Ariana Robey-Lawrence
Working With Manuscripts
4 October 2011
Identification
My initial review of Elizabeth Telling’s manuscript illustrated an image of
her prolific and highly acclaimed career as an illustrator and printmaker that
carried Telling from her hometown in Connecticut to a number of metropolitan
cities in the US during the early 1900s. As a graduate of Smith College, her roots
lie in New England, and she established herself as an artist by illustrating
commissioned portraits of children from Chicago and New York. Her work is
featured in a series of New York Galleries in the 20s, and in 1934 Elizabeth
makes her journey to Guatemala. While I did not find the early work itself to be
particularly striking, I am intrigued by her shifted her focus from children’s
portraiture to multi-ethnic portraiture, and curious to discover when and how that
manifested in Telling’s lifetime. A late newspaper article discusses international
excursions during which she “discovered her great ability to portray accurately
races other than white” however there is neither discussion of purpose nor
circumstances of her travel. In my mind, it seems that her prestigious credentials,
artistic talent, and reputation were tools that (in part) led her to this chance of a
lifetime, but it is not yet fully revealed how these expeditions of hers came into
existence. Telling’s unique experiences as a world-traveling independent female
artist in the early 20th century are what compel me to explore her story further—If
I l were to live a life in of the past, I’d certainly want to imagine myself in her
shoes or following an equally adventurous and creative life path. Telling has
typed the bulk of her material, but a host of handwritten correspondences,
photographs, programs and brochures, newspaper clippings, and even old
literary journals comprise the material in her file.
Elizabeth also made various notes on each of the countries she visited
during all of her excursions: her encounters with locals, the search for portrait
models, day trips and brief tours, living conditions and the like. In the notes about
her early journeys, she addresses these elements of her lifestyle in a somewhat
scientific fashion—included are specific locales, dates, and other factually- based
information about Java, Bali, and Thailand (which was part of China at the time).
Apart from these typed documents is a series of handwritten notes entitled
“Abend Akt”, which she offers to readers as “story, play, monologue, or poem”.
From what I can glean at this point, this narrative was composed during the time
she spent participating in a drawing class in Munich. At this point it is not entirely
clear whether the travel records precede the Abend Akt manuscript or vice versa.
Nevertheless, her positioning of that text as a narrative work establishes
Elizabeth’s founding interest in such form. I think this stylistic transformation
could be somehow linked to her transition into a ‘story- telling’ manner of writing,
and perhaps ultimately, to the creation of manuscript about Guatemala.
Coming to the manuscript, there is an array of materials that concern with
its production, revision, and publication. Ironically enough, a clear title of the work
has yet to emerge. What is most confusing, and most mysterious about the
manuscript to me, are the multiple versions that are present in Elizabeth’s
records, let alone the many drafts of the text scattered throughout the box that
contains her files. Oddly enough, each written manuscript on Guatemala begins
somewhat similarly, but there are slight deviations in style and structure that are
noticeable within the first few pages. Evidently each one is another drafted version,
but which is the “final’” is a bit hard to tell. In a correspondence to a woman
named Miss Joseph, Telling has sent the “final” manuscript, however it remains
in very poor physical condition-- the pages of this version have turned brown and
are beginning to flake apart. While this begs the question of which manuscript is,
in actuality, the “final” manuscript or whether one version is simply a personal
copy, it might be relevant to point out that the “final” version sent to Miss Joseph
is rife with pencil edits and corrections.
Significantly fewer revisions were made in pencil on the newer version and
the pages are only yellowing, but it is missing the table of contents, an outline,
and pencil sketches of the book jacket and cover illustration present in the “final”
manuscript. I believe that these documents will be instrumental in providing
insight into Telling’s perception of the scope, purpose, and layout of her piece—
she modifies the outline title with the statement: “written by Elizabeth Telling
about her journey to portray the Indians of the country”. The table of contents is
broken up into sections such as “Climate and Customs”, “An Indian home”,
“Being a tourist for the day”, and so on. Such descriptions invite the notion that
Telling’s manuscript is perhaps not just one that addresses the arc of her artistic
endeavor, but also seeks to provide some sort of ethnographic background or
information on the subjects that she sought to portray.
As my investigation continues, I expect many of these queries to be
answered, particularly by Elizabeth’s letters. A series of letters to various
publishing houses all after 1934 indicate that Telling had quite a difficult time
trying to find a publisher for her novel. There are letters from a ‘Bianca’ at the
Carnegie Library, who offers a list of publishers for her to propose her manuscript
to, and the mysterious Miss Joseph is revealed to also be somehow involved in
the publishing business. Bianca writes: “but my feeling is that if Miss Joseph
does not produce results very soon I should get the manuscript into my own
hands and try to place it.” This letter was written to telling after her return from
Guatemala, and after the manuscript was completed.
What captivates me about Telling’s story is not just her progressive
lifestyle through which she visually uncovers parts of the unknown world, but her
method of exploration: through this ethnic portraiture, Elizabeth develops a
strong interest the anthropology of the native peoples. Her approach brings
success and misfortune she experiences through her attempt to join these two
interests in the literary form of a manuscript, which fascinates me simply in
relation to my own study of literature, film, art and art history. Reflected within
realm of my own creative capacity, Elizabeth’s goal as young artist attempting to
create an interdisciplinary body of work doesn’t appear so different than what my
own future goals are. To read an account of how another female artist sought to
achieve this (and her journey through it) proves nothing short of extraordinary.