Modernists’ Letters: A Journey into the Modernist Mind
Hali Gallagher, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC 29526
Jill Gemmill, Computer Science, Clemson, SC 29634
Gabriel Hankins, Digital Humanities, Clemson, SC 29634
Abstract
This research looks at the letters from the modernist
writers Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia
Woolf, and Katherine Mansfield. The goal in this project
is to make clearer connections between these writers
through the use of the visualization tool Palladio. The
data were collected by reading and entering metadata
into table format, and then exporting it into Palladio.
The metadata included the letter ID, author of the
letter, letter recipient, date the letter was written,
destination place, author place, letter type, where the
original letter is archived, and the reference page from
secondary source. Palladio can display connections
through the creation of a network graph. From the data
it was concluded that these writers made connections
with other influential writers of their time period.
Inferences from the data reflect these writers’ desire to
further their career through networking.
Introduction & Background
This project is part of a collaborative project called
Twentieth Century Literary Letters Project. Before when
scholars needed to gather specific information on letters
from profound 21st century writers they would have to
take massive amounts of time reading letters side by
side. By visualizing this textual data in a form that is
searchable and useable, time will be saved on future
related projects. This project will add on to the
Twentieth Century Literary Letters Project by storing
data from letters of the 21st century modernist writers
Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and
Katherine Mansfield. The collection of letters used for
this project were roughly from the years 1918-1922.
Methodology & Tools
•
•
•
Collections of letters gathered in secondary sources
were read.
Massive amounts of data were entered into
Microsoft Excel by hand.
Data were exported into the visualization tool
Palladio for further examination.
Results
From the results it was
concluded that the common
contacts of interest for
Fitzgerald and Hemingway
were Anderson Sherwood,
Rascoe
Burton,
Zelda
Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson,
and Evarts Maxwell Perkins.
Both
writers
wrote
Sherwood and Burton only
once.
Hemingway only wrote to Zelda Fitzgerald once while Fitzgerald wrote to her
fourteen times. Hemingway wrote Gertrude Stein thirty times and Fitzgerald
wrote to her four times. Hemingway wrote to Edmund Wilson three times while
Fitzgerald wrote to him twenty-four times. Fitzgerald wrote to Evarts Maxwell
Perkins sixty-five times while Hemingway wrote him two times.
From the results it
was concluded that
the common
contacts of interest
for Woolf and
Mansfield were
Sydney Waterlow,
Strachey Lytton, and
Samual Koteliansky.
Mansfield wrote
Sydney Waterlow six times while Woolf wrote her three times. Woolf wrote
Strachey Lytton sixteen times while Mansfield only wrote him once. Mansfield
wrote Koteliansky twenty-two times while Woolf wrote him sixteen times.
Discussion
Even though Hemingway and Fitzgerald have a few common contacts, those
contacts are not written to a lot by both parties. Hemingway’s common
contact that he sent the most letters to was Gertrude Stein. Fitzgerald’s
common contact that he sent the most letters was Maxwell Perkins. Gertrude
Stein was known as a profound writer and Perkins was known as a profound
editor.
Discussion Continued
Mansfield and Woolf’s common contact of interest
that both writers sent the most letters to was
Samuel Koteliansky. Koteliansky was known as a
publisher. This could show all writers were
interested in furthering their careers, since their
common points of interest are influential people
in literary fields.
Study Limitations
Secondary sources varied in standard data. Some
sources may have listed only letters the authors
sent while other sources would list letters that
were sent to and from the author. Some sources
would also only list the location of the author and
not where the author was sending the letter to.
Future Work
Continue to edit existing visualizations for further
improvements.
Selected References
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Andrew Turnbull. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York:
Scribner, 1963. Print.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Matthew J. Bruccoli, Margaret M. Duggan, and Susan
Walker. Correspondence of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Random House, 1980. Print.
Hemingway, Ernest. Letters of Ernest Hemingway: 1923-1925. Ed. Sandra Spanier,
Albert J. Defazio III, and Robert W. Trogdon. Vol. 2. N.p.: Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.
Hemingway, Ernest, Sandra Whipple Spanier, and Robert W. Trogdon. The Letters of
Ernest Hemingway.: 1907-1922. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
Mansfield, Katherine. The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield / 1918-1919. Ed.
Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987. Print.
Mansfield, Katherine. The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield / 1919-1920. Ed.
Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993. Print.
Mansfield, Katherine. The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield / 1920-1921. Ed.
Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Vol. 4. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996. Print.
Woolf, Virginia, and Nigel Nicolson. The Letters of Virginia Woolf: 1912-1922. N.p.: n.p.,
1976. Print.
Acknowledgements
REU Funded by NSF ACI Award 1359223
Vetria L. Byrd, PI
REU Site: Research Experience for Undergraduates in Collaborative Data Visualization Applications • June 2 – July 25, 2014 • Clemson University • Clemson, South Carolina
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