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101

Harriet Dean (1892-1964), Papers/Ephemera.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Harriet Dean (1892-1964), Papers/Ephemera.
DEAN, HARRIET (1992-1964). An archive of letters sent (typescript copies); assorted typed and handwritten manuscripts/copies, many with notations in Dean's hand (1920s-1940s); 19th-century family photographs (Indianapolis and others); family history publications and ephemera; and miscellaneous items/books belonging to Dean. Based on the contents of the lot (and other papers), Dean appears to have written and outlined, and/or edited short stories, reviews, scripts, and essays, and she was a voluminous and lively correspondent. At least some of Elsie Martinez's letters/writing are also likely mixed into the lot; the pair's writing/correspondences were very much entwined (also see Lot of Elsie Martinez and Dean's papers). Of note and interest, as well as stories of their shared social lives, and anecdotes about Elsie, Marty, and Micaela/"Kai", there are several copies of letters Dean wrote to her mother in Indiana. These letters include Dean's tart responses to what must have been her mother's admonishments or judgments about her life, and they are in contrast to Dean's many jolly letters to friends. INCLUDES: -- FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS: 1 tintype of a Dean relative involved in the James G. Blaine campaign; 7 photos mounted on card, including Ward Hunt Dean in his office, Cooperstown street scene, Leatherstockings Falls, the cabin of Dean's great grandfather, Thomas Dean, in Oneida country; plus approx. 6 other family photos, one that appears to be a young Harriet Dean.  -- A 19th century scrapbook of newspaper clippings, obituaries etc. concerning family members (incl. Deans, Reeds, and Ruckles). -- FAMILY HISTORY: 3 booklets by John Candee Dean: Genealogy of the Dean Family, Indianapolis (1918); Journal of Thomas Dean: An Account of a Journey to Indiana in 1817 (1918); and Social Value of the Individual Astronomical Superstitions (1912). -- MANUSCRIPTS (typescripts/typescript copies of letters sent by Dean, some handwritten; and other writing): A folder labeled "Pal letters MSS" (over 100 pages); an envelope labeled "Pal's amusing letters" (over 50 letters, most multiple pages); a folder labeled "Harriet Dean Miscellaneous Manuscripts (over 100 pages); and a folder labeled "Catholic letters to friends with problems" (over 60 pages). -- BOOKS (Fair condition; spotting/staining etc.): My Thirty-Years War, Margaret Anderson, NY: Covici Friede, 1930 ("Pal" inscribed); The Little Review Anthology, NY: Hermitage House, 1953; Eneas Africanus, Harry Stillwell Edwards, Macon: J. W. Burke, 1932 (inscribed to Dean from "Sam"); Eugene Delacroix Oeuvres Litteraires, Vol. I, Paris, 16th edition, 1923 (inscribed in Dean's hand, "Piedmont Feb 1925"; accounting book by A.F. Dean, 1872. -- MISC.: "H.D." monogrammed items: a silver-plated trinket box (The Van Bergh S.P, Co, Rochester N.Y), and a teaspoon. 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. Harriet Dean attended Vassar College, but in 1915 (before graduating) she joined Margaret Anderson's Little Review, a modernist literary magazine out of Chicago. According to Elsie, Dean's role at the magazine was as financial manager and fundraiser, but it's likely she also assisted in editorial tasks. Anderson wrote in her memoir that Dean was "worshipful" about the Little Review, and "...denied all possible comforts to keep it alive, turning anarchist, since that was the fashion... then one day she didn't know what it was all about... She became an intellectual, they tell me".  Harriet Dean met Xavier and Elsie Martinez in 1916 while she was working at the Little Review in San Francisco. After the magazine's brief stint in the City, Dean stayed. By 1919 Dean'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 Kai moved in with her. From this period onward, together Elsie and Dean 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 letter included in this lot (to a Dr. Nagel in Carmel, 1950), Dean describes Elsie Martinez as "my 'Guardian Angel' for almost thirty years". For most of their lives together, Harriet and Elsie went by "Pal" (an affectionate name bestowed by Kai) and "Pellie" or "Pelly" (from "Pelican", Marty's nickname for Elsie). From the Family of Xavier Martinez (1869-1943), Elsie Whitaker Martinez (1890-1984), and Micaela Martinez DuCasse (1913-1989).
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