I am writing notes by putting NAMES &c to be annotated at the top of Hendricks House pages and typing them up in order. For the Part One notes I did not check NN Part-Canto-Line numbers in advance. Walt numbered by tens and NN by fives, thank goodness, but I still have to have a working space where I can have NN out tilted or else tilt my neck over and over. If I could carry up the lectern I could stand in the kitchen and do the Part-Canto-Line numbers. I can't work down here because Scalini is in what was bought as my Mission Chair. At least I have a perfect straight edge for locating line numbers, one of the box I bought in 1962 for my Dissertation Notes, back when you took weeks to type up your handwritten notes before you could start writing.
One of the papers to put away (so I can keep opening the pages) is this from 1990. I had just found the D.D. letter in a folder of undated letters from unidentified correspondents in the NYPL Duyckinck papers. "I of C" refers to my discovery of the title of the 1853 book we already knew about (since 1960)--THE ISLE OF CROSS. Coincidentally, Greg posted something about The Isle of the Cross yesterday. The writer may have thought it came RIGHT after MOBY-DICK, but so what? Andrew Delbanco said I made it up and made POEMS up, and Richard Brodhead said I made POEMS up, and Elizabeth Schultz said I made both up, then Andrew Delbanco a few years later mentioned both books but where was the apology for saying I made them up? Lordy, in his uncorrected proofs he does not even thank the person he said made the books up! Well, enough delaying. Time to get out the brand new 1962 card and start checking line numbers.
Can anyone now imagine how excited I was to discover the title THE ISLE OF THE CROSS and how ecstatic Hayford, Merton M. Sealts, Jr., and Jay Leyda were when I called the first two and went up to see the third?
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