So far, I am not doing too great of a job keeping a blog about my experience on this book. I spent the last week in the library in New York.
All I can say is, the bureacracy there gives the federal government a run for their money. Of course, it is city run and I don't blame them for keeping extremely tight control over who gets access to special collections.
I was the first person, after the archivist, to view the Dr. Leslie papers. It was extremely exciting but very sad too. How much do we actually leave behind and who will know of it when we are gone.
Dr. Leslie was an amazing human being. The letters I spent time reading attest to that - in his personal and professional life. He was encouraging and generous to a fault and never turned people away from free advice.
Anyway - the second day was pretty long - spent reading letters and correspondence - personal and for the Composing Room. Hortense Mendel was his assistant and director of the AD Gallery until she died suddenly of a heart attack. She was very young - and kept things going when Dr. Leslie was busy with the business.
The people they knew.
Posted by erin at May 10, 2004 01:39 PM