NYC #3: Other Literary Landmarks in Central Park

In the early stages of this blog I used to take the 'Obscure' in the title perhaps a little too literally, and my post on our visit to New York city in 2008 was not only very short but only included Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790–1867) because he's now very obscure, in fact almost forgotten. Earlier this century there was a none-too-serious attempt to bring a Fitz-Greene Society into existence, but the man is probably irredeemably obscure, so there we go. But let's not forget the really famous here in the Mall:

 

Influenced by many writers – among them Balzac – Walter Scott in a not entirely comfortable looking pose. John Steell did this work, of which there's a replica in Edinburgh.

 

Facing Scott is Steel's statue of Robert Burns (1771–96), replicas of which can also be found in Dunedin (New Zealand) and London.

 

 

The statue of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was erected in 1864, the three hundredth anniversary of his birth. It is by Henry Parry.

 

Finally, the bust of Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805).

NYC #2: Hans Christian Andersen

Close to the Alice in Wonderland statue – just slightly to the west of the Conservatory Water – is this tribute to the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75), perhaps inevitably with his most famous creation, the duckling, at the side of him. The sculpture was constructed just after the 150th year of his birth.

In his hand he holds a copy of The Ugly Duckling with the opening lines – translating, of course, the original Den grimme ælling.

 

On the brim of his hat is the inscription:

'OTTO F. LANGMANN

–– ARCHITECT ––

GEORG J. JOBER

–– SCULPTOR ––

1956'

NYC #1: Alice in Wonderland

Immediately north of the Conservatory Water in Central Park, and commissioned by George Delacorte, is Alice in Wonderland by José de Creeft dating from 1959. The sculpture was designed from John Tenniel's book illustrations, although (according to the Central Park web site) Alice's face is a representation of Creeft's daughter Donna, and the Mad Hatter is 'a caricature of George Delacorte'. Taking decent photos of this wonderful creation is frustrating on a sweltering New York day because kids of any age (i.e. regular tourists) must satisfy their (to me incomprehensible) desire to be photographed climbing on a work of art and grinning inanely. This artwork reminded me of Make Way for Ducklings! in Boston, the Peter Pan sculptures in Kensington Gardens and Oamaru, New Zealand, and the Dr Seuss sculptures in Springfield, Massachusetts, all of which I've made posts of, and all of which I may get round to providing with links in the near future.

 

At the time the only thing in my head was to take the photos while the poseur(se)s changed, but looking back now I can't prevent Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit' from invading my consciousness.

Googling, I find that there is indeed a strong resemblance between the Mad Hatter and the sponsor George Delacorte.

'One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small...'

Bad trip, man, but then that Cheshire Cat's enough to give anybody one.

But those mushrooms don't look very magic to me. 'Go ask Alice'. I'm sure Lewis Carroll wouldn't have known.

Around the sculpture are seven plaques, six bearing Carroll quotations:

'ALICE IN WONDERLAND

IN MEMORY OF MY WIFE

MARGARITA DELACORTE

WHO LOVED ALL CHILDREN

GTD'

'TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE BAT!

HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU'RE AT!

UP ABOVE THE WORLD YOU FLY,

LIKE A TEA-TRAY IN THE SKY.'

(Carroll's parody of June Taylor's 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.')

'THEY TOLD ME YOU HAD BEEN TO HER,

AND MENTIONED ME TO HIM:

SHE GAVE ME A GOOD CHARACTER,

BUT SAID I COULD NOT SWIM.'

'BEAUTIFUL SOUP, SO RICH AND GREEN,

WAITING IN A HOT TUREEN!

WHO FOR SUCH DAINTIES WOULD NOT STOOP?

SOUP OF THE EVENING, BEAUTIFUL SOUP!'

 'TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE

AGREED TO HAVE A BATTLE

FOR TWEEDLEDUM SAID TWEEDLEDEE

HAD SPOILED HIS NICE NEW RATTLE.'

 

'TWAS BRILLIG, AND THE SLITHY TOVES

DID GYRE AND GIMBLE IN THE WABE;

ALL MIMSY WERE THE BOROGROVES,

AND THE MOME RATHS OUTGRABE.'

 

'SPEAK ROUGHLY TO YOUR LITTLE BOY,
AND BEAT HIM WHEN HE SNEEZES:
HE ONLY DOES IT TO ANNOY,
BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT TEASES.'

Walt Whitman in Huntington Station, Long Island, NY

The Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site and Interpretive Center. It was built by his carpenter father (also Walt Whitman) in about 1816 and the future poet was born here in 1819. He left when he was four years old.

The house as it was in 1903, published in the monthly periodical The Four-Track News in August 1904.

As this beautifully preserved house looks today, with the well in the foreground.

And there were no restrictions on indoor photography. This is the ground (or first) floor sitting room with fireplace and cupboard below. The furniture is of the period, but none of it is from the original house.

The stairs, showing the odd small top step.

The kitchen.

The exit door.

'TO MARK THE BIRTHPLACE OF
WALT WHITMAN
THE OLD GRAY POET
BORN MARCH 31, 1819.

Erected by the Colonial Society
of Huntington in 1905.'

'WALT WHITMAN
BY JOHN GIANNOTTI

NEW HISTORY! NEW HEROES! I PROJECT YOU YOU!
VISIONS OF POETS! ONLY YOU REALLY LAST! SWEEP ON!

WALT WHITMAN

WALT WHITMAN, MY SUN!
LIGHT MY WAY, SHINE ON FOREVER!

DAISAKU IKEDA

COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF DAISAKU IKEDA'S
VISIT TO NEW YORK ON OCTOBER 13, 1960'

Bust by Justin C. Mayer.

'Walt Whitman

Warren Wheelock, c. 1940
Carved from butternut wood

Gift of Oscar Lion'

'Poets to Come

Poets to come, orators, singers, musicians to come!

Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,

But you, a new brood, native, athletic,

continental, never before known,

Arouse! for you must justify me.

Leaves of Grass, 1855'

Whitman taught school from the age of seventeen, beginning his four-year period in the summer of 1836. He taught in a number of places and this is his desk from Woodbury, Long Island, from 1840. In Smithtown the schoolhouse only had one room and he had eighty-five students. He became a strong advocate of educational reform.

Whitman was also known for having published a local paper called The Long Islander. This is a similar type of press he used to print his newspaper.

Whitman's original printing materials.

'Walt Whitman as a Young Man

Joy Buba, 1953
Plasticene bust
Gift of the artist'

'Walt Whitman as an Old Man

Joy Buba, 1953
Plasticene bust
Gift of the artist'

CONCORD, Mass'tts, July 21, 1855.

DEAR SIR, I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of "LEAVES OF GRASS." I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy nature, as if too much handiwork, or too much lymph in the temperament, were making our western wits fat and mean.

I give you joy of your free and brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment which so delights us, and which large perception only can inspire.

I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging.
I did not know, until I last night saw the book advertised in a newspaper, that I could trust the name as real and available for a post-office. I wish to see my benefactor, and have felt much like striking my tasks and visiting New-York to pay you my respects.

R. W. EMERSON.

I have to add that the staff here were extremely helpful and even gave me full directions for the drive back to JFK: unfortunately, this was our final day.