Lives Like Loaded Guns_ Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds - Lyndall Gordon [244]
377 ‘in excess of $100,000’: (18 July 1950). Houghton office: Montague files.
377 Montague’s 1953 estimate of the market value of ED’s papers: Boston dinner of the Massachusetts Historical Society under the auspices of the Club of Odd Volumes (to which both men belonged) on 13 Oct 1953, recorded in Jackson’s memorandum on 14 Oct. Houghton office: Montague files. (The memorandum is unsigned but one of the three copies is initialled ‘W.A.J.’.) Jackson does not record his own opinion.
378 experts: David Redden, head of manuscript sales at Sotheby’s, New York, considers $50,000 a good sum at the time, comparable to ‘millions’ in today’s terms.
379 ‘war of nerves . . .’; ‘disgust’: Montague to Jackson (17 Apr 1950). Houghton office: Montague files.
379 ‘corny’: Montague to Jackson (17 Apr 1950), op. cit.
379 ALH’s haemorrhage: Jackson to Montague (3 May 1950). Houghton office: Montague files.
379 ‘safely’: Letter to Montague. Houghton office: Montague files.
379 ALH did not know name of donor: Congratulatory letter to Montague (1 June 1950) indicates that the announcement on 31 May had revealed this to him. NYPL: Montague Papers, box 2.
379 31 May: MTB taped interview (1964). Yale: Historical Sound Recordings.
380 General Eisenhower to Montague: List of correspondents (1 June 1950). NYPL: Montague Papers, box 2, Correspondence regarding ED.
380 Morrow to Montague: Ibid.
380 mother’s shame: Jackson’s note to himself (5 Feb 1952, following a telephone discussion with Montague) that he should not allow Montague to pressure the Library ‘to expose to the world the mystery of events leading to [Mrs Bingham’s] acquisition of the papers’. Houghton office: Montague files.
381 MTB’s ‘relief . . .’; ‘greatest treasure . . .’: (31 May 1950). Cited by Leslie A. Morris in Foreword to ED’s Herbarium. Houghton office: Montague files.
381 MTB accepted Montague’s invitation: (11 July 1950). NYPL: Montague Papers, box 2.
381 ‘neither . . .’: Quoted by Leslie A. Morris, Foreword to ED’s Herbarium.
382 MTB’s legend: Quotations from AB, 93, 218, 219; Home, 409.
382 SHD’s ‘lush personality’: AB, 219.
382 ‘Emily grieved’: Ibid.
382 ‘I lost her’: ‘Now I knew I lost her’ (c. 1872). J1219/Fr1274. Not addressed or signed. If this poem is autobiographical, there are other candidates for loss: Mrs Holland (whom ED reproached for not writing after her move to New York in 1870), or Kate Turner Anthon whose friendship with ED ended after she remarried.
382 LD as old witch: AB, ch. 1: ‘Dramatis Personae’, 14.
382 passive: Revelation, 60.
382 ‘became the focus . . .’: MTB, ‘1951’. Yale: box 47, f.14.
383 ‘a positive . . . withdrawal’: Revelation, 3.
383 ‘endowed [Sue] with characteristics . . .’: Revelation, 3.
383 ‘Congratulations and hallelujahs’: Letter (18 May 1950). Cited by Leslie A. Morris, Foreword to ED’s Herbarium.
383 a gift: In March 1950 MTB did tell Jackson she might have to sell the papers, but she thought of a gift most of the time. Jackson advised Montague of this shift, and Montague still went on with the agreement. This was to be Harvard’s main defence in the ensuing battle with Montague.
385 ‘trade-off ’: MTB, taped interview (1964), op. cit.
385 confrontations of Jackson and the Binghams, 1951: MTB gives a detailed account in ‘Veterans Day, 1955’, op. cit.
386 ‘be ye steadfast . . .’: Philippians, 4:8.
387 ‘stand still’: (1 Feb 1952). Houghton office: Montague files.
387 instalments; McCarthy’s reluctance: Leslie A. Morris, Foreword to Herbarium.
388 McCarthy’s comments on royalties: (14 June 1955). Houghton: bMS Am 1923.
388 McCarthy had driven the sale: MH to Montague (1952), op. cit.
389 ‘aura of frustration’: MTB, ‘Veterans Day, 1955’, op. cit.
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