Somehow a Past: The Autobiography of Marsden Hartley [Paperback]

Marsden Hartley (Author), Susan Elizabeth Ryan (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 1998

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) is best known as an American modernist and pioneering artist of the early twentieth century. But he was also a prolific writer who published dozens of essays and reviews and several volumes of poetry and prose. The autobiographical account of his life in the manuscript collection of Yale¹s Beinecke Library has often been consulted by scholars and curators writing about Hartley. It is the most revealing document he left about his personal life and relationships -- both for its disclosures and omissions -- but has never been published before.Transcribed from Hartley¹s own handwritten manuscripts, this edition is accompanied by photographs (some never before published), notes, and an introduction discussing Hartley¹s fascination with autobiography in the context of his struggle with notions of self-representation in art. Susan Ryan also describes the circumstances surrounding the composition of Somehow a Past, and explains the distinctions between this original version and two later ones also in the Beinecke Library.Somehow a Past is compelling both as historical document and as personal narrative. Although solitary, self-involved, and saturnine, Hartley nevertheless knew nearly every figure of the international avant-garde in his day and unfolds his life largely through a chain of personal encounters. His traffic with such major literary and artistic figures as Alfred Stieglitz, Vasili Kandinski, Gertrude Stein, Mabel Dodge, Eugene O¹Neill, Robert McAlmon, and Charles Demuth is recorded as are his travels both domestic and foreign.Somehow a Past is gossipy, discursive, and self-distanced. Hartley drafted it several times, truncating the description of his traumatic childhood, and leaving out any overt reference to his homosexuality. Yet there are moments of crystal clear self-characterization and leitmotifs that commemorate his troubled youth.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This tender book, carefully edited by Susan Elizabeth Ryan, was chosen from among six handwritten manuscripts of the same title by the prolific American modernist painter and writer Marsden Hartley. Hartley "presents the scholar with an untidy field of inquiry," Ryan writes gently. Partly inspired by his friend Gertrude Stein's "autobiography" of Alice B. Toklas, it tells the story of a life at the center of the early modernist art movement in America, chiefly among the Alfred Stieglitz crowd. For this book, Ryan, in an extensive introduction, fills in many blanks, such as Hartley's homosexuality and the extreme sadness of his childhood after his mother's death when he was 8. The main text is a model of intellectual inquiry, self-doubt, and frequently mordant observations: "The summer in Paris was gay and amusing--there is always one summer in Paris when it is that." Or, "O, the wild rough gaiety of the Marseillaises when they are not murdering and thieving." --Margaret Moorman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Hartley's diffident and elusive title does not convey the energy,charm and sheer pleasure of this artist's account of his life andtravels.... Marsden Hartley is an extraordinary witness to hisage. The book joins a rich body of 'witness' literature left us byHartley's friends and conspirators in the 'modern movement' likeGertrude Stein, Robert McAlmon and Kay Boyle, Mabel Dodge and ErnestHemingway. One of the few painters turned writer, Hartley has given usan intensely visual record of a time he called a 'cross 'tween acircus and a sacred affair,' when everything was possible, and theartist's goal was simply to remake the world." Julie Martin , The New York Times Book Review

"As a writer, Hartley renders his life and the circumstances of hiswork with an often overblown drama, but it is precisely this dramathat mirrors the physic mood underlying his character and,consequently, much of his art. While biographical information existselsewhere, Hartley's own recounting of his story offers illuminationsthat transcend the factual. By making this self-view available tomore than a handful of scholars, this book will enrich the field ofearly 20th century art history." Barbara Haskell, Curator, Painting and Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262581639
• ISBN-13: 978-0262581639
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #866,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Marsden Hartley Autobiography...Somehow a Past, December 31, 2000

By 

Kerry W. Crowley (Hancock, Maine USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Somehow a Past: The Autobiography of Marsden Hartley (Paperback)

This is a reworking of the autobiography of Marsden Hartley by Susan Elizabeth Ryan (Assistant Professor of Art, Louisiana State University) I have not read the previous versions but I am interested in Maine art and I found this autobiography and the pictures it contains interesting and informative about Hartley and his travels and interactions with other prominent artistic and literary figures of his time. There are 5 appendices that include some of his letters to Gertrude Stein and his niece Norma Berger. There are 45 illustrations (all in black and white) of photos of Hartley and of some of his paintings. There is a chronology of Hartley's life and travels which I have found helpful on occasion while researching some of his paintings.

This book probably would not be of interest to you unless you had an interest in Hartley, but if you want to understand him and his paintings this book would be a good place to start.