Elsie Martinez and Harriet Dean Archive.

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The Bohemian World of Xavier Martinez

By Turner Auctions + Appraisals LLC

Feb 25, 2023

Set Reminder 2023-02-25 13:30:00 2023-02-25 13:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Bohemian World of Xavier Martinez https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/turner-auctions/the-bohemian-world-of-xavier-martinez-12193
Turner Auctions + Appraisals LLC sturner@turnerauctionsonline.com

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• Lot Description
  Pal and Pellie, a Prolific Partnership: Letters, Writing, Ephemera, and California Bohemian History. DEAN, HARRIET, 1892-1964; and MARTINEZ, ELSIE WHITAKER, 1890-1984. A large grouping of papers and misc. from a lifetime together writing, corresponding, studying, reading, socializing, raising family, and practicing their Catholic faith. For most of their time together, Harriet and Elsie went by "Pal" (an affectionate name bestowed by Micaela "Kai" Martinez) and "Pellie" or "Pelly" (from "Pelican", Marty's nickname for Elsie). The pair mostly signed and received letters together, and it appears they read and edited each other's typescripts and/or wrote together. They wrote essays/reviews, biographical fiction, or imaginative fiction informed by their acquaintances/experiences, drawing on both Elsie's earlier life and their shared Bohemian life, as well as Harriet's family history, and much is intermingled. It appears both wrote and submitted their work under nom de plumes (incl. Margret/Margaret Whitaker and Jacque Flandreau). In 1939 the pair converted to Catholicism and were baptized together at Carmel Mission, later helping to fundraise for the restoration; before and after that time they studied and wrote about faith. The Lot includes: - LETTERS: Six packets (as grouped by Elsie/family). 1.) "Letters to Elsie Martinez from Various Friends", approx. 20 letters, 20 postcards, 1910s-1940s. 2.) "Letters to Harriet Dean & Elsie Martinez from Dom Aelred Carlyle, Benedictine Priest...", approx 35 letters, 1940s-1950s. 3.) "Assorted Letters": approx. 40 letters and 5+ postcards, 1940s-1960s. 4.) "Letters to Elsie & Kai about Harriet Dean's Death": approx. 20 letters/notes, 1964. 5.) Misc. correspondence about museum gifts, commemorations, oral history, etc., approx. 13 letters, 1960s-1970s. 6.) Bancroft Library, Oakland Museum correspondence, etc., approx. 8 pieces. 1960s-1980s. OF INTEREST: 2 letters from Carrie Sterling; several letters from Magda and Walter Pach; 2 letters from Laura/Lora Bierce (cousin of Ambrose Bierce); a note signed "Isabella of Bohemia"; and a signed postcard from Imogen Cunningham. - ELSIE'S BIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS/NOTES: 1.) A complete typescript photocopy of Elsie's unpublished novel (436 pages/sheets), "Over These Hills", under her pen name Margret Whitaker. The novel is almost entirely focused on the fictional version of the young Whitaker family settling into the Piedmont Silk House, most of it the children's play/dialogue, although there is a telling of the family's visit to Joaquin Miller's cottage. 2.) A folder titled "Whitaker, Elsie's Book", which appears to include parts of her second/unfinished sequel novel; approx. 70 typed sheets, with handwritten notations. 3.) A folder titled "Notes for a second book by Margaret Whitaker" (with other misc. mixed in), approx. 100 sheets/fragments. 4.) A folder of Elsie's handwritten and typed notes, newspaper clippings, and misc, mostly being references for her oral history project with the Bancroft Library. OF NOTE: Among this grouping, the typed and written fragments/notes for the second book are more interesting, as they deal with the period of Elsie's life after childhood, as the Bohemians fully enter the scene. There are fragments, such as: "Have chapter when Father has celebrities to dinner--Elsie takes hair down, poet wide-eyed taking everything in--Have Jack, George, Mary Austin, Harry Cowel, discussing temperament and what damage women do to genius... G's wildness, J's redblood meat eating, bad manners, childishness, folly..."; "I remember clearly the voice of Jack London, burbling in excitement..."; discussion of "the Yellow Peril"; and a copy of a letter Elsie wrote in 1961 to Anna Strunskey, remembering her and Jack London in the early days. - HARRIET AND ELSIE, MISC. WRITING/NOTES/LETTERS: 1.) A typed manuscript of James Robinson Smith's "The Earliest Lives of Dante", which it appears Harriet proofed/reviewed . 2.-6.) 3 folders of papers relating to religious and literary writing, studying, editing/reviewing (over 100 sheets); and 2 notebooks of Harriet's writing/notes. 7.) A folder of typed copies of letters, many church/faith related, but also chatty (well over 100 sheets). 8.-10.) An envelope marked "Elsie Martinez & Harriet Dean Odds & Ends of their writings & notes, etc.", full of typed letter copies and typed/handwritten misc. writing/fragments; approx. 100+ sheets; another stuffed envelope similar; and a folder marked "Plots & Analysis", containing 100+ sheets/fragments of typed/notated fictional and essay work, mostly Harriet's hand. - CLIPPINGS/MISC. EPHEMERA: 1.) A vintage album with a loose collection of newspaper and magazine clippings and misc. ephemera to do mostly with Elsie and Xavier Martinez. 2.) A small folder of newspaper clippings relating to authors, such as Joaquin Miller and Gelett Burgess, and misc. 3.) A folder of ephemera from Elsie's 90th Birthday celebration. - PHOTOS, ART, AND MISC: 1.) A small shared reading log book, 1927-1935. 2.) 4 small snapshots, including one showing (left to right) artist and friend Virginia S. Hale, Harriet, Elsie, Kai, and unidentified friend; another earlier with Harriet and Elsie with three unidentified friends (possibly Mary Austen beside Harriet). 3.) A photo of Elsie and Harriet with Elsie's granddaughters. 4.) A photo of Elsie towards the end of her life. 5.) A small ink and wash drawing of Elsie and Harriet reading, by Adrian Gillespie Beach. 5.) 5 sketches, and misc.  Elsie Whitaker was the daughter of author/journalist Herman Whitaker (1867-1919) and grew up among her father's artistic and literary crowd in San Francisco and Oakland. As a child, she attended lectures and meetings at the Ruskin Club with her father and Jack London and was admired among her father's Bohemian set, becoming the subject of paintings, drawings, and photographs. When she was sixteen, she met painter Xavier "Marty" Martinez at the San Francisco Bohemian haunt, Coppa's Restaurant. After the 1906 earthquake, Martinez was among Whitaker's friends who took refuge at his property in the Piedmont hills. He and Elsie married soon after, and their daughter Micaela ("Kai") was born in 1913. Harriet Dean was from an Indianapolis, Indiana industrialist family, manufacturers of Dean's Pumps/Dean Brothers' Steam Pump Works. Her parents were Ward Hunt Dean and Nellie Moore Reed. Dean attended Vassar College, but in 1915 (before graduating) she joined Margaret Anderson's Little Review, a modernist literary magazine out of Chicago.  Xavier ("Marty") and Elsie Martinez met Harriet Dean in 1916 while Harriet was working at the Little Review in San Francisco. When the magazine's brief stint in the City ended, Harriet stayed. By 1919 Harriet's mother financed a house a few doors down from the Martinez studio home in the Piedmont hills. After returning from a European year+ abroad with Dean in 1923, Elsie and her daughter Micaela ("Kai") moved in with her. From this period onward, together Elsie and Harriet cared for and stayed close to "Marty", becoming "A two-house family" (see Elsie's oral history, "Artists and Writers of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bancroft Library, 1962-1969:99, 101, etc.). In a 1950 letter (to Dr. Nagel, Carmel; see Harriet Dean lot in this sale), Harriet describes Elsie Martinez as "my 'Guardian Angel' for almost thirty years". From the Family of Xavier Martinez (1869-1943), Elsie Whitaker Martinez (1890-1984), and Micaela Martinez DuCasse (1913-1989).
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