The dangers of long, deep dives into the correspondence of a grumpy former diplomat

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this--you spend hours, days, weeks, months... reading the archived correspondence of your biographical subject as he goes through his life, inevitably aging and perhaps losing some of his inhibitions (if he ever had any) in the way he expresses himself. 

Then you turn to write some emails and find, to your horror (or perhaps not really to your horror!), that you're writing in something very closely approximating his voice. Somehow you've absorbed his jaded, cantankerous style of writing (which might not be that far from how you're feeling anyway--after all, it's pretty easy to feel jaded and cantankerous these days, amirite?), and before you know it, you've hit the "Send" button, and a message goes out that makes you sound like someone who is tired of life and mad at the world. 

Is Kerr doing that to me or are his letters just bringing to the surface what's already there?

2526A Makiki Heights Drive

This was George H. Kerr's address for about 26 years of his life in Hawaii. Out of curiosity, I googled it and was happy to find photographs of what used to be his apartment on the second floor of what's described elsewhere as an "'Old Hawaii' style home in a 'Tree Top' setting with private deck and ocean/Honolulu views." (My wife and I drove by the house years ago on a trip to Hawaii, but I never thought I'd get a look inside!) In case the websites or photos disappear, I'm going to copy them here, knowing that there's a chance that June Maeda Realty will ask me to take them down. (On the other hand, perhaps I'm helping them advertise this apartment!)

The house was built in 1934. I see from the description that the carpeting is new, but I imagine that the stove and the bathtub might have been there when Kerr lived there. It doesn't appear that this apartment has air conditioning, but perhaps the climate on Makiki Heights Drive is/was cool enough that a combination of fans and the large windows would suffice. 

In a letter from 1984, Kerr noted “the imminent loss of my apartment here which I have occupied for twenty-five years.” He had to leave after his landlord died. He moved to an apartment in Wilder House at 1114 Wilder Avenue, Honolulu, which I imagine was a challenging task, considering he was in his seventies at the time.

[Update, 8:12 p.m.] I was right about the last sentence. I just read that shortly after moving to his new apartment, he ended in the Emergency Room at the Queen's Medical Center and had to have surgery. (He doesn't say what kind of surgery.) He spent a couple of weeks in the hospital, it seems. A month later, he reported that he had lost 24 pounds "and apparently all my strength" since moving. He had to have someone help him organize his research materials because he didn't have the strength to do it himself.

First day of classes tomorrow

I'm really working up to the last minute on the GHK stuff. I just sent off some vignettes (?) about Kerr's work on a book about King Kalākaua, the publication of Licensed Revolution, and his failed attempt to write a second book about Okinawa. 

Now I need to turn my attention to teaching. I'm going back to teaching Advanced Interdisciplinary Writing this semester after a detour into teaching First-Year Writing for the first time in a couple of years. Compared to FYW, the advanced writing class is like an old friend. Tomorrow we'll just be introducing ourselves to each other, and I'll briefly introduce the course. It should be fairly typical of previous first days of class. But as I always tell my mom when I end a call with her, "We'll see what happens." Maybe something will surprise me (hopefully in a good way!).

Ha ha...

From a memo from George Kerr to the University Press of Hawaii, concerning their edits to his bibliography for Licensed Revolution.

and this...

Need some motivation

My course materials are "published" ahead of time--classes start Wednesday, although I don't need to meet with in-person students until Friday. I'm trying to spend as much time as possible before then working through some George Kerr correspondence as a contribution to a chapter on Kerr's later years. Lots of uplifting talk of his trials and tribulations with getting Licensed Revolution published; getting Asian art objects sold to keep body and soul together; dealing with aging and being robbed and becoming more and more cantankerous; trying to finish a book about Hawai'ian King Kalākaua, about whom Kerr was becoming less and less enamored the more he wrote about him (how well I know the feeling...). 

Speaking of King Kalākaua, I recently bought a copy of Tiffany Lani Ing's book, Reclaiming Kalākaua: Nineteenth-Century Perspectives on a Hawaiian Sovereign (2019), which promised a more sympathetic evaluation of the man than he has traditionally received. Kerr isn't cited in the book, but that is not surprising, considering that he never published his manuscript on Kalākaua. Ing's book relies more on Hawai'ian-language sources than many of the other books written about Kalākaua. Like the writers of these other books, Kerr did not have access to (i.e., couldn't read) the Hawai'ian language. 

For an introduction to Ing's book--by the author herself--you can watch this video (I need to watch it later because I need to get back to the Kerr correspondence now!):

Not exactly off to a good start...

So after writing about my resolution yesterday, I stayed up until after 2:00 this morning working on my course materials for the new semester. I have one course ready and two to finish. Woke up late this morning and got back to work. Took a break to shovel out the driveway with my son, who was eager to shovel snow for some reason. I think tonight, I will try to go to bed earlier. I need to get myself (and our son, who doesn't go to sleep until we do!) back to a more normal sleeping schedule. Wish me luck!