Two Rare Book Donations
An unknown photo and a bit of luck
We are always happy to receive emails at The Ella Young Society. We’ve met many people who thought they were alone in their curiosity and admiration of Ella Young.
Sometimes people write us because they seek a home for precious things. A while back we were contacted by a woman whose mother was Ella Young’s housekeeper when Ella lived Berkeley.
The woman’s name was Marion.
Marion’s daughter inherited two books Ella Young had given to her mother. No one in her family wanted them. Would the Ella Young Society want them?
Yes, yes, we would.
The books are two works of poetry published in San Francisco and Halcyon. To the Little Princess is printed on deckled paper with two-color decorations.
Inside the book we were astonished to find a four-leaf clover pressed inside.
Inside Marzillian, published by Harbison & Harbison (Oceano) in 1938, we found a previously unknown photo of Ella Young with Robinson Jeffers and his twin sons, Donnan and Garth. The photo was probably taken by Ella’s close friend Una Jeffers.
In her memoir, Flowering Dusk, Ella wrote this portrait of the Jeffers and other friends on a road trip in Big Sur.
Sunshine and keen air on a cliff-edge, and two autos speeding southward. The leading one, piloted by Molly O’Shea, has Robinson Jeffers and John O’Shea and some well-filled wine hampers and luncheon baskets. Una Jeffers is driving the second car, Tony Luhan’s beloved Cadillac. Tony, on the front seat, is hampering Una with advice and sudden ejaculatory commands. On the back seat, Mabel Luhan and I sit silent, occasionally wishing ourselves somewhere else.
This is no road for an altercation between rival chauffeurs. We are on the old coast road to the Big Sur, swinging in detours by dizzy canyon chasms, disentangling ourselves from the clutch of tree-roots, and feigning indifference to the malignant glitter of a sea thousands of feet below us. Tony distrusts the sea. That is why Una is driving the Cadillac. Tony has not had a lifetime to study the sea, but on a short acquaintance he has found out a few things about it. The sea has a grievance. No one has offered it pollen, or made a song for it—worse even, garbage and poisonous sewage have been thrust upon it. The sea is dangerous, and would clasp a victim willingly.
These are wonderful additions, and having context and notes gives these books meaning beyond their contents.