Saturday, December 1, 2012

An Ella-connected day

Fremont Street December 1st

Ella has been leading me on a great and magical journey since we first "met" and that journey continued today, as the rain storm paused for the afternoon and Lugh sent us fond greetings. I met scholar Robert W. Edwards at Old Capitol Books in downtown Monterey where he was debuting his important new work on Carmel's early art world.

Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies - Vol. One

I was fortunate to help Bob with his research years ago when I was with Harrison Memorial Library and we became friends. When I began to research Ella he kept his eyes out for mention of her in the local papers he was reading, both in Carmel and in the East Bay. Below is an example of one article he found for me written by a woman who knew Ella both in Carmel and in New Mexico where Ella was often a visitor at Mabel Dodge Luhan's famous home full of artists and writers and much intrigue.


“Ella Young, the Irish poetess, sits on the doorstep of her cabin on a sunny morning in Halcyon, and tells of strange knowledges. Children understand her deeply; the common intellectual is too much overlaid with incrustations of logical habits. She is like a seer; she feels her knowledges through the symbols which outward life presents. She lives within a reality so intense (and probably so true) that the reality in which most Americans live can be compared to it as the empty carapace of the living animal who has already left it behind.”   
 - Pauline Schindler The Carmelite (March 6, 1929).

Photograph © Denise Sallee 2012

1 comment:

  1. "...the common intellectual is too much overlaid with incrustations of logical habits." - I love it!

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