Fleeting fame, preserved in writing
A collection of prominent historical figures’ handwritten letters, forms, notes offers a glimpse into the ephemeral nature of their lives
We are living in a golden age of both fretting about handwriting and fetishising it. Polemicists lament that cursive is going the way of the dodo. Meanwhile, old-school devotees of pen and paper post their work on social media with hashtags like #snailmail and #penpal.
“The Magic Of Handwriting”, an exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, might seem at first glance to be part of this nostalgia. Instead, it simply luxuriates in the humble, intimate and sometimes very messy traces that some of the great figures of history have left behind.
The show features some 140 items from the encyclopaedic holdings of Brazilian collector Pedro Corrêa do Lago, who got his start at the age of 11, when he wrote to prominent figures to ask for their autographs. Today, he owns roughly 100,000 letters, notes, receipts, manuscripts, signed photographs and other pieces documenting notable lives in the arts, politics, science and other fields.
During an interview at the museum, the relentlessly loquacious Corrêa do Lago, 60, called his collection “a symbolic snapshot of Western culture over the past 500 years”. He also sees it as the product of a kind of madness. “It became an absolutely crazy project that drowned all the money I made,” he said, with a laugh. “I should be in a straitjacket.”
Here is a sampling of items from the exhibition, and the sometimes quirky, sidelong glances they offer at their creators.
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry, 1935
When it comes to graphology — the study of handwriting to reveal character — count Corrêa do Lago among the sceptics. “I’m not convinced that it’s a science,” he said. But the exhibition includes a charming relic of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s adventures in chirology, or palm reading. He made this impression of his hand in 1935 in the presence of Dr Charlotte Wolff, who detected “a rare gift of observation” and “love of animals”. The analysis and the print, which Saint-Exupéry signed, was published in a Surrealist journal, along with ones for André Breton, Aldous Huxley and Marcel Duchamp. “That he would sign an impression of his hand is perfect,” Corrêa do Lago said.
Pope Anastasius IV, ca 1153
‘It’s Like A Time Machine’
The oldest item in the show is a 12th-century parchment papal bull, signed by the reigning pope, Anastasius IV; three future popes; one future anti-pope; and one future saint. Anastasius marked the document with a single cross, written inside a circular symbol, known as a rota, near the centre. “Imagine all these robed gentleman with this thing, spread out on an enormous wooden table, and now I can put it on my dining table,” Corrêa do Lago said. “It’s like a time machine.”
The Young Victoria, 1826
A Queen In Training
Neatly drawn letters trot across the page in this 1826 letter by the seven-year-old future Queen Victoria, sending birthday greetings to an uncle, the heir presumptive to the British throne. “When she was learning to write, she would copy models, which is why her writing looks so calligraphic,” Corrêa do Lago said. “But it didn’t stay at all like that.”
Rasputin, ca 1910
Mad Monk, Poor Penmanship
The show includes many examples of gorgeous handwriting. And then there is this signed photograph (circa 1910) of Rasputin, whose few surviving notes, according to the exhibition label, “are nearly indecipherable”. Corrêa de Lago does not speak Russian. “But those who know Cyrillic have said it’s very bad handwriting,” he said.
Ernest Hemingway, 1930
Papa’s Hobbies
When the archives of Who’s Who went up for sale, Corrêa do Lago spent a month poring over nearly 200,000 forms, culling those filled out by 1,800 still-notable people from the sea of the now-forgotten. “I had such an experience of sic transit gloria mundi, of how fleeting fame is,” he said. The show includes forms by Alan Turing, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway, which stand as mini-autobiographies. In 1930, Hemingway listed his hobbies as “skiing, fishing, shooting, drinking”, and his education as simply “abroad”.
Allen Ginsberg, 1972
A Beat’s Selfie
The show includes this photograph of a wild-haired Allen Ginsberg taken in the Australian desert in 1972, on which the poet later inscribed “Summit Ayers Rock Self Portrait Arms Length”. (He mistakenly gave the year as 1971.) At the summit, Ginsberg wrote a letter to his father, composed a poem and then turned the camera on himself, capturing the flies buzzing around his head. “I think of it as a proto-selfie,” Corrêa de Lago said.
Franz Kafka, 1924
Kafka With A K
In general, collectors prefer complete signatures: “Oscar Wilde” is better than just “O. Wilde” or just “Oscar”. “But here, just K for Kafka is OK,” Corrêa de Lago said of this 1924 letter, which was written a few weeks before the author’s death from tuberculosis. “You can probably imagine he had difficulty writing it, but the handwriting is so good. We have a piece of his life in our hands.”
Frida Kahlo, 1947
Stamp Of Approval
About a quarter of Corrêa do Lago’s collection consists of signed photographs — a category that some serious bibliophiles sniff at (and the Morgan does not actively collect), but that he says can be revealing. “You never inscribe an image you aren’t happy about,” he said. Frida Kahlo hand-coloured and inscribed this photograph of her painting The Frame before giving it to a Brazilian diplomat posted in Mexico in the 1940s.
“The Magic Of Handwriting: The Pedro Corrêa do Lago Collection” runs until Sept 16 at the Morgan Library & Museum, Manhattan.
Hemingway listed his hobbies as ‘skiing, fishing, shooting, drinking’