Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "max"
Western Myth and a Tip From Max Perkins
Researching a Legend Part 8
The Atlanta Historical Society had provided another piece to the Holliday puzzle, an important piece and yet I sensed that there was much more that I didn’t know, that no one knew or at least no one had published.
Too many western historians and writers had relied on myth – not well enough sourced to be called fact. Too many footnotes, taken as fact, could not stand the critical test when it came to providing multiple sources. I believe that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated.
Wallace Clayton, Tombstone Epitaph Publisher and editor said, ‘MOST Western history isn’t about history. It’s about reinforcing the myth.’
With that slogan in mind my next two stops were New York and Philadelphia. The New York public library was just to take a look at their western section and see if they had material that I wasn’t acquainted with.
Philadelphia would be more focused.
Our ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ consultant for the Holliday segment, Susan McKey Thomas had located Doc’s dental college records. The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery no longer existed, but the academic records had been preserved and housed at the main library of the University of Pennsylvania.
I flew to New York and spent less than half a day looking at the New York Public Library’s western collection and didn’t find anything new.
I spent the balance of that day visiting with pals I’d made acting rounds with when I lived in Manhattan from the mid 50’s to the early 70’s.
The next morning I took a bus from the Westside Terminal to the Rail Road Station in Newark, New Jersey and boarded a train to Philadelphia.
I got off the train at the North Philadelphia Station and was directed to the University of Pennsylvania Campus located nearby.
I needed to find Dr. John Whittock, the library curator. I located the library and entered the front door, and then I walked through a foyer and observed a spacious room, which reminded me of the largest study hall I’d ever seen. Straight ahead of me I saw a white haired gentleman standing behind a lectern.
I approached the man and said, ‘I’m looking for Dr. John Whittock?’
He smiled. ‘You’ve found him. How can I help you?’
I introduced myself and said, ‘I’m doing some research on Doc Holliday and I’m under the impression that his dental college records are here.’
‘We do have the records and if you’ll give me a moment I get them for you.’
‘Thank you, Dr. Whittock.’ I don’t believe it took more than two or three minutes for Dr. Whittock to return with a folder, which he handed to me. Then he pointed and said, ‘Why don’t you have a seat over there and go through the material. When you’re finished let me know and we’ll copy the pages you’re interested in.’
I thanked him and walked to the table. The first page that interested me was headed: ‘At a special meeting of the faculty held on February 25, 1872 – all members present…’
Candidates for graduation had been picked and nominated by the faculty for graduation. During that meeting they finalized a list, which contained 26 names that qualified through their work for graduation that year. I looked down the handwritten list, and when I got to number 10 there was the name J.H. Holliday.
(To be continued)
The Goring Collection
Prologue Final Part 7
During the long bus ride he was haunted by one decision that he made, that of leaving Luke, his CIA contact, out of the process. They had established a good working relationship over the years and Jacob was sure that Luke would have provided him with a safe house, but even with his best intentions the case would eventually be taken out of the agents hands and wind up on some bureaucrats’ desk at Langley. He did not trust bureaucrats or their decision-making process. So instead of taking that chance, Jacob decided to call Tom Brannan an ex CIA connection he had maintained for more than a decade. They first met when Tom Brannan picked him at the Reno, Nevada airport and flew him to a clandestine meeting in Northern Idaho, a hunting lodge, near the Canadian border. And from that first mission a cordial and trusting relationship had developed between the two men.
Jacob stepped off the bus in Oklahoma City, and immediately called the ex CIA man in Wichita and set up a meeting for the following day. Jacob got a warm and sympathetic reception from Tom Brannan. Their talks and planning sessions leading to Jacob’s new identity, which included a social security card reflecting his original name, lasted for more than two weeks.
It was August of 1974 and the weather was hot in Wichita, but not nearly so hot as it was in Washington, D.C. Richard M. Nixon had just resigned the presidency and the picture on Tom Brannan’s television was of the ex president waving to the press as he boarded a helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House. The picture of Nixon with his arms up in a V seemed to freeze in place as Tom hit the TV off button and turned to
Jacob. “Well, they finally got him, the lefties. Maybe he should have burned those damned tapes.”
“Maybe,” Jacob said, “but if you ask me, Nixon got too wrapped up in his own importance, got a bit too arrogant.”
“I won’t disagree with that,” Tom Brannan said. “Now, Jacob let’s get back to your problem. That resume we made up might get you a teaching job and possibly a place on the lecture circuit, however I suspect that much travel might give you a little too much exposure.”
Jacob grinned soberly. “That’s my thinking, Tom.”
Tom Brannan pursed his lips and said, “I have an idea. It just so happens that I know a group of patriotic activist in New York that is in the process of forming a political watchdog group. And I have a feeling, Jacob that you might fit very nicely into their program.”
Writers Notebook:
Maxwell Perkins was the best-known book editor of his time. Perkins worked for Scribner and some of his clients included Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolf. Perkins corresponded frequently with his writer clients and shared many of his thoughts about writing. I found this gem of a writing tip in one of those letters to a lesser know client. ‘What really makes writing is done in the head, where impressions are stored up, and it is done with the eye and the ear. The agony comes later, when it has to be done with the hand, and that part of it can gain greatly from seeing how others do it, by reading.’
Note: I suspect that if pinned down Max would have said …’from seeing how others (great writers) do it, by reading.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com
The Atlanta Historical Society had provided another piece to the Holliday puzzle, an important piece and yet I sensed that there was much more that I didn’t know, that no one knew or at least no one had published.
Too many western historians and writers had relied on myth – not well enough sourced to be called fact. Too many footnotes, taken as fact, could not stand the critical test when it came to providing multiple sources. I believe that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated.
Wallace Clayton, Tombstone Epitaph Publisher and editor said, ‘MOST Western history isn’t about history. It’s about reinforcing the myth.’
With that slogan in mind my next two stops were New York and Philadelphia. The New York public library was just to take a look at their western section and see if they had material that I wasn’t acquainted with.
Philadelphia would be more focused.
Our ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ consultant for the Holliday segment, Susan McKey Thomas had located Doc’s dental college records. The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery no longer existed, but the academic records had been preserved and housed at the main library of the University of Pennsylvania.
I flew to New York and spent less than half a day looking at the New York Public Library’s western collection and didn’t find anything new.
I spent the balance of that day visiting with pals I’d made acting rounds with when I lived in Manhattan from the mid 50’s to the early 70’s.
The next morning I took a bus from the Westside Terminal to the Rail Road Station in Newark, New Jersey and boarded a train to Philadelphia.
I got off the train at the North Philadelphia Station and was directed to the University of Pennsylvania Campus located nearby.
I needed to find Dr. John Whittock, the library curator. I located the library and entered the front door, and then I walked through a foyer and observed a spacious room, which reminded me of the largest study hall I’d ever seen. Straight ahead of me I saw a white haired gentleman standing behind a lectern.
I approached the man and said, ‘I’m looking for Dr. John Whittock?’
He smiled. ‘You’ve found him. How can I help you?’
I introduced myself and said, ‘I’m doing some research on Doc Holliday and I’m under the impression that his dental college records are here.’
‘We do have the records and if you’ll give me a moment I get them for you.’
‘Thank you, Dr. Whittock.’ I don’t believe it took more than two or three minutes for Dr. Whittock to return with a folder, which he handed to me. Then he pointed and said, ‘Why don’t you have a seat over there and go through the material. When you’re finished let me know and we’ll copy the pages you’re interested in.’
I thanked him and walked to the table. The first page that interested me was headed: ‘At a special meeting of the faculty held on February 25, 1872 – all members present…’
Candidates for graduation had been picked and nominated by the faculty for graduation. During that meeting they finalized a list, which contained 26 names that qualified through their work for graduation that year. I looked down the handwritten list, and when I got to number 10 there was the name J.H. Holliday.
(To be continued)
The Goring Collection
Prologue Final Part 7
During the long bus ride he was haunted by one decision that he made, that of leaving Luke, his CIA contact, out of the process. They had established a good working relationship over the years and Jacob was sure that Luke would have provided him with a safe house, but even with his best intentions the case would eventually be taken out of the agents hands and wind up on some bureaucrats’ desk at Langley. He did not trust bureaucrats or their decision-making process. So instead of taking that chance, Jacob decided to call Tom Brannan an ex CIA connection he had maintained for more than a decade. They first met when Tom Brannan picked him at the Reno, Nevada airport and flew him to a clandestine meeting in Northern Idaho, a hunting lodge, near the Canadian border. And from that first mission a cordial and trusting relationship had developed between the two men.
Jacob stepped off the bus in Oklahoma City, and immediately called the ex CIA man in Wichita and set up a meeting for the following day. Jacob got a warm and sympathetic reception from Tom Brannan. Their talks and planning sessions leading to Jacob’s new identity, which included a social security card reflecting his original name, lasted for more than two weeks.
It was August of 1974 and the weather was hot in Wichita, but not nearly so hot as it was in Washington, D.C. Richard M. Nixon had just resigned the presidency and the picture on Tom Brannan’s television was of the ex president waving to the press as he boarded a helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House. The picture of Nixon with his arms up in a V seemed to freeze in place as Tom hit the TV off button and turned to
Jacob. “Well, they finally got him, the lefties. Maybe he should have burned those damned tapes.”
“Maybe,” Jacob said, “but if you ask me, Nixon got too wrapped up in his own importance, got a bit too arrogant.”
“I won’t disagree with that,” Tom Brannan said. “Now, Jacob let’s get back to your problem. That resume we made up might get you a teaching job and possibly a place on the lecture circuit, however I suspect that much travel might give you a little too much exposure.”
Jacob grinned soberly. “That’s my thinking, Tom.”
Tom Brannan pursed his lips and said, “I have an idea. It just so happens that I know a group of patriotic activist in New York that is in the process of forming a political watchdog group. And I have a feeling, Jacob that you might fit very nicely into their program.”
Writers Notebook:
Maxwell Perkins was the best-known book editor of his time. Perkins worked for Scribner and some of his clients included Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolf. Perkins corresponded frequently with his writer clients and shared many of his thoughts about writing. I found this gem of a writing tip in one of those letters to a lesser know client. ‘What really makes writing is done in the head, where impressions are stored up, and it is done with the eye and the ear. The agony comes later, when it has to be done with the hand, and that part of it can gain greatly from seeing how others do it, by reading.’
Note: I suspect that if pinned down Max would have said …’from seeing how others (great writers) do it, by reading.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com
Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog
I do a variety blog and post every Wednesday. I am an actor, writer and hurricane hunter and my subjects are generally written about those fields. During Hurricane Season I do at least one story every
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