The Wiggle Much

& Herbert E. Crowley Archive

[beehivebooks-blog]

Herbert Crowley would work for upwards of a year on a single drawing in his Temple series. Though they are among his greatest visionary masterpieces, the work seemed to torment him. His frustration mounts in these excerpts of his letters to his dear friend Mary Mowbray-Clarke.

“I spotted in the figure – O.K., then the flowers – I got a leaf too dark – but turn back never – facts grinned and bade me go on – as the time flew…. So I went on knowing that every flower I put in was wrong. Each flower meant more nervousness – still I went on hoping that it would look OK in a mass – I reached the top today and all light has left it. It is a dead damp meaningless mass. All a waste of time – FACTS. … Now am I to start another one – under worse conditions? I am nearer the end than I was two weeks ago. My nervousness worse and the bank so much nearer dry. What will it be if I do start another? Can you imagine?

[…] My mind is in such a state that every moment away from that drawing board nigh maddens me & the hours I spend at it madden me even more. There is no let up – when it’s done what will it mean to me – nothing. So there we are. I have purchased a Welsbach mantel & am going to work at night – I must – the whole outlook is so absolutely dun-colored that I only get a chance to forget whilst at it… I feel as though I were promenading on borrowed knees. I am O.K. Physically. Anyway – I am so down and out mentally that all physical deficiencies disappear upon arrival…. I find the more I do on that drawing, the more I have to do.”

Learn more on our ongoing Kickstarter campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehivebooks/the-temple-of-silence-forgotten-worlds-of-herbert

[wigglemuch]

The Temple of Silence: Forgotten Worlds of Herbert Crowley

An oversized archival art book collecting the unforgettable-yet-forgotten work of Herbert Crowley, and telling his remarkable story.

Check it out!

[wigglemuch]

Herbert E. Crowley, date unknown, likely 1920s. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Alice Lewisohn Crowley, 1946. (5.6 × 10.8 in.)

[wigglemuch]

“Rustling Leaves” - a page from one of Herbert Crowley’s notebooks, 1924. Collection of estate of Herbert Crowley, Zurich.

[wigglemuch]

Art by Herbert Crowley’s friends and acquaintances -

1. C.G. Jung - page from the Red Book 

2. Charles Burchfield - Song of the Telegraph

3. Elizabeth Mcgillivray Knowles - Nocturne

4. John Frederick Mowbray-Clarke - War Memorial

[wigglemuch]

An excerpt from the Asheville Gazette News, Thursday March 16th., 1911. Just the odd type of thing you stumble on when doing research sometimes...

[wigglemuch]

" Sire! I come in the place of my most unworthy King and Master. Since you conquered him and most of us, his unworthy heart has ceased not to shed deep tears of gratitude - The Nile, which used to stink, now savours of the Lily pads which grow upon the Royal Thames - Our boats, which bore us grain and rainment from the north now are your boats, and bear us nought at all - ave windows for our eyes with which to see thy true greatness behind the veil. As the boats pass on, (to God knows where!) All hail to thee! - My master. lord. and Surmish King- sends to thee from out the Stable Royal his great Arab steed- named "Gooseberry"- winner of one hundred handy- caps in this dirt ridden desert part- Praying that he may bear you into your very own - which place, can only be chosen by the truth in the estimation of yourself? “

(From a 1920′s sketchbook by Herbert Crowley in the collection of his estate in Zürich)

[wigglemuch]

Every (known) book in which Herbert Crowley has been mentioned or featured.

From bottom to top:

"Forgotten Fantasy: Sunday Comics 1900 -1915" Edited by Peter Maresca, 2011

"Popular Prints of the Americas" A. Hyatt Mayor, 1973

"Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900 - 1969" Dan Nadel, 2005

"The Life of the Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street" John P. Harrington, 2007

"The Last Romantic" by Martin Birnbaum, 1960

"The Neighborhood Playhouse: Leaves from a Theatre Scrapbook" by Alice Lewisohn Crowley, 1959

"Sunwise Turn: A Human Comedy of Bookselling" by Madge Jenison, 1923

[wigglemuch]

Samples of several pages from one of Herbert Crowley's 1920s sketchbooks. From the collection of the estate of Herbert Crowley, Zürich.

[wigglemuch]

Jan. 2015:

Unearthing Herbert Crowley's 1917 set designs for "The Kairn of Koridwen" at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC. L to R - Pamela Moller Kareman (exec. director of the Neighborhood Playhouse), Justin Duerr (researcher), Susanna W.S. (Herbert Crowley's niece and researcher), and Mandy Katz (researcher.)

[wigglemuch]

Screen shots from the ending of the 2011 documentary film 'Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.'

[wigglemuch]

'The Haunt' by Herbert E. Crowley, circa 1920's. From the collection of the estate of Herbert Crowley, Zürich.

[wigglemuch]

NIGHT ATTACK, by Herbert Crowley. Undated. This was drawn on the reverse of another drawing, which was framed, hiding this image.

From the collection of the estate of Herbert Crowley in Zurich.

[wigglemuch]

Herbert Crowley's WWI medal card, and what it means.

This is Herbert Crowley's "medal card" from World War I. This was a form given to soldiers who were awarded a medal, and it lists some details about their enlistment. I did a little research to interpret it, and here's what it all means:

Crowley was a private (Pte.) in the Royal Engineers (RE) division of the Army Service Corps (ASC). ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Army_Service_Corps ) His medal was returned (Retrd.), and as decreed by section 992 of the King's Regulation (K.R.) 1923, Amendment (Adt.) 8426 --

"Kings Regulations 1923 Para 992 (a.) An officer receiving medals for issue will arrange for their safe custody. (b.) When medals are presented to individual’s receipts will be obtained from the recipients. 992. Medals which, at the end of one year, still remain unclaimed, will be sent to the Secretary, The War Office."

If the medal remained unclaimed for a period of ten years, it was then "broken up" (terminology of the war office/records office) and melted down for scrap.

[wigglemuch]

Comics

All of The Wiggle Much comics can now be enjoyed at this handy link:

http://wigglemuch.tumblr.com/comics

[wigglemuch]

Excerpt of text from one of Crowley's sketchbooks/journals, titled "waywardness." Circa 1920's. Transcribed in Zurich by Mandy Katz.

9      Saw Sun A. L. (Alice Lewisohn)

         Black cloud passing out of the picture I L – (Irene Lewisohn)

         Colour rear –

         Sun in right back to sun-

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Upon looking at flowers – I said to A to me they are music –

As soon as I had said this I saw that I had  sucked music from the flowers.

The flowers had disappeared –

And I had no music.

Therefore I had nothing –

No flowers – no music !

I then took the flowers out of the music.

And put them back into their vases.

I then saw I had flowers-objects.

Then I saw that I could suck the subject from the object and still retain the object –

I then saw on tobacco box  “Made in England” I immediately said  “so was I” – and I was surrounded immediately in clouds and black fog

I then retired from replaced the tobacco box and saw that the tobacco and  box  were made in England – and that one woman gave birth to three toads. A devil bashed them against the wall they were full of cranberry sauce, the blood of America

[wigglemuch]

Herbert Crowley and friends, Zürich, 1930's. From the collection of the estate of Herbert Crowley, Zürich. Much more to come!