Tuesday, May 04,
2010 08:55AM
John Van de Graaff replies
with a brief e-mail but promising more information after his
presentation on the 10th.
The first half of August would “work well in principal for a visit,
fortunately” and indicates it is a busy summer in part due to
moving house in September. John gives an indication of what materials
are on hand and what I may due with them: “There are not a lot of
materials--mainly personal files, and probably not much more than a
couple of file drawers. I would be reluctant for anything to leave
here--best probably would be to plan to photograph what you need, and
that should go fairly quickly” - which is what I had in mind
anyway.
Although it would be
better and handier to take the materials home and record them at a
more leisurely pace, it is perfectly understandable to not give them
to a stranger – even a well-meaning scholar like me. Given that
John was to move soon, he says “[...] it will behoove me [...] to
get everything ready for you [...] No one else has looked at the
materials. A former associate of my father did some work on him
several years ago; he wrote a few pages which I can show you [...],
and then he faded from view.” This is interesting and I would have
to come back to this later and see what developed from that, if
anything.
John continues, “I'd
be delighted to talk with you (on tape if you wish), but I'm not
expert on his work. My brother Bill (3 years younger) would be a
better source, probably [...] I'm delighted that you're interested
and look forward to working with you. To be continued! John”
John's delighted.
I'm ecstatic! We are off to a good start.
His e-mail signature
block contains links to his bird photography website and photoblog:
www.birdsbyjohn.com and
www.blipfoto.com/vandegraaff
Have a look. He
takes wonderful photographs and is very happy to talk about them.
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