What happens when a writer has to stop writing

For many weeks I have not been writing. When you don’t write, you forget how. It’s like losing 5 IQ points every time you have general anesthesia. Instead of writing, I have been sorting and packing and taping and mailing my Melville Collection to the Berkshire Athenaeum--hundreds and hundreds of books, hundreds of offprints, hundreds of documents signed by all the people working on Melville, odd treasures such  as Bill Gilman’s 1940s dissertation notes (not all superseded by any means), comments by Melville’s great grandchildren, Harrison Hayford’s notes on a printout of the full draft of the first volume of my biography, and so on. # 77 of the Bankers Boxes now.

Before that, I had the chance to do the Library of America volume HERMAN MELVILLE: COMPLETE POEMS at the start of 2018 through July, and then through half of 2019. Stressful because of the 7 months and then half a year extra, on call.

Before that, work on a series of articles for JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION--not so stressful because they were discrete topics I could get into and get out of.

During some of that, work on ORNERY PEOPLE.  I have to live to get back to ORNERY PEOPLE.

Just now, looking to how I responded to Warren’s victory in 2012 (“Joy about Eliz Warren & other women & Kaine in VA finally [Macaca lost again].) , I see this post from a few days before the election, 17 Ocxtober 2012:

The joy of finding WORDS spoken by my previously unknown ancestors and other kinfolk--incl funny, sardonic words by San Glenn--& all the words in Revolutionary Pension applications & Dawes Commission affidavits and WPA Interviews & actual books like the Tennessee Regiment book or the Bell book on the Mier Expedition. The Coker papers ave extensive quotations or paraphrases.”Poor Joe!” And something like Sam Glenn’s bywords on whiskey and Baptist are priceless. Or how the Sparks son punished the men who stole their pewter--An amazing amount of WORDS from that often illiterate tribe--not to mention the wills  and estate inventories of many ancestors.



          WELL, I HAVE MANY MANY MORE WORDS NOW AND AM ANXIOUS TO GET BACK TO THESE PEOPLE.