Lives Like Loaded Guns_ Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds - Lyndall Gordon [243]
370 Montague’s appearance: Photographs in the Houghton Library and in the NYPL.
370 $5 million: New York Times obituary (Feb 1961).
370 boyhood ties: Edwin De T. Bechtel echoes Montague’s boast in letter to him (31 May 1950). NYPL: Montague Papers, box 2.
371 Cadogans: Sir Alexander and Lady Cadogan were house guests in 1946.
371 Montague invited MTB to dine; ‘a-quiver’; ‘Your understanding . . .’: NYPL: Montague Papers, box 1: Bingham correspondence.
371 Archibald MacLeish and Robert Penn Warren: MTB also mentions other emissaries from the Library of Congress, Verner Clapp and David Mearns.
371 McCarthy as MDB’s ‘slave’: McCarthy’s correspondence with MDB. Houghton: bMS Am 1118.97-1118.98 (123).
372 ‘charm . . .’ of MDB: McCarthy to ALH (2 Apr 1946). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
372 ‘The Evergreens never . . .’: (20 Aug 1947). Ibid.
372 ‘thief ’ etc: To McCarthy (12 Sept 1947). Ibid.
373 ‘a person convicted . . .’: To McCarthy (6 Dec 1947). Ibid.
373 a picture . . .: McCarthy to ALH (5 Dec 1947 and 27 Apr 1948). Hay Library: Correspondence, box 4, f.14. MH to Montague (22 June 1950). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
373 ‘fabulous’; ‘I know . . .’: (5 Dec 1947 and 27 Apr 1948). Hay Library: box 4, f.14.
373 ‘Emily’ in ALH’s suitcase: ALH to McCarthy (6 Sept 1948). Houghton: bMS Am 1923 (2).
374 Mary attracted to ALH in 1931: To Montague (11 Dec 1958). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
374 ‘staggering wealth’: Hampsons’ letters to McCarthy in Apr 1848, particularly ALH’s letter of 22 Apr and Mary’s preceding letter. Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
374 $40,000: McCarthy to the Hampsons (Sept 1948). Hay Library.
374 ‘to care for Emily’: Ibid.
374 McCarthy’s explorations: To Hampsons (14 Sept 1949). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
374 pushes papers towards the bed: McCarthy to MH (20 Sept 1949). Houghton: bMS Am 1923. ALH alerted her to the ceiling.
375 McCarthy’s find of missing letters of Dickinson parents: McCarthy to ALH (31 Oct 1949). Houghton. Noted by Leslie A. Morris in Foreword to ED’s Herbarium.
375 letters from Lavinia Norcross: McCarthy to MH (20 Sept 1949). Houghton. He had found the letters the previous night.
375 ‘long night hours’: (26 Aug 1949). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
375 ‘This is something . . .’; ‘crazy’: McCarthy to the Hampsons (Sept 1948). Hay Library.
376 crystal tears: Sent in Nov 1947, possibly as a wedding present. Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
376 ‘no way you could get more’: (4 Jan 1949). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
376 Dumbarton Oaks: In Georgetown. At the time of the sale a different representative of the Rosenbach Company was in correspondence with Mrs Bliss; McCarthy made his offers to her later, between 1951 and 1953: almost all his offers were rare books, mostly on gardens and garden design. What negotiation existed during the winter of 1949-50 must have been oral and casual. In her Foreword to ED’s Herbarium, Leslie A. Morris mentions a call in early Feb 1950 from the Director of Dumbarton Oaks, John Thacher, to William Jackson, rejecting the Dickinson collection and suggesting that Jackson take over.
376 McCarthy seeking donors of immense fortune: Suggested by David Redden in conversation at Sotheby’s, New York (18 Sept 2009).
376 no books by ED: Checked by James Carder, the present curator. Afterwards, Mildred Bliss did contribute toward the ED Room at the Houghton Library.
376 24 Feb 1950: McCarthy correspondence. Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
376 McCarthy did not tell: A letter from ALH to Montague (1 June 1950) shows that he had been in the dark until the day before when the sale was announced to the public. NYPL: Montague Papers, box 2: Correspondence regarding Dickinson.
377 $50,000: Leslie A. Morris of the Houghton Library, in conversation (4 Sept 2009). In trying to estimate the value of this sum paid in 1950, it may be worth noting, for comparison, that in 1946 Sotheby’s in London sold thirty-four manuscripts for £50,000 and 673 illuminated manuscripts for £100,000. A collector in the early