At the Schlesinger Library. Many thanks Susan Hutcheon, Kathryn Jacob, Marylene Altieri, and to Neftali Duran.
Yesterday, I did one or two, or maybe even four things I’ve been dying to do but, for reasons unknown to me, I had not done. In 2013, Harvard’s Schlesinger Library acquired my papers, and in some sense, my life . I gave them everything–manuscripts, business papers, prized correspondence from some of my heroes such as Oliver Sacks, Budd Schulberg, Barney Rosset, and Milton Glaser. My design books, press kits, and other relevant material from my line of products. I did not realize that I was entrusting my personal and professional history to them at the time that I was arranging all my papers in binders, folders, picture holders, and artists’ portfolio binders. This could not have come to fruition without the help of many friends, but mainly Amaru and Gabrielle Uballez,who gave up every Sunday to help while I taught them to cook. Marta Nunez, Laurel Gonsalves, my daughter-in-law Victoria Munro, Annie Sigal and others were generous with their time. They inventoried, catalogued, labeled and packed the material that was to fill 17 1/2 linear feet , 42 boxes, countless over-sized folders for press and other large-format pieces in the library.
The sun also rises on Queens as we waited for the AirTran.
It was a day of firsts. In my new budget conscious mode, I decided to take the E Train to Jamaica Station, then transferred to the Air Tran, arrived at Terminal 5, and had to run the slippery corridors to find Jet Blue. I have a TSA pre-check (I recommend one highly) and breezed through the line to my comfortable coach seat that had cost me $58.10 each way. The trip to the airport cost $6.15 ; the way back a ridiculous $52 plus toll and tip.
I met my mentee (isn’t there a better word?) Neftali Duran who plans to dedicate this time of his life to learning everything there is to know about his native state of Oaxaca and spends time with me absorbing anything of note I convey to him. There was a lovely welcoming reception by warm but imposing Kathryn Jacobs, who is responsible for my papers being there, and Marylene Altieri, who buys manuscripts and whose fervent love of her job is contagious.(In fact everyone there says they love their work!) She organized the visit, proudly conducted a tour of the facility, and gave us a fascinating look into how collections are processed, in large part by Sarah Hutcheon. Video and audio files are handled by Joanne Donovan (I think) who I did not get to interact with but did a wonderful job.
We went into the absolutely quiet reading room and started looking through several of the 74 notebooks of my pre-trip and later field research, and my heart almost burst as I was transported to those times There were the notebooks from my first trip to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec during which Aquilino, our guide, instructed us on the fine points of mystical Oaxaca explaining traditions that go back centuries and helped us decipher some mysteries of the Zapotec language.
I love this:
Other notebooks gave recipes such as this one for homemade vinegar that will come in handy for the book I am working on now. One notebook had a passionate love letter I was writing to someone . Sadly I don’t who it was but it seemed very heartfetl!.
Another page spoke of the jarana, a type of guitar from Veracruz
And with this I give a kiss goodbye for now to this magnificent institution that houses the collections of many pioneeering women such as Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth David, Julia Child, and many brilliant women. I always had a life plan and the last item on the list was to leave a legacy. When Radcliffe bought my papers, they helped me fulfill my mission. I thank everyone who made this dream come true. I am deeply honored.
This is the finding aid to my papers:
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch01455
But the day did not end there. I met my dear friend, Dr. Mindy Sherman who works in the pediatric emergency unit at Mass General Hospital and tried to catch up after not seeing each other for an inexcusable 4 years. We had a divine meal at my forever friend who I also do not get to see often, brilliant and most successful Chef Lidia Shire of Scampo at the Liberty Hotel and met her heir apparent, her gorgeous son Alex who cooked the three extraordinary dishes that we had time to eat,which were only half of the tasting menu Lidia had designed for us, before rushing to the airport to catch the 8:47 flight back.
Now I have at least three reasons to go back to Boston, soon, soon.
