Reading this tonight, I find myself wishing that Virginia Woolf had had access to a computer so that she could keep revising her writing.  She wants line breaks where she did not have them and semi-colons where there were commas.  So simple and so meaningfully important.  On pages 142 and 143, she wants to put a sentence about the leaden circles at the end of the paragraph, not at the beginning.  On page 128, she adds "called Smith" to the clause, "London has swallowed up many millions of young men...," and with these two small and necessary words, she conveys Septimus Smith's absorption into the city.  I feel so compassionate as I read these pages and sense her attempts to make the changes she wants economically.  I wonder if she held herself back to save the typesetters effort and the publishers money.  I wish that she could have used a computer and made all of the careful and beautiful revisions that she wanted to make.

Dreiser-- Dawn First Rough Draft Chapters 1-33 Typescript

Dreiser Mss. Dawn First Rough Draft Chapters 1-33 Typescript

I attempted to transcribe the bottom part of page 263 where he starts writing by hand and all of page 264 in the first rough draft of Dreiser’s Dawn (Chapters 1-33). I had a lot of difficulty reading his handwriting, so there are a lot of guesses. If anyone knows what the words are, please let me know and I’ll fix it.

Page 263---

But occasionally the fall [?healer] [?feal] by a rain of stones.

Then there were cats and dogs in [illegible]. I never saw more a [illegible]---- probably due to the rats. And words in white [?afirm] and [?cops] [?Lavquip] and clothes, ↑or worship th saw in basement [?laundries]↓, for this was a residence neighborhood of a better sort, three houses facing those side streets and was

Verso of Page 263---

actually what [?baffened] at the opening of our third fall [?bero]

Page 264---

a most charming small park ↑Waverly↓, I think it was called Waverly where Geoffe walked or sat of an evening and viewed a small and pretty [?lalo], in which were bright colored boots for rain. Chicago seemed all for ↑eight [?seeing] at [illegible] Geoffe loved to walk the [?b…] streets strangers all, I pressure↓ By day there were endless grocery and meat market wagons clattering here and there and ↑to say walking of↓

 a constant and varying panorama of ↑visible from our↓ rear windows  scenes which [?concerned] a

↑[?heart-…ing] ↓ world of  the new city types—ladies who made endless toilets ↑[illegible] [illegible] [illegible] ↓ during the afternoon or evening, ↑or walked about in their rooms [illegible] [illegible] and with their hands up clerks who came bustling in at five-thirty or six to dress, lounge in ↑[illegible] [illegible] ↓

 small back yard hammocks ↑in [?one] of their [?boot] yards [illegible] others↓ or rush forth to evening engagements again elsewhere.

There were those as I could see, who attempted small gardens or window boxes or who sat & read or walked too and fro enjoying their 25 x 40 evening worlds. [?Beli…] by day or evening [?goal]-fleecy or black thunderheads which [?fo] [?cealed] thunder showers showed over the [?loft] of these [?leaves] in the sky above. Pidgeons and sparrow flew here and there- the only visible birds allies than canaries in cages. Window curtains

Page 265 (for the sake of completing the sentence)---

or and shades stirred or flapped idly in the wind. 

Dreiser, Ch. 29

This transcription is from Dreiser's original manuscript of the ending to chapter 29 in his autobiography. None of this draft made it into the final copy.

"This matter or morals as anyone may readily see was already a ticklish business with me and gave me many an unhappy half hour. Not that I had any general tendency to steal or keep what did not belong to me (I did) so much as I had sharp yearnings for things which occasionally small theft or lies would have satisfied. Yet, I neither by any no means did I always lie or always stole steal--very rarely, as a matter of fact. Such lapses from an open and frank course of action were always painful to me. It is often said that a series of immoral thoughts or deeds tends to harden or blunt ones sense to everything of the same kind. I think the process of hardening is much slower than is generally imagined. In my case, in spite of a few early lapses, instead of becoming worse I became abetter. It is true that I stole a few things but finally I reached the place when I did not steal and my ultimate irregularities with women which occurred much later drove me to the ultimate conclusion that a single union would be best if it could be achieved. Yet I never could reach the place when I could accept the belief that even our moral code was is an interpretation of universal intelligence. In face, I can not believe this it. Rather I look upon human rules as springing from the need of a working equation for many types of men and great numbers. In my own case I never seemed able to recommend myself into any really paying position, which in my early years when my appetites were keen and to my hopes and longings intense made my positions seem very hard. Safe Deprivations irked me more than they did later when I was somewhat older and had more philosophy. What I took I suffered for--an result effect which I by no means offer as justification but rather as an explanation of why I think this hardening process is slow. Actually I am convinced as that it was the result of too much conscience, a thing which either in myself or others I greatly deplore. Either more courage or less conscience for anyone would be preferable where all is a dark, inexplicable world anyhow."

Dreiser's next draft came in the form of a typescript, which he also made edits too. Nonetheless, none of this ever made it into the final copy of his autobiography. By instead shortening his description on this event which impacted his life, the anecdote seems more poignant. Without the additional and excessive explanation and philosophy, the reader is left with the sense of regret that Dreiser clearly had regarding this instance.

Letter Card to Mrs. Mallalieu

TRANSCRIPTION:
Outside of Letter Card

Mrs. Mallalieu
     22 Richmond Road
          Sheperd's Bush
              London

Inside of Letter Card
                                            Ch. Ch. Oxford
                                                        July 1, 1892
Dear Mrs. Mallalieu,
      Thanks for your letter. I
shall be very glad to have Polly's
company to church: & hope we
may be allowed to read a little of
the Bible together, as I love to do
with my young friends.
      "Straps" do not sound a good
way of packing frocks without
crushing. She will like to have
one or two extra ones. as one for
walking.  Besides the one she comes
in, which will do for walking,
she might like one for such a
thing as an evening concert, &
perhaps a second morning one,
in case of being caught in a
shower. My little friend Isa Bow-
man is rather apt to dress in
gaudy colours, which I don't
much like, as it makes us too
conspicuous: but I think I

Second Card Front

need not fear that, in Polly's case, after
seeing how quietly & tastefully she was
dressed, the day I had the pleasure of her
society. It will be very little trouble to
bring my small 'pormanteau' (it is very
small) & then she can bring frocks without
any risk of creasing. Please send, with her,
enough things for a week, at least. I don"t
like to name more than 3 days, to begin with.
After that, one can judge whether she would
like to go home or stay a little longer.
     Mrs. Dyer, or her maid, will be able to
give her all the help she can need. whether
for dressing or undressing.
     Of course any theatre-engagement

Second Card Back

would prevent, or would bring to an end,
her visit, that is why I want to have
her as soon as I can, while she is still
un-engaged.
    I don't see a chance of getting to East-
bourne till 'aect' Wednesday or Thursday:
but as soon as I am settled there, I will
propose a day for fetching my newest
little friend.
                                Very Sincerely yours,
                                       C. J. Dodgson
It is a great pity that theatre-companies
if use so much of waht God means to be out
"day of rest," in travelling about: & I am
glad to think that you & Polly are having
just now, plenty of Sundays that are not
"spent in the train."


Notes on Writing
The outside of the letter card is stamped Oxford and Paddington W as to places that it has travelled through to arrive at London. The inside of the card is written with the card turned vertically, and it is very cramped writing. He marks out words, so he is not afraid to make mistakes. On the front of the second card, the card is positioned horizontally with the writing still taking up every available space. He begins to use lots of commas here and a lot of underlining for emphasis. On the back of the second card, the card is still horizontal, but it is more spacious for the paragraph with the post script being cramped.

Notes on Content
Dodgson spends the majority of this letter worrying about and speckifying what Polly should wear and how it should be packed. He has specific style s and colours that are acceptable to him. This letter leads to raised eyebrows in the way that he addresses the mother and talks about the daughter. Polly, though talked about like a child, is clearly old enough to have a profession in the theatre for he is worried about her getting called to an engagement there. He placates the mother as well as reassuring her of their activities with references of taking her to church and reading the Bible with her. It is an emphasis on the innocence of his friendship. He also makes references to how many little friends he has. Although he calls her little, she isn't a small child upon further research. She is older which adds a bit of oddity to the language used reguarding her.

Michelle's link to the Camus article

I am reposting Michelle's link to the New Yorker article about the firsr sentence of Albert Camus's novel The Stranger, because it's a little difficult access, being embedded in a comment (for the comment, see the "Additional Reading" section of this website.  The article talks about a slightly different set of issues from those we encounter in editing, yet not:   what the essay does, above all, is remind us that, and how, words do matter!

"To W.E.P." transcription

To W.E.P.

That thou art ill dos gloom me like a cloud

That has obscured the mountains and the sky

And choked the maiden day in a black shroud

And made swift waters stiff and frozen lie;

Now all things follow to their contraries;

Not cold but healing warmth should fill the day

Not these stark bushes but foliage-laden trees

Across deep summer shies their wealth should sway.

How shall we remedy this vile distress?

How woo the sun to the mount again his throne?

How bend the corn wilt grain to gild and bliss?

What means will bring back summer to her own?

There is but one; that thow shouldn’t come and tell

The lingering fields thow livest, and art well.

July 27

Page 69

To a Poet - Spender transcription

Morgan and I transcribed this poem from the Spender book.  It is a Shakespearean sonnet which he wrote on June 12, 1927.  We chose to indicate the words that Spender crossed out with strikethroughs of our own, to show which words were (presumably) written and struck out first.


To a Poet. 

Beloved musician, I will give my lyre
      For the strong playing of thy fingers' skill
To strike the deeper chords, and then the wire
      More deft than I, till chaos linger shrill
Into the thinner ecstasies of light;
      For more obedient be it to thy mind
Than mine, being gold, unnurtured, and worthy of valuing for it needs such might,
      Posessing [sic] notes of ocean, and of wind,
So take it till with sure, maturer touch,
      (Learnt from thy playing) of my tender hand,
I give back thanks with a sweet note a such
      As answereth thee; for thou wilt understand.
Play on it now, this instrument my heart
Which I lend thee, till I take up my part.



Two things I noticed about this poem - besides its quality, which is not exactly stellar -were the title and the erratic punctuation.  The title could be addressing the unknown travelling companion, because if the two were to trade their books of poetry, the travelling companion must have been a poet as well.  The punctuation just bothered us a lot because he often used it in places where it seemed unnecessary both grammatically and poetically, although admittedly neither of us is especially well versed in poetry.