by Sally Mann
Break thy mind to me in broken English; wilt thou have me?
Shakespeare (authorship doubted).
And for elegance and sheer beauty the following lines by one of the truly prominent younger poets:
Have a care
Havelock
Ellis
Haversack
Have a lot
Take two
Brown Bogus
And finally, Shakespeare’s Romeo:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Act II, Sc. 2, L. 133.
What can one say about Already, for God’s sake?! Now if it were Always (I’ll be loving you, Alllllways--- etc, etc), -- that’s a horse of a different color.
Sent. Past tense and past participle of send. To cause to go or pass from one place to another. Also to send forth, as
In faith I send thee forth.
Or as used in the past tense:
Noah sent fifth a dove.
Also:
Le corps d’un ennemi mort sent toujours bon.
(The body of a dead enemy always smells sweet).
Attributed to Chas IX of France
What is yours is mine, and all mine is yours.
[M.E. yore, youre] absolute possessive. But Satan now is wiser than of yore.
There is no doubt a natural temptation to substitute the wrong word; the simple possessive seems to pine at separation from its property, a phenomenon perhaps more suitable for the psychologist than for the philologist.
Books. Echttt. [A.S. from boc, bece, a beech-tree] (Tree! I’m glad you brought that up! On second thought, I’ll make this the subject of another treatise sometime. Ed.). Book, tome, volume, omnibus, publication, inscription, treatise, codex, libretto, vade mecum, comic book.
Books, books, books
(E.E.M.) This verbal stroke of genius (if you will pardon the colloquialism) says everything there is to say about books.
Love, from the A.S. lufu, lufe, love, -- the strong yet tender emotion for whatever is considered most worthy of desire in any relation. Any work done or task performed with eager willingness, from the regard one has for the person for whom it is done. With a capital L, Love is the passion of love personified, especially Amor, Cupid, Eros, Aphrodite, Venus, Astarte, Karma, Freya -- all deities of the first order unlike Bacchus who merely was invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock:
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo
T.S. Eliot.
He who loves not wine, women, and song,
Remains a fool his whole life long.
Thorne Smith.
Love your neighbor, yet pull not down your hedge.
Trixie Prudentum.
Daddy. A diminutive form of an arachnid having a small body and eight very long legs. No known connection to Daedalus, the mythical Greek representative of all handiwork, who made the labyrinth of Gnosus for the Minotaur.
Footnotes to the Footnotes
“groat”: Obsolete; no longer used by the timid.
“erudition”: Erudition has been defined as something squeezed out of a book into an empty skull.
“dancers”: to dance, v.i. To leap about expressionless to the sound of tittering music, especially with your arms about someone else’s property.
“They break the truce, and sally out by night”: This refers to political and social events which, having occurred some time ago, need not to be dwelt upon by the modern student of world affairs.
“… and lives in our alley” These lines, of course, are subject to a criticism far too extensive for these brief notes, see Bibliography, and especially the analysis by Sir Sisyphus Ogle.
“Ï was first dotted in the fourteenth century”: by a fly. It is observed by Carlton Bugbutt that the systems of punctuation in use by the various literary nations depended originally upon the social habits and general diet of the flies infesting the several countries.
“grammar”: a system of pitfalls thoughtfully prepared for our use.
“Gizella Weberzerk-Piffel”: As quoted by Bibette C[orney] Bunscomb in “The Beginning of Naturalism in Druidic Fiction.” The remarkable dead-pan ending in the quoted lines contains an enigma that continues to baffle scholars such as Bunscomb.
“Brown Bogus”: The merit of Bogus’ intensely personal verse, long known to readers of the “little magazines”, has now been acknowledged by a broader public.
“horse”: cf. Chapter “Coloration in Horses’ in Nautybird Curtsy’s Horses, 1909, Misty Press, Chincoteague, Md. Among Miss Curtsy’s many publications we may single out her large anthology All About Horses which was left tragically incomplete about halfway thru the author’s original plan.
“inscription” = something profound written on another thing, such as “Kilroy was here”, penciled on the Washington Monument.
“Eros”: Not to be confused with Ralph Ginsberg.
“Michelangelo”: These lines suggest the futility of “arty” talk by dilettantes.
“T.S. Eliot”: See Prof. Hamfat’s “The Plant-lore and Garden-craft of T.S. Eliot”. Presently, Prof. Hamfat is at work on a monograph proving that T.S. Eliot was familiar with the writings of Shakespeare, and that his poems must be reinterpreted accordingly.
“A diminutive form of an arachnid having a small body and eight very long legs.”: Unedible. The study of zoology is full of surprises.
“Minotaur”: The genus has a wide geographical distribution, being deplored wherever found.
Bibliography
J.C. Ramshackle. The Absolute Canons of Taste.
Gildersleeve and Rosencrantz. The Death-Wish in Figurative Painting of Neolithic Man.
C.W. Kit + H.K. Caboodle. Paradoxical Persona.
Schmelle Bussybottom. Die Poetischen Beiträge zum Bother.
Torquato Tasso. Epigrams.
Baumgart and Bagatteli. Imperial Symbols in Certain Parking Meters.
S.T.M. Sagley. Personal Communication.
Gregory Giglioni and Hugo Gass. Eruditorium Penitentiale.
Acknowledgments
This book received careful and loving attention from four dear friends: Ann Olson and John Pancake of Goshen Pass, Virginia; Niall MacKenzie of Vancouver, BC; and Michael Sand, my editor at Little, Brown.
Ann and John, bless them, shored up my shaky pins with strong drink and expensive cuts of blood-rare grilled meat, all the while reassuring me that yes, I could do this writing thing. Then they stood behind their promise to edit it all. When I’d go off on some wheezy polemic or fail to meet the Minimum Metaphorical Appropriateness Threshold, they’d gently offer alternatives, and always with unnecessary humility. They were generous with their time and skills, working not just from their home on the Maury River but also from posts as far-flung as Ukraine, Taiwan, Germany, France, and Burma. I offer my sincere thanks for their help.
In my palace of memory, meager though it may be, I have rooms—whole galleries—that are furnished entirely by Niall MacKenzie. His eidetic power of recall, his scholarship, arch wit, and gift of language have enlivened those rooms and, in turn, this book. I am grateful for his ability to help me place certain concepts in historical, social, and personal contexts that would otherwise have escaped me. He edited my lax punctuation to a freaking fare-thee-well, and I thank him for his forbearance. Working with Niall over the past two decades has been like having a history department, Fowler’s, the OED, and Christopher Hitchens at his droll, hilarious best all rolled together and at my disposal.
Throughout the making of this book, and despite considerable vexation, Michael Sand remained as patient, smart, creative, witty, and kind as he has been since we first worked together in 1991. His sense of how this book should look and feel was pitch-perfect, and I don’t think we had a single disag
reement (okay, just that one). As with the two other books that preceded this one, he guided me through Hold Still with a light and deft hand, and I am grateful for his wisdom in doing so. This book is the richer for his intelligence, restraint, and just plain good-heartedness. If only I could run this paragraph by his editorial eye, as I did every other one in this book, it would be a lot better for it.
My brothers, Chris and Bob Munger, gave this book a good going-over, remembering things I had forgotten and forgetting things I thought I remembered, several times setting me straight on my “memory’s truths.” I especially thank Chris for his careful reading of the book and the time he spent with me on it.
At Little, Brown I’d like specifically to thank Reagan Arthur, Judy Clain, Nicole Dewey, and Garrett McGrath for believing in the book and being so supportive. Copyeditors Betsy Uhrig and Janet Byrne made many helpful suggestions, and Elisa Rivlin’s exacting and sometimes witty legal advice probably saved my ass, though costing the book one supremely entertaining anecdote. I have been very lucky to have Laura Lindgren design a few of my books, and this one is as beautiful as all the others. Mario Pulice absolutely nailed the cover on the first try.
Several people helped me with the technical aspects of this book, foremost among them my wonderful assistant and friend, Caitlin Mann (no relation, sadly), who scanned hundreds of pictures, letters, and crumbling scraps of paper. She also taught this Luddite enough that I am now able to manage on the computer without her, something I had thought impossible. Also helpful were Amy Atticks, Lydia Gorham, Gaia Raimondo, Lizzie Cuthbertson, and Flannery McDonnell.
I am very grateful to my dear friends and family members who left their busy lives, many traveling some distance, to come to the Massey Lectures at Harvard: Steve Albahari, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Godfrey, Robbie Goolrick, Edwynn Houk and Julie Castellano, Melissa Harris, Peter Jones and Charlotte Frieze, Jessie and Virginia Mann with Liz Ligouri and Eyal Einik, Emily Matthews and Rob Sokolow, Arno and Sandy Minkkinen, Hunter Mohring and Karen Bailey, Bob Munger and Jill Nooney, Rob Munger, John Ravenal, Bev Reynolds, Betsy Schneider, Putri Tan, Mame Warren and Henry Harris, Cathy Waterman, and John and Carol Wood. That they came meant more to me than they could ever know.
I appreciate the time spent with Gee-Gee’s only remaining child, ninety-year-old Constance Harris, and her daughter Pat Broadneaux. Their keen humor and observations enriched my understanding of Gee-Gee, and the images they allowed me to use from their family albums add meaningfully to the book.
For their Munger archive help, I thank Jim Baggett, John and Margaret Harper, Alan Heldman, George Jenkins, Mary Marcoux, Margaret Martin, Bob Montgomery, Carolyn Satterfield, and my adored Birmingham family: Edgar, Margot, Edge, and Katharine Marx.
The following helped me with this book in various ways, and I am grateful:
Geoffrey Brock, Steve Cantor, Nicola Del Roscio, Simone Dinnerstein, Bill and Linda Dunlap, Huger Foote, John Habich, Paul Hendrickson, Jon Humburg, Bob Keefe, Rhea Kosovic, Sarah Kennel, Ken Lanning, Sanford Levinson, Jim Lewis, Steve Lydenberg, Janet Malcolm, John Edwin Mason, Seth McCormick-Goodhart, Sammy Moore, Kit Morris, Lynn Nesbit, Ted Orland, Ann Patchett, Ann Ponzio, Kim Rushing and family, Kathy Ryan, Henry Simpson, Andrew Solomon, Anne Southworth, John Stauffer, Michael Steger, Butch Straub, Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian, Catharine Tomlins, Jeffrey Toobin, Lisa Tracy, Mame Warren, Robert Wilson, my friends at Gagosian and Houk Galleries, and the many people who allowed me the use of their pictures or words.
And with deepest love I thank my immediate family: Larry, Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia.
Photo Credits
Here: Copyright Becky Pearman Photography
Here: William Gillies (The Portrait Group)
Here: Norman Seeff
Here and here: Coleman Blake
Here: Cy Twombly, photo courtesy Nicola Del Roscio and The Cy Twombly Foundation
Here: Cy Twombly, photo courtesy Nicola Del Roscio and The Cy Twombly Foundation
Here: Nicola Del Roscio and The Cy Twombly Foundation
Here: Courtesy The News-Gazette, Lexington, VA
Here: Courtesy Washington and Lee University
Here: Steve Szabo, photo courtesy estate of Steve Szabo, © Estate of Steve Szabo
Here: Beth Trabue Gorman
Here: Cy Twombly, photo courtesy Nicola Del Roscio and The Cy Twombly Foundation
Here: Damaged Child, Shacktown courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC, Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information
Here: Courtesy The New York Times Magazine; special thanks to Kathy Ryan for making this possible
Here: Cover image courtesy Aperture, The Body in Question (Aperture; 121: Fall 1990); special thanks to Melissa Harris for making this possible
Here: John Gunner
Here: Permission for the use of this image was generously given by Alan W. Heldman
Here: P. S. Ryden, Syracuse, NY
Here: Courtesy The News-Gazette, Lexington, VA
Here: Courtesy Michael Miley Collection, Special Collections and Archives, Washington and Lee University
Here: Kim Rushing, courtesy Kim Rushing
Here: Kim Rushing, courtesy Kim Rushing
Here: Kim Rushing, courtesy Kim Rushing
Here: Maude Clay, courtesy Maude Clay
Here: Courtesy Pat Broadneaux and Constance Harris
Here: Courtesy Pat Broadneaux and Constance Harris
Here: Courtesy Pat Broadneaux and Constance Harris
Here: Courtesy The Cy Twombly Foundation and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Cy Twombly, Untitled, Xerox on paper, 6 x 9 inches (original photograph by Robert Rauschenberg, c. 1952)
Here: Courtesy the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Here: Courtesy the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Here: Patent courtesy the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Here: Both courtesy the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Here: Courtesy the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Here: Courtesy the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Here: Permission for the use of this image was generously given by Alan W. Heldman
Here: Caitlin Mann, courtesy Caitlin Mann
Here: Photographs by W. Eugene Smith, Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, © The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith
Here: Ted Orland, courtesy Ted Orland
Here: Michael S. Williamson, courtesy Michael S. Williamson
Here: Jonathan Crary, courtesy Jonathan Crary
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
Sign Up
Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Prologue: The Meuse
PART ONE: Family Ties: The Importance of Place 1. The Sight of My Eye
2. All the Pretty Horses
3. The Bending Arc
4. The Family of Mann
5. The Remove
6. Our Farm—And the Photographs I Took There
7. Hold Still
8. Ubi Amor, Ibi Oculus Est
PART TWO: My Mother: Memory of a Memory Past 9. A Sentimental Welshman
10. Uncle Skip and the Little Dears
11. The Southern Landscape
PART THREE: Gee-Gee: The Matter of Race 12. The Many Questions
13. Hamoo
14. Smothers
15. The Kid on the Road
16. Who Wants to Talk About Slavery?
PART FOUR: My Father: Against the Current of Desire 17. The Munger System
18. Leaving Dallas
19. Mr. Death and His Blue-Eyed Boy
20. World Traveler, Interesting Gent
21. The Cradle and the Grave<
br />
22. Bearing Witness
23. The Sublime End
24. The X Above My Head
Postscript: Exhibit A, Exhibit B
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Sally Mann, Inc.
Cover design by Mario J. Pulice
Cover photograph by Robert S. Munger
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
littlebrown.com
twitter.com/littlebrown
facebook.com/littlebrownandcompany
First ebook edition: May 2015
Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
The names and identifying characteristics of certain individuals have been changed, whether or not so noted in the text.