What They May Have Read at Byrdcliffe — Mystery Edition

I took a brief detour from transcribing the Byrdcliffe Library’s card catalogue entries to search the Colony’s Guest Register for the names of writers visiting Byrdclffe, in support of an upcoming exhibition sponsored by the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. As is so often the case when researching old libraries and old archives, I stumbled into a mystery: a 1915 signature in the guest register for one Robert Y. Chambers.

I was instantly intrigued. Could the signature have been for Robert W. Chambers, author of The King in Yellow, a turn of the century best seller? Renowned for his early weird tales, Chambers had a long and storied literary career across many genres, including children’s and historical fiction. But Chambers’ enduring literary reputation rests on his 1895 collection, The King in Yellow, in which the short stories are connected by the titular play, about which little is known beyond the fact it drives anyone who sees or reads it mad. Long considered a classic among cognoscenti of occult fiction, The King in Yellow has enjoyed a resurgence as the basis for the murderous cult and villain in the first season of True Detective.

There are no works by Robert W. Chambers in the Byrdcliffe Library card catalogue. But how could such an author not have visited the aesthetes and theosophists here at Byrdcliffe — especially given the fact that Chambers studied at the Art Students League, which held its summer schools in Woodstock?

The handwriting in both the guest register and the card catalogue is notoriously difficult to decipher, and possibly a W could have been mistaken for a Y. And there was much additional suggestive evidence. Chambers was living in New York City at the time, and had a longtime family home in Albany county, so he could have easily stopped at Woodstock on the way to one of his extended summer sojourns. But the really exciting clue was the name directly above Robert Chambers’, Walter B. Chambers, which was also the name of the brother to whom Chambers had dedicated The King in Yellow. Near certain this could be no coincidence, I contacted the Winterthur Library to request a scan of the entries, rather than the transcription I was working from.

When I saw the actual signature, I was hard-pressed to read the middle initial as a W rather than a Y, although it was not impossible. But most suggestive of all was the fact that the handwriting in the two entries was evidently the same.

I took my puzzle to the experts in all things pulp, the Fictionmags list-serv. Among several replies came a sample of remarkably similar handwriting from editor, anthologist, and Chambers scholar, Doug A. Anderson. Interestingly, the handwriting sample he supplied was from neither Robert nor Walter Chambers, but rather from Walter’s wife, Elizabeth M. J(?) Chambers, on a passport application that she signed on her husband’s behalf. It’s enough to convince me that Robert Chambers at least spent the night at Byrdcliffe. Take a look at all three signatures. What do you think?

Courtesy: Douglas A. Anderson

Special thanks to Douglas A. Anderson and Carley C. Altenburger, Assistant Librarian, Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, for their help in preparing this post.