Graham, Martha. (1894–1991). Important Signed Letter to Katherine Cornell. A lengthy and important signed letter from the great modern dancer and choreographer. Alton, Ill. 31 March 1950. 3pp typed letter signed "Martha," addressed to Katherine Cornell ["Dear Kit"] in New Orleans. Typed letter with a few manuscript corrections in Graham's hand and sold together with original mailing envelope and a recently printed photograph of Graham and Cornell visiting backstage at Chicago's Blackstone Theatre, February 15, 1942. A rich letter regarding numerous deeply personal and artistic topics. Seven paragraphs, of fifteen with comparable content, as follows:
"It is hard to play these one night stands and at best it is hard and then to be ill is terrible. It means your throat and voice I know and there is nothing to do but to do everything medicine can do...Sometimes the mere fact of going to the dressing room at night can be so healing and it seems that it is a haven of refuge and that only there is there any peace. I have felt that on this trip so many times. I know not know what to do really now that it is over. It seemed a long time when we started out and an unbelievable thing to attempt and face but now that it is over it is hard to face giving it up because it is the one reality."
"I know you know this in yourself, that security of work and the rightness of place. It is frightening, too, because for me it means that there is nothing else and when that time is over when I can do it that life stops. Does it mean that to you too? I think perhaps it is wrong that it should mean so much and that there seems to be nothing else. But that is the way it is. I think I took the wrong turning some place in all this and now it means the 'circular desert' for the rest of the time there is left. I know there must be something else and perhaps I shall find it."
"Kit, I wish I could say in some way what your faith in me and the help you have given me in so many ways has meant to me. I can never say it, even though I want to say it do badly...That kind of faith is a treasure and it is seldom found and it is something to treat as a treasure and keep safe, and to hold it close as a talisman against the rigors of the world....I cannot tell you how deeply humble it makes me and how much I wish I could do one little thing for you ever in the world. I can love you and treasure you as a great experience in the world of living and that is all. But if I fail in other ways it is because I am stilled by you and your stature as a being, as a woman."
"I think you know how much I want to go to Europe. I think I may meet with as great antagonism as I have met with here but it will be a challenge and I feel it is perhaps a responsibility. I hope it is not an indulgence or just to justify a vanity. I have thought deeply over it. I know how hard it will be and I know it will have griefs just as there are here. Because I always take myself with me no matter where I can go. I wonder often if we take that same self into death with us and if there is no escape even there. I suppose ther is only one escape and that is to change what we are and that is the hard thing to do because it means giving up so much we think important. Or of value. I suppose there is only one thing of value and that is the arriving at a point of individuation which results in or is peace of mind."
"As soon as we return it means rehearsals. That is good because just ow I want to work very hard. It is always hard to face the fact that in one area of life we have failed. If I can work hard and produce something fine as I can make it perhaps I can live down in myself the fact that I have failed in the area of being a woman. That I really did mean to say because it is an intrusion but I will let it stand and you will pass it over lightly and forget it."
"How are the dogs?...I often dream of Alla and miss here. I know I cannot have another one so I love yours. I feel Alla sometimes when I am disturbed. I remember the way she used to put her now across my foot when she knew I was unhappy. They know so well and they pay such a great price for knowing so much and sensing that they have souls and that people do now know as a rule that they have them and that they have to remain inarticulate, unable to quite reach the ones they love so much and around whom their entire beings have meaning. They try and there is a touch of that means that and in some little way they know when they have helped. I am sure. I think of the day when I had to take Alla to be put to sleep. She knew and she tried to make me not mind too much. So you see I believe she still is about me somewhere. She would never leave me and she would come when she knew I wanted her. So she must be near."
"There was a chance to do Judith in New York...It needs reworking. I am afraid I have forgotten parts of it. I all happened so fast and there has been so much since that time. William Schuman [sic] tried to arrange it and made all contacts before telling me and now I am on the spot in a way and he is upset because he feels it only means rehearsing as one rehearses music on the page. But it is not that. My body has to be taught again to be Judith and that would mean and least three weeks of constant work. To sustain twenty six minutes alone means a great orientation as you know but Bill does seem to be unaware of that. It is an entirely different thing. That goes into his creation of the music but I have come slowly to realize that musicians do not think of a performance as being a creative medium in itself with its own set of laws. They do not think creative work as being necessary. It is just all mood. I get a little angry with them at times because they are so smug about it all. And also so bewildered when a performance does attain a degree of energy which moves them as a creative thing."
Katharine Cornell (1893 - 1974), nicknamed "First Lady of the Theatre," was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer and is generally regarded as one of the greatest American stage actresses of the 20th century. Martha Graham was a very close friend and choreographed the dance sequences for Cornell's 1934 "Romeo and Juliet," directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic and with Cornell playing Juliet, opposite Basil Rathbone's Romeo and Orson Welles as Tybalt.
"It is hard to play these one night stands and at best it is hard and then to be ill is terrible. It means your throat and voice I know and there is nothing to do but to do everything medicine can do...Sometimes the mere fact of going to the dressing room at night can be so healing and it seems that it is a haven of refuge and that only there is there any peace. I have felt that on this trip so many times. I know not know what to do really now that it is over. It seemed a long time when we started out and an unbelievable thing to attempt and face but now that it is over it is hard to face giving it up because it is the one reality."
"I know you know this in yourself, that security of work and the rightness of place. It is frightening, too, because for me it means that there is nothing else and when that time is over when I can do it that life stops. Does it mean that to you too? I think perhaps it is wrong that it should mean so much and that there seems to be nothing else. But that is the way it is. I think I took the wrong turning some place in all this and now it means the 'circular desert' for the rest of the time there is left. I know there must be something else and perhaps I shall find it."
"Kit, I wish I could say in some way what your faith in me and the help you have given me in so many ways has meant to me. I can never say it, even though I want to say it do badly...That kind of faith is a treasure and it is seldom found and it is something to treat as a treasure and keep safe, and to hold it close as a talisman against the rigors of the world....I cannot tell you how deeply humble it makes me and how much I wish I could do one little thing for you ever in the world. I can love you and treasure you as a great experience in the world of living and that is all. But if I fail in other ways it is because I am stilled by you and your stature as a being, as a woman."
"I think you know how much I want to go to Europe. I think I may meet with as great antagonism as I have met with here but it will be a challenge and I feel it is perhaps a responsibility. I hope it is not an indulgence or just to justify a vanity. I have thought deeply over it. I know how hard it will be and I know it will have griefs just as there are here. Because I always take myself with me no matter where I can go. I wonder often if we take that same self into death with us and if there is no escape even there. I suppose ther is only one escape and that is to change what we are and that is the hard thing to do because it means giving up so much we think important. Or of value. I suppose there is only one thing of value and that is the arriving at a point of individuation which results in or is peace of mind."
"As soon as we return it means rehearsals. That is good because just ow I want to work very hard. It is always hard to face the fact that in one area of life we have failed. If I can work hard and produce something fine as I can make it perhaps I can live down in myself the fact that I have failed in the area of being a woman. That I really did mean to say because it is an intrusion but I will let it stand and you will pass it over lightly and forget it."
"How are the dogs?...I often dream of Alla and miss here. I know I cannot have another one so I love yours. I feel Alla sometimes when I am disturbed. I remember the way she used to put her now across my foot when she knew I was unhappy. They know so well and they pay such a great price for knowing so much and sensing that they have souls and that people do now know as a rule that they have them and that they have to remain inarticulate, unable to quite reach the ones they love so much and around whom their entire beings have meaning. They try and there is a touch of that means that and in some little way they know when they have helped. I am sure. I think of the day when I had to take Alla to be put to sleep. She knew and she tried to make me not mind too much. So you see I believe she still is about me somewhere. She would never leave me and she would come when she knew I wanted her. So she must be near."
"There was a chance to do Judith in New York...It needs reworking. I am afraid I have forgotten parts of it. I all happened so fast and there has been so much since that time. William Schuman [sic] tried to arrange it and made all contacts before telling me and now I am on the spot in a way and he is upset because he feels it only means rehearsing as one rehearses music on the page. But it is not that. My body has to be taught again to be Judith and that would mean and least three weeks of constant work. To sustain twenty six minutes alone means a great orientation as you know but Bill does seem to be unaware of that. It is an entirely different thing. That goes into his creation of the music but I have come slowly to realize that musicians do not think of a performance as being a creative medium in itself with its own set of laws. They do not think creative work as being necessary. It is just all mood. I get a little angry with them at times because they are so smug about it all. And also so bewildered when a performance does attain a degree of energy which moves them as a creative thing."
Katharine Cornell (1893 - 1974), nicknamed "First Lady of the Theatre," was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer and is generally regarded as one of the greatest American stage actresses of the 20th century. Martha Graham was a very close friend and choreographed the dance sequences for Cornell's 1934 "Romeo and Juliet," directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic and with Cornell playing Juliet, opposite Basil Rathbone's Romeo and Orson Welles as Tybalt.
Graham, Martha. (1894–1991). Important Signed Letter to Katherine Cornell. A lengthy and important signed letter from the great modern dancer and choreographer. Alton, Ill. 31 March 1950. 3pp typed letter signed "Martha," addressed to Katherine Cornell ["Dear Kit"] in New Orleans. Typed letter with a few manuscript corrections in Graham's hand and sold together with original mailing envelope and a recently printed photograph of Graham and Cornell visiting backstage at Chicago's Blackstone Theatre, February 15, 1942. A rich letter regarding numerous deeply personal and artistic topics. Seven paragraphs, of fifteen with comparable content, as follows:
"It is hard to play these one night stands and at best it is hard and then to be ill is terrible. It means your throat and voice I know and there is nothing to do but to do everything medicine can do...Sometimes the mere fact of going to the dressing room at night can be so healing and it seems that it is a haven of refuge and that only there is there any peace. I have felt that on this trip so many times. I know not know what to do really now that it is over. It seemed a long time when we started out and an unbelievable thing to attempt and face but now that it is over it is hard to face giving it up because it is the one reality."
"I know you know this in yourself, that security of work and the rightness of place. It is frightening, too, because for me it means that there is nothing else and when that time is over when I can do it that life stops. Does it mean that to you too? I think perhaps it is wrong that it should mean so much and that there seems to be nothing else. But that is the way it is. I think I took the wrong turning some place in all this and now it means the 'circular desert' for the rest of the time there is left. I know there must be something else and perhaps I shall find it."
"Kit, I wish I could say in some way what your faith in me and the help you have given me in so many ways has meant to me. I can never say it, even though I want to say it do badly...That kind of faith is a treasure and it is seldom found and it is something to treat as a treasure and keep safe, and to hold it close as a talisman against the rigors of the world....I cannot tell you how deeply humble it makes me and how much I wish I could do one little thing for you ever in the world. I can love you and treasure you as a great experience in the world of living and that is all. But if I fail in other ways it is because I am stilled by you and your stature as a being, as a woman."
"I think you know how much I want to go to Europe. I think I may meet with as great antagonism as I have met with here but it will be a challenge and I feel it is perhaps a responsibility. I hope it is not an indulgence or just to justify a vanity. I have thought deeply over it. I know how hard it will be and I know it will have griefs just as there are here. Because I always take myself with me no matter where I can go. I wonder often if we take that same self into death with us and if there is no escape even there. I suppose ther is only one escape and that is to change what we are and that is the hard thing to do because it means giving up so much we think important. Or of value. I suppose there is only one thing of value and that is the arriving at a point of individuation which results in or is peace of mind."
"As soon as we return it means rehearsals. That is good because just ow I want to work very hard. It is always hard to face the fact that in one area of life we have failed. If I can work hard and produce something fine as I can make it perhaps I can live down in myself the fact that I have failed in the area of being a woman. That I really did mean to say because it is an intrusion but I will let it stand and you will pass it over lightly and forget it."
"How are the dogs?...I often dream of Alla and miss here. I know I cannot have another one so I love yours. I feel Alla sometimes when I am disturbed. I remember the way she used to put her now across my foot when she knew I was unhappy. They know so well and they pay such a great price for knowing so much and sensing that they have souls and that people do now know as a rule that they have them and that they have to remain inarticulate, unable to quite reach the ones they love so much and around whom their entire beings have meaning. They try and there is a touch of that means that and in some little way they know when they have helped. I am sure. I think of the day when I had to take Alla to be put to sleep. She knew and she tried to make me not mind too much. So you see I believe she still is about me somewhere. She would never leave me and she would come when she knew I wanted her. So she must be near."
"There was a chance to do Judith in New York...It needs reworking. I am afraid I have forgotten parts of it. I all happened so fast and there has been so much since that time. William Schuman [sic] tried to arrange it and made all contacts before telling me and now I am on the spot in a way and he is upset because he feels it only means rehearsing as one rehearses music on the page. But it is not that. My body has to be taught again to be Judith and that would mean and least three weeks of constant work. To sustain twenty six minutes alone means a great orientation as you know but Bill does seem to be unaware of that. It is an entirely different thing. That goes into his creation of the music but I have come slowly to realize that musicians do not think of a performance as being a creative medium in itself with its own set of laws. They do not think creative work as being necessary. It is just all mood. I get a little angry with them at times because they are so smug about it all. And also so bewildered when a performance does attain a degree of energy which moves them as a creative thing."
Katharine Cornell (1893 - 1974), nicknamed "First Lady of the Theatre," was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer and is generally regarded as one of the greatest American stage actresses of the 20th century. Martha Graham was a very close friend and choreographed the dance sequences for Cornell's 1934 "Romeo and Juliet," directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic and with Cornell playing Juliet, opposite Basil Rathbone's Romeo and Orson Welles as Tybalt.
"It is hard to play these one night stands and at best it is hard and then to be ill is terrible. It means your throat and voice I know and there is nothing to do but to do everything medicine can do...Sometimes the mere fact of going to the dressing room at night can be so healing and it seems that it is a haven of refuge and that only there is there any peace. I have felt that on this trip so many times. I know not know what to do really now that it is over. It seemed a long time when we started out and an unbelievable thing to attempt and face but now that it is over it is hard to face giving it up because it is the one reality."
"I know you know this in yourself, that security of work and the rightness of place. It is frightening, too, because for me it means that there is nothing else and when that time is over when I can do it that life stops. Does it mean that to you too? I think perhaps it is wrong that it should mean so much and that there seems to be nothing else. But that is the way it is. I think I took the wrong turning some place in all this and now it means the 'circular desert' for the rest of the time there is left. I know there must be something else and perhaps I shall find it."
"Kit, I wish I could say in some way what your faith in me and the help you have given me in so many ways has meant to me. I can never say it, even though I want to say it do badly...That kind of faith is a treasure and it is seldom found and it is something to treat as a treasure and keep safe, and to hold it close as a talisman against the rigors of the world....I cannot tell you how deeply humble it makes me and how much I wish I could do one little thing for you ever in the world. I can love you and treasure you as a great experience in the world of living and that is all. But if I fail in other ways it is because I am stilled by you and your stature as a being, as a woman."
"I think you know how much I want to go to Europe. I think I may meet with as great antagonism as I have met with here but it will be a challenge and I feel it is perhaps a responsibility. I hope it is not an indulgence or just to justify a vanity. I have thought deeply over it. I know how hard it will be and I know it will have griefs just as there are here. Because I always take myself with me no matter where I can go. I wonder often if we take that same self into death with us and if there is no escape even there. I suppose ther is only one escape and that is to change what we are and that is the hard thing to do because it means giving up so much we think important. Or of value. I suppose there is only one thing of value and that is the arriving at a point of individuation which results in or is peace of mind."
"As soon as we return it means rehearsals. That is good because just ow I want to work very hard. It is always hard to face the fact that in one area of life we have failed. If I can work hard and produce something fine as I can make it perhaps I can live down in myself the fact that I have failed in the area of being a woman. That I really did mean to say because it is an intrusion but I will let it stand and you will pass it over lightly and forget it."
"How are the dogs?...I often dream of Alla and miss here. I know I cannot have another one so I love yours. I feel Alla sometimes when I am disturbed. I remember the way she used to put her now across my foot when she knew I was unhappy. They know so well and they pay such a great price for knowing so much and sensing that they have souls and that people do now know as a rule that they have them and that they have to remain inarticulate, unable to quite reach the ones they love so much and around whom their entire beings have meaning. They try and there is a touch of that means that and in some little way they know when they have helped. I am sure. I think of the day when I had to take Alla to be put to sleep. She knew and she tried to make me not mind too much. So you see I believe she still is about me somewhere. She would never leave me and she would come when she knew I wanted her. So she must be near."
"There was a chance to do Judith in New York...It needs reworking. I am afraid I have forgotten parts of it. I all happened so fast and there has been so much since that time. William Schuman [sic] tried to arrange it and made all contacts before telling me and now I am on the spot in a way and he is upset because he feels it only means rehearsing as one rehearses music on the page. But it is not that. My body has to be taught again to be Judith and that would mean and least three weeks of constant work. To sustain twenty six minutes alone means a great orientation as you know but Bill does seem to be unaware of that. It is an entirely different thing. That goes into his creation of the music but I have come slowly to realize that musicians do not think of a performance as being a creative medium in itself with its own set of laws. They do not think creative work as being necessary. It is just all mood. I get a little angry with them at times because they are so smug about it all. And also so bewildered when a performance does attain a degree of energy which moves them as a creative thing."
Katharine Cornell (1893 - 1974), nicknamed "First Lady of the Theatre," was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer and is generally regarded as one of the greatest American stage actresses of the 20th century. Martha Graham was a very close friend and choreographed the dance sequences for Cornell's 1934 "Romeo and Juliet," directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic and with Cornell playing Juliet, opposite Basil Rathbone's Romeo and Orson Welles as Tybalt.