The Survey, a journal of social work and reform, devoted a 1924 issue to the subject. Titled Mexico: A Promise, the issue was a veritable who’s who of contemporary political and cultural figures on both sides of the border between Mexico and the United States. Politically charged drawings by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo and photographs by the Italian- born photographer and political activist Tina Modotti, who had lived and traveled extensively in Mexico, graced the pages—and sometimes the covers—of the radical New Masses.

Four New York art galleries—the eponymous galleries of F. Valentine Dudensing, Erhard Weyhe, and Julien Levy, as well as Alma Reed’s Delphic Studios—played particularly prominent roles in promoting Mexico painting and photography in the United States. In 1938 Valentine, which showed the work of Covarrubias, Rivera, Tamayo, and Carlos Mérida,

14 | Ransom Center magazine / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Mexico, D.F. Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), Untitled [Still life with parrot and fruit], 1951. Oil on canvas, 25.7 x 28.2 cm. © 2017 B anco de México Diego Rivera Museums Trust, Frida Kahlo, Untitled [Still life with parrot and fruit], 1951

hrc.utexas.edu | 15 John D. Rockefeller Sr. commissioned Rivera to create a mural for the lobby of the new Rockefeller Center as a way to attract tenants with cutting-edge art.”

continued

presented the important survey inserted a portrait of Vladimir nationwide. The exhibition was Mexico: 15 Contemporary Artists. Lenin. This provocation sparked curated by René d’Harnoncourt, an Another gallery, Delphic Studios, Rockefeller’s outrage and he had Austrian aristocrat who had been focused on José Clemente Orozco, the mural destroyed—a decision living in Mexico for some years exhibiting his work and printing that provoked protest throughout and was steeped in its culture, a collection of his lithographs. the art world, though ultimately both traditional and avant-garde. The gallery also published a Rivera and the Rockefellers would D’Harnoncourt developed the ex- portfolio of images of Mexico by reconcile. hibition with Dwight Morrow, then the Australian-born American the United States ambassador to photographer Anton Bruehl. For its Two of New York’s leading mu- Mexico, and Homer Saint-Gaudens, part, the Weyhe Gallery, led by Carl seums also played crucial roles in director of the Carnegie Institute’s Zigrosser, expanded the reach of the dissemination and acceptance Department of Fine Arts. Mexican art by collaborating with of modern Mexican art. In 1930 important artists to produce more the Metropolitan Museum of Art Almost from the time of its accessible prints and lithographs. served as the opening venue for founding in 1929, the Museum At the other end of the spectrum, the exhibition Mexican Arts, which of Modern Art (MoMA) actively Julien Levy emphasized the more subsequently traveled to 13 cities promoted Mexican art. The adventurous and experimental museum’s first director, Alfred manifestations of modern Mexi- H. Barr Jr., had a strong interest can art, including hosting Frida in the subject, and under his Kahlo’s first solo exhibition in leadership MoMA purchased the United States in 1938. paintings and works on paper by Mexican moderns, such as One of the most controversial— Rivera, Orozco, and David Alfaro and widely publicized—events Siqueiros. In 1927, two years of the Mexican Moment before taking the helm at MoMA, occurred in New York during Barr had met Rivera in Moscow the early 1930s, when the as members of the international industrialist John D. Rockefeller art world congregated to partake Sr. commissioned Rivera to in preparations for celebrations create a mural for the lobby of marking the Russian Revolution’s the new Rockefeller Center as This essay is tenth anniversary. In 1932, building adapted from Donald a way to attract tenants with Albrecht and Thomas Mellins’s book upon that meeting, MoMA chose cutting-edge art. Work on the Mexico Modern: Art , Commerce, Rivera as the subject of its second mural proceeded until the artist and Cultural Exchange. monographic exhibition; the first

16 | Ransom Center magazine Diego Rivera, [Basket vendors], 1938

had focused on Henri Matisse. Six Colonial, and modern art, to folk that celebrated celebrities, weeks before the Rivera exhibition and popular art, including pottery signaled a sea change from artistic opened, the artist traveled to and masks. experimentation and creative New York as MoMA’s guest, entrepreneurship to blue-chip and working furiously with two Although the exhibition was seen acceptance in the United States. assistants in studio space within by some observers as a highpoint What Brenner could not have the museum itself, produced five of the Mexican Moment, others known in 1940 was the trans- “portable murals”—independent, viewed it as the beginning of an formational impact of a new frescoed units of plaster—on end. One who took the latter view generation of modern artists: the Mexican themes. The culmination was Anita Brenner, who argued American Abstract Expressionists. of the Museum of the Modern that the movement was waning. Their ascendancy turned many of Art’s promotion of Mexican art She charged that its leaders were America’s most adventurous art occurred in 1940 with its landmark stylistically repeating themselves, collectors away from the figura- exhibition Twenty Centuries of that a younger generation tive and narrative-based art that Mexican Art, described in a museum amounted to little more than had flourished in Mexico over the press release as “the largest and epigones targeting the tourist preceding 20 years. The “wild men” most comprehensive exhibition of market, and that other artists had of the early 1920s that Brenner had Mexican art ever assembled.” A left the field altogether. Brenner also described as shocking the Mexican collaboration between the museum pointed out the deflating impact gente culta would be supplanted by and the Mexican government, the of the MoMA show. For her, the a fresh generation of artistic “wild exhibition comprised 5,000 objects, involvement of the museum, which men” eager to express and represent ranging from pre-Columbian, she characterized as an institution their own modern moment. R

Diego Rivera, [Basket vendors], 1938. Watercolor, 27.7 x 38.6 cm. © 2017 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Mexico, D.F. 27.7 x 38.6 cm. © 2017 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Diego Rivera, [Basket vendors], 1938. Watercolor, hrc.utexas.edu | 17 RECENT ACQUISITIONS

The Attempt to Keep Day and Night Together DEAN F. ECHENBERG

The Ransom Center is the new home for the Dean F. Echenberg War Poetry collection, a collection of more than 6,500 volumes of poetry related to experiences of war. The collection was begun in the early 1970s by Dr. Echenberg, a flight surgeon during the Vietnam War who later served as an emergency room staff physician in Detroit, worked in private family practice and served as Director of Disease Control in San Francisco during the first years of the AIDS crisis. The collection joins others at the Ransom Center related to the experience of war, including those of Edmund Blunden, Siegfried Sassoon, Norman Mailer, and Tim O’Brien.

From my earliest years, I have always been a collector, whether it was collecting stamps with my father, butterflies and bugs, or my coin collection.

In the early days I enjoyed going to bookstores and scouting out obscure war poetry books that no one else seemed to want. I began to realize that there are no national limits in war poetry. Poetry of war is a constant genre in all countries of the world and is produced during all conflicts from the earliest times to the present. It wasn’t long before I decided that I wanted to collect the subject comprehensively.

But this collection actually started in Vietnam, where I served as the base Disaster Control Medical Officer, the Base Psychiatrist, and also as Flight Surgeon for a top secret squadron of fighter pilots of Super Sabre F-100F fighter jets, call sign MISTY, who flew forward air control over North Vietnam with a high loss rate. It was an intense experience. One day I happened upon Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s book of

Photos from Echenberg’s time in Vietnam. Top and bottom: Echenberg, in flight suit, practicing in the MISTY’s F-100 Super Sabre. Middle: At an off-base civilian clinic his squadron established.

18 | Ransom Center magazine poetry published in English in 1966, Bratsk Station and Other New Poems. In the last poem in the book, “Colosseum,” Yevtushenko talks about gladiators in the arena and how they felt about the spectators watching them battle from the stands and cheering on their blood sport: you wanted me, for no cause at all, to die a beautiful death in the arena, but no one dies beautifully. … You howling furies and urgers, screaming from your safe seats that we should not be cowards that we should push against the sword, beautifully…

This had a great deal of resonance, and stayed with me after my war years.

Whenever someone has an extreme experience, something out of the ordinary, all of their senses are impacted. It is often only afterward that they feel the need to express these emotions, to communicate them, and to find commonality with others.

I think T. S. Eliot said it best:

In the effort to keep day and night together. It seems just possible that a poem might happen To a very young man: but a poem is not poetry – That is a life. R

Echenberg at home with his collection. Photo by Jim Kuhn hrc.utexas.edu | 19 RESEARCH A Glutton for Books VICTORIA LIVINGSTONE, FELLOW Harriet de Onís was one of the most influential translators of Latin American literature and foresaw its mid-century boom.

Born Harriet Wishnieff, she grew up the first truly prolific translator of in Sheldon, Illinois, and moved to Spanish and Portuguese into English, New York to study foreign languages de Onís helped establish the canon of at Barnard College, graduating in translated Latin American literature 1916. After working for a time as a in the U.S. For a number of the works n December of 1948, The New York secretary for dancer Isadora Duncan, she translated, including The Eagle Times ran an article on translator she decided to pursue graduate work and the Serpent, she also acted as an IHarriet de Onís titled “Mrs. in Spanish at Columbia University. editor and abridged texts to conform de Onís puts Latins’ Lore in Book, but She then managed the Spanish to Knopf’s specifications. In addition, Their Cuisine Goes Into Her Kitchen.” department at Doubleday, Page & she promoted some writers so ef- The article began by briefly mention- Co. and edited an anthology titled fectively that one of them, Colombian ing The Golden Land: An Anthology of Today’s Best Stories From All The World author Germán Arciniegas, asked her Latin American Folklore in Literature, (1922), a volume associated with to represent him as a sort of unofficial edited by de Onís and published by her work as editor at World Fiction literary agent (she declined, though Alfred A. Knopf just two months magazine. While at Columbia, Harriet she maintained a close relationship earlier, but then went on to reduce met Federico de Onís, a professor with him). De Onís translated books her accomplishments to domestic from Spain who had founded by Alejo Carpentier, Ernesto Sabato, work. The journalist described what Columbia’s Instituto de las Españas, Ricardo Güiraldes, Jorge Amado, the translator cooked for her husband later renamed the Hispanic Institute. Alfonso Reyes, Fernando Ortiz, João Federico de Onís, a renowned scholar The couple married in 1924. Through Guimarães Rosa, Gilberto Freyre, of Hispanic literature, and quoted Federico and the Hispanic Institute, and other Latin American authors. Carl Ackerman, then the dean of the translator met most of the leading The majority of her translations were Columbia’s School of Journalism, Latin American authors of the time. published by Alfred A. Knopf. who said that an “apple pie lesson” These contacts certainly boosted her that de Onís gave in Venezuela career, but she was an influential De Onís maintained regular cor- “would do more to cement relations figure in her own right. respondence with Alfred and Blanche between North and South America Knopf, editors such as Herbert than all her literature lectures.” Yet De Onís’s first book translation was Weinstock, and many of the writers Harriet de Onís was one of the most an abridged edition of Martin Luis whose work she translated. These influential translators of Latin Guzman’s El águila y la serpiente, a letters, which are archived in the American literature during the semi-fictional memoir of the Mexican Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. collection at mid-twentieth century. In addition Revolution translated as The Eagle the Ransom Center, offer insight into to translating approximately 40 and the Serpent. The translation was the ways in which her choices as a books from Spanish and Brazilian published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1930, translator were shaped by her biog- Portuguese to English, she edited two a time of increased U.S. interest in raphy, political contexts, and market anthologies, mentored other transla- Latin America. Before the beginning forces. Her Golden Land anthology, tors, wrote reviews, gave lectures, of the twentieth century, there was for instance, was published during and acted as an editorial advisor for very little Latin American prose a time when Good Neighbor policy Alfred A. Knopf. available in English translation. As sentiment still lingered, and the book

20 | Ransom Center magazine Alfred A. Knopf (American, 1892–1984), Harriet de Onis and [João] Guimarães Rosa, 1966. Gelatin silver print, 12.8 x 8.8 cm. literary files, 6.76. was marketed and reviewed accord- Her reports on the books she received by Alexis de Tocqueville, H. L. Mencken, ingly. Later, she recommended the often determined whether or not Albert Camus, and André Gide. publication of books that examined Knopf would publish an English However, even if she had consistently themes relevant to McCarthyism translation of the work. A self- requested financial compensation for and the Cuban Revolution. She also described “glutton for books,” de Onís her work as a reader, her fees would seemed to foresee the Latin American read, for Knopf and for pleasure, at an have been low. A 1964 agreement with Boom, the publishing phenomenon incredible pace. In July of 1967, late in Knopf shows that they paid her $500 that saw writers such as Gabriel García her career and just two years before a year to read, evaluate, and report Márquez rise to international promi- her death, she told Bill Koshland at on books in Spanish, Portuguese, and nence. In 1956, she wrote to Blanche Knopf, “I have read about eight books Italian. Translation fees were similarly Knopf saying, “As Charles Poore once in the last three weeks.” At the time low. For her translation of Fernando said to me, whenever we run into in- she wrote that letter, she was coping Ortiz’s Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and ternational difficulties we start loving with her husband’s death, managing Sugar, published by Knopf in 1947, Latin America again, and I think such his estate, taking care of her sick she was paid a total of $725 for nearly a moment has come in view of the mother, and translating Brazilian 105,000 words, less than a penny per Russian overtures in those areas. There writer Jorge Amado’s Dona Flor word. De Onís could afford to devote will probably be a big upswing of at and Her Two Husbands: A Moral and herself fully to a low-paying career. least official interest.” Amorous Tale. At home, she had domestic help and never worried about paying the rent. The correspondence in the Knopf Despite the constant flow of books Yet the privilege she enjoyed does not collection also reveals that de Onís’s awaiting her assessments, de Onís discount the fact that she was a hard- influence extended beyond her work often requested that Knopf pay her working, dedicated translator. as a translator. At a time when Knopf reading fees in literature. Instead had few editors who could read of money, she requested other titles Spanish and even fewer who knew published by Knopf, including works Portuguese, the publishing house relied heavily on de Onís to evaluate Hispanic and Brazilian texts.

hrc.utexas.edu | 21 continued

In 1962, she wrote to Alfred Knopf (later translated as Gabriela, Clove and work presented, de Onís felt that it saying that she never needed the Cinnamon). After evaluating the book, was important to introduce his books money she earned as a translator, but de Onís told Alfred Knopf that the to English-speaking readers. In 1966, was “intensely interested in help- publishing house “ought to proceed she translated the author’s collection ing to bring to the attention of the to nail down [Gabriela] before some- of short stories, Sagarana, its title a American public the work of Latin one else snaps it up… It is absolutely neologism that remained unchanged American authors.” Brazilian and at the same time univer- in the translation. sal.” Knopf followed her advice and De Onís had a good sense of books secured translation rights quickly. In For her rendering of Sagarana, de that deserved to be translated. In 1962, Knopf wrote to de Onís saying, Onís received the 1967 PEN transla- addition to reporting on books Knopf “I purr with pride every time I see tion prize. In her acceptance speech, sent her, she pitched authors to them, Gabriela move up a notch on the best- she emphasized the importance of though not always successfully. In seller list. You were right about this translation: “[I]t is not my intention to 1952, she sent her editors a volume one breaking the sound barrier.” paint us translators as altruistic souls of stories by Jorge Luis Borges, ac- whose objective or incentive is merely companied by a letter in which she At her urging, Knopf also published to share with others or bring to their called his work “superb.” She con- translations of work by Brazilian knowledge works of which they tinued, “I am sure there is no more writer João Guimarães Rosa. Al- would otherwise remain ignorant. I finished writer, or one who knows though she understood the challenges know of nothing that so enriches the his craft better in Latin America than of translating the work of an author spirit and the awareness of one’s own Borges.” Editor Herbert Weinstock often compared to James Joyce for his culture as acquaintance with others.” responded saying, “There is no doubt difficult syntax and use of invented, De Onís’s apple pie lessons may have that the stories of Jorge Luis Borges regional, and archaic vocabulary, contributed to mutual understanding, are remarkable. There is every doubt, de Onís persuaded Knopf to publish but her literary contributions were however, that a book of them in trans- an English translation of the author’s far more significant and her influence lation could be sold to the American masterpiece, Grande Sertão: Veredas, extended well beyond the kitchen. public. I cannot urge such a book on which de Onís co-translated (with Alfred and Blanche in view of the James L. Taylor) as The Devil to Pay Victoria Livingstone is a Visiting uniformly bad sale of Latin American in the Backlands in 1963. De Onís and Assistant Professor at Moravian fiction here.” In many cases, however, Knopf did not expect the book to College and an assistant editor at the editors at Knopf followed her ad- circulate widely, and in fact it was a Asymptote. Her research was supported vice. In 1960, they asked her to report commercial failure in the U.S. Despite by an Alfred A. and Blanche W. Knopf on Amado’s Gabriela, Cravo e Canela the difficulties Guimarães Rosa’s Fellowship from the Ransom Center.

68,498 total visitors researchers NOTES from49 Last year at fellowships states and the Harry awarded Ransom Center 70 $1,365,427 24 in funds raised countries

22 | Ransom Center magazine A Family Affair KATE O’TOOLE

Peter and Kate O’Toole

t was through a friend in London, Griffith can be credited with rectifying For proper context and for Professor Eva Griffith, that I first that situation. Having established his sentimental reasons it was always Ireceived unimpeachable bona final resting place, they had a simple, important for me to try to preserve fides for the Harry Ransom Center. modest floor plaque made to mark the my father’s collection in its entirety; Some years ago, Eva had received correct spot. the Ransom Center is one of the very a fellowship from the Ransom few places with the capability to do Center to do research relating to the I always had a father who belonged just that. I couldn’t have wished for a seventeenth-century playwright not just to his own family but also better outcome. James Shirley. to the entire cinema-going and theatre-loving world. In addition, and As they say at weddings, “You As well as being a highly regarded perhaps above all else, he belonged to mustn’t think of it as losing a theatre historian, Eva is the daughter a great family of actors. Peter O’Toole daughter; think of it as gaining a of one of my father’s closest friends, was nothing if not an actor’s actor. son-in-law.” In marrying the O’Toole the actor and filmmaker Kenneth He openly adored performers from collection to the Ransom Center, Griffith. all fields of entertainment because I feel secure that I’m not merely he felt so intrinsically connected to letting go of personal memorabilia. A friendship that lasted a lifetime, them; it’s just the way he was made. I’m hoping this material will deepen their many escapades together include Acting formed part of his DNA. our collective understanding of the the time they decided to make it their Like a thoroughbred racehorse at dramatic arts and thereby enrich an business to establish the whereabouts the starting gate, his nostrils would important cultural legacy. of the grave belonging to the great twitch with enthusiasm whenever he Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean. approached a stage door, a dressing The Ransom Center acquired the archive They knew there’d been a nondescript room, or a film set. He loved actors of British-Irish theatre and film actor plaque on the outside wall of what of any class, any shape or size—and Peter O’Toole (1932–2013) in April. was in fact the wrong church in the they loved him back. Together they The extensive archive contains theatre wrong parish, somewhere in Surrey, form a unique tribe that is ever fixed and film scripts along with O’Toole’s but until Kenneth made a film about and ever changing, reaching back writings, correspondence, and Kean, incredible as it seems, no one to Henry Irving, Joseph Grimaldi, photographs. It will be available for really knew where the greatest actor Edmund Kean—and that continues research once processed and cataloged. in British theatrical history had on to include those talents yet to actually been buried. O’Toole and be born.

hrc.utexas.edu | 23 M Y A R S T M R A O N Y G B

D E 8 A 2 D 0 LI E: 2 N WHAT’S ON IT? In just 11 years, the Harry Ransom Center could From a label on a reel-to-reel tape belonging to film director Nicholas reach the point of no return. Ray: “Good sounds of feet in mud.” • Gabriel García Márquez’s Nobel By 2028, we may lose many Prize speech. From Gerald Malanga, poet, artist, analog audiovisual recordings • Novelist Denis Johnson’s and Andy Warhol-collaborator: as formats go out of use and appearance on KCRW’s Bookworm “Drug party.” broadcast. materials degrade. More are • Music that photographer David What do we do with such at risk each year. Douglas Duncan listened to while descriptions? Recordings are working. cataloged, but descriptions are often taken verbatim—and only—from WHAT’S AT STAKE? Many public and private groups want their labels. They can be misleading, • Norman Mailer’s edits to his to save the nation’s unique audio incomplete, inaccurate, and vague—if novel The Executioner’s Song that culture. A recent National Endowment they exist at all. he dictated and sent to his secretary for the Humanities grant let us assess to transcribe. the condition and research value of We can’t truly know the content • New York Times critic Mel Gussow’s our sound recordings. until we actually play and hear the numerous interviews for his column. recording. • Story sessions between screenwriter We examined all 7,568 non- Ernest Lehman and director Alfred commercial recordings. Formats range But aging sound recordings are Hitchcock. from wax cylinders to compact discs. fragile. We shouldn’t play them

24 | Ransom Center magazine COLLECTIONS In the countdown to preserve audio materials before they are lost to oblivion, time is not on our side.

on historical equipment until audio the collections. We assigned a priorities preservation staff are ready to list to our audio materials based on the QUALITY of our digitize them. risk of the physical material and the SOUND RECORDINGS research value, which can help in our We may get only one shot at race against time. playing any recording—during its preservation. WHAT NOW? 24% Researchers across disciplines make WHY DOES IT MATTER? wide and varied use of our sound It’s particularly challenging to recordings. FAIR condition + determine intellectual value for sound PERTINENT recordings. It’s a subjective process and Recently, a serialized podcast called research value requires enough information to make an Stranglers used the digitized Gerold educated judgment. Frank interviews about the “Boston Strangler.” Sadly, some segments Our recordings fall into two groups: weren’t clear, and the producers had 54% those integral to the creative process to supplement with actors. The impact and those that document some aspect of of not having the original speaker was the creator’s life and work. obvious. FAIR condition + HIGH/UNIQUE Considering both the content and the Time is not on our side. research value physical carrier raised critical questions: • Why did the creator use a particular But projects like this one help us to format? prioritize and plan for preservation 8% • What indications of past use and activities that broaden access to wear carry valuable information? collections that might otherwise • How should we evaluate dubs and fall silent. copies against unique or variant POOR condition + HIGH/UNIQUE versions? Amy Armstrong is the Ransom Center’s research value Manager for Archives Cataloging, After much thought and testing we Description and Access. created a tool allowing staff to survey

The Center holds vintage audio formats such as wire recordings, wax cylinders, and reel- to-reel tape.

hrc.utexas.edu | 25 Magic Moments NELL McKEOWN

A young Shakespeare scholar inspired by the Ransom Center wants to spark others’ sense of wonder.

Five years ago, I was a high school student from Virginia visiting The University of Texas at Austin, trying to decide where I would attend college.

I had the privilege of visiting the Ransom Center. In the Reading Room I viewed three copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio. As a passionate Shakespeare lover since the age of seven, getting up close with these vitally important tomes almost moved me to tears. I was blown away that students could do research with such a rich collection. The Ransom Center sealed the deal for me. Without it, I may not have chosen to come to this university.

My classes were enriched by visits to look at materials relating to our studies. Research papers benefitted from getting my hands on materials in the Reading Room. My capstone thesis and the play that I adapted to accompany it were influenced by my work with the same folios that first inspired me to attend college here.

Seeing these materials up close provides a richness of information and detail as well as a sense of touching history.

I’ve just started at King’s College London to pursue a master’s degree in Shakespeare Studies. It’s a great program in the heart of London that partners with Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. I hope to use what I’ve learned at Texas and the Ransom Center to devote my career to the study, sharing, and teaching of Shakespeare.

26 | Ransom Center magazine RESEARCH Lone Star Melody Makers KENDRA PRESTON LEONARD, FELLOW

In the silent film era, live musicians were crafting hits that directly shaped the audience experience at Texas picture palaces.

What did Texas moviegoers hear presence of a female accompanist when they went “to the pictures” in indicated that a cinema was intent on the 1910s and 1920s? At every theater being an artistic and moral institu- combining pieces she already knew or cinema, a piano or organ accompa- tion. This was especially important as well with new works written as nist or the musical director of a cin- the film industry worked to establish characteristic or descriptive pieces for ema ensemble of 3 to 30 players was itself as a legitimate business produc- cinema or stage accompaniment. responsible for selecting the music ing respectable and creative works. that would accompany each picture. One particularly useful example for The largest motion picture palaces Hazel Burnett performed for both understanding Burnett’s practices had equally large music libraries. cinema and live theater as an organ- is her compiled score for the 1920 But there’s very little known about ist and pianist in Texas’s biggest Paramount movie Humoresque, a exactly how and when these pieces theaters. After an early career in Ohio, classic melodrama about a young were used. she moved south. The Josephine Jewish violinist. Hugo Riesenfeld, the Burnett Collection—named for the conductor of several large New York Two collections at the Ransom Center granddaughter who donated Hazel’s moving picture palace orchestras and turn the volume up on this history. music to the Ransom Center—tells a prolific composer for film, created us the fascinating story of one of the an original score for Humoresque for WOMEN SCORE most successful professional cinema its premiere. But Burnett, drawing Many cinema musicians were musicians in Texas. on her own music library, compiled a women. Considered a respectable different score for the movie. job, playing for the pictures was Burnett’s music library and notes compared positively with secretarial indicate that she created many of her She used Antonín Dvořák’s work, teaching, and nursing. The scores for accompanying films by “Humoresque” and Max Bruch’s

The Palace Theatre marquee and sign for the Majestic Theatre on “Theatre Row,” Dallas, Texas, ca. 1927. Interstate Theater Collection Dallas, Texas, The Palace Theatre marquee and sign for the Majestic on “Theatre Row,” hrc.utexas.edu | 27 High Notes “Kol Nidre” to provide repeated ★ J. S. Zamecnik’s “Accusation (Dramatic Scene)” was repeatedly used for and recognizable themes for the and likely came to represent Western scenes or chases. picture, and accompanied the rest of ★ the movie with pieces drawn from Henri Wieniawski’s “Adagio Elegaique” was categorized as for use in scor- The Etude and Melody magazines. ing “Impressive Homage[s]” as well as to signify a man of means rather These magazines catered to cinema than the more funereal or melancholy scenes for which the publication accompanists and published was designated. numerous short generic or character ★ Earnest S. Golden’s 1919 piece “Constance: Theme and Romance” was pieces in each issue. Burnett cut frequently used for both happy and sad cues. out pieces from the magazine and attached them to other pieces, Austin and the Queen Theater and of composers. The film set off a tango handwritten cue sheets, or notes the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio, craze across the United States. The indicating their place in a film score. where Burnett played. The Hoblitzelle Majestic advertised the primary Women frequently published in Interstate Theatre Circuit collection pieces of music from the score in its the magazine, and Burnett clipped is home to more than 27,000 pieces of programs to inform patrons that they hundreds of their pieces. sheet music that were played during could purchase them from stands of both live acts and motion pictures at sheet music in the lobby. For many numerous Texas theaters. of these pieces, the Ransom Center holds one of only a handful of copies Much of the music in the Hoblitzelle still in existence. collection is from Dallas’s Palace Theatre and Majestic Theatre and Much of the repertoire of the theaters Houston’s Isis Theatre. Dallas’s is dance music—the boxes are full Palace was heavily invested in music: of fox trots, one-steps, two-steps, it had an elevator orchestra pit and a and waltzes. These could have been top-of-the-line Wurlitzer organ. played for public dances, vaudeville Hazel Burnett,1927 acts, or films. The fact that these Hundreds of pieces have markings pieces were used extensively at the In this male-dominated field, Burnett that indicate that they were used as Hoblitzelle’s Texas theaters indicates scored films with pieces written by film cues or to accompany live acts. that audiences would have seen a Amanda Aldridge, Carrie Jacobs While it’s almost impossible to con- considerable number of films accom- Bond, Esther Gronow, Mae Davis, and nect any particular piece with an in- panied by characteristic or dance music, rather than the newly-composed others. Audiences in Ohio and Texas dividual film or act, data from the col- music for film that we find in similar who experienced Burnett’s cinematic lection offers hints at these theaters’ collections on the East Coast. arrangements would have heard her musical practices and aesthetics. original musical scores of Hollywood films with music by women, some- This collection tells of a case similar These theaters created and fostered thing previously undocumented in to that of Hazel Burnett’s score for unique musical cultures in both silent film performance. Humoresque. The 1921 film The Four vaudeville and film. Texas became a Horsemen of the Apocalypse, based place where cinema musicians could TEXAS PICTURE PALACES on the novel of the same name by make their names while entertaining In 1905, brothers Karl and George Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, played at the thousands of movie-goers. Hoblitzelle began building a theater Fort Worth Majestic. Set partially empire that eventually included in Argentina and starring Rudolph Kendra Preston Leonard is Executive more than 150 theaters offering live Valentino, its score was compiled by Director at The Silent Film Sound vaudeville shows and movies. These Louis F. Gottschalk using both pre- & Music Archive. Her research was included the Majestic Theatre (later existing pieces and works composed supported by a Robert De Niro Fellowship renamed the Paramount Theatre) in specifically for the film by a variety from the Ransom Center.

28 | Ransom Center magazine THE ARCHIVIST’S ARCHIVE

In the Beginning STEVE MIELKE, RANSOM CENTER ARCHIVIST & COLLECTIONS LIBRARIAN

2017 marks several notable anniversaries in the history of the Harry Ransom Center, the most significant of which is the founding of the Humanities Research Center 60 years ago.

Starting in the late 1940s, English professor the Humanities Research Center. and then dean of the College of Arts and The Rare Book Collection and Humanities Harry H. Ransom worked to other rooms in the Main Building expand the Rare Book Collection and develop provided space and staff, but as his vision of a research center. In his 1956 described in 1958 by Ransom’s speech to the Philosophical Society of Texas, executive assistant Frances H. he described it as “the Bibliothèque Nationale Hudspeth, “The Humanities Research of the only state that started out as an ‘Center’ refers to an area in the library independent nation.” development at the University of Texas and does not have an independent In September 1957, Ransom was appointed academic entity.” vice president and provost and simultaneously became director of the Rare Book Collection. Hudspeth’s handwritten ledgers, now part Earlier that year, Yale’s acquisition of the of the Ransom Center’s own archive, track renowned Thomas Streeter Collection of Texas the first years of the Center’s growth with History sparked outrage at the University entries for purchases from account 25916. of Texas. Ransom’s vision gained steam, The three earliest entries date to October and he seized an opportunity. He arranged 2, 1957: a collection of English artist Henry the transfer of $25,000 to a meagerly funded Tonks was negotiated for and delivered library acquisition account—number 25916— before the account was funded, arriving in creating the Humanities Research Center. August 1957; similarly, Christopher Morley manuscripts arrived in August; the third entry This account funded the newly formed for October 2, a David Hume letter acquired Center’s first acquisitions, including art, from Goodspeed Book Shop, arrived that photography, literary manuscripts and October, and is arguably the first acquisition correspondence. In these early days, the negotiated for and acquired under the materials purchased from this account were authority of the Center.

hrc.utexas.edu | 29 The University of Texas at Austin Non-Profit Org. Harry Ransom Center U.S. Postage P. O. Drawer 7219 PAID Austin, TX 78713-7219 Austin, Texas Permit No. 391 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED Unidentified artist, cover of “Morelia Patzcuaro Uruapan” tourism brochure published by Asociacion Mexicana de Norman Bel Geddes Theatrical and Industrial Design Papers, 962.13-14. 1936-1946. Harry Ransom Center, Tourismo,