Jan and Cora Gordon

Cora Josephine Gordon  (1879-1950) continued to give public lectures and to write on art following the death of her husband Jan Gordon  in 1944. The Hull Daily Mail of October 4th 1946 carried a public notice detailing upcoming Tuesday talks at the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society, at the Queen's Hall. Cora Gordon's talk, "Off the beaten Track in Europe," is shown for Tuesday January 14th 1947. Before Jan Gordon's death, the couple had given public lectures together, often including musical performances. On their American journey in 1927 and 1928, they had given illustrated lectures under the management of William B. Feakins (Wm. B. Feakins, Inc., Times Building, New York). From 1931 onwards there are reports of lectures given by Cora alone, including the following. 1931. Sheffield ; " I do know that Cora Gordon is going up to Sheffield at the end of the month to give two or more lectures about the travels which she and her husband ha...

Jan Gordon delivered a lecture on the 28th February 1943 as part of a series of six talks presented at the National Gallery on the topic of "The Artist and The War." His talk was on "The Artist and the War of 1914-18." Shortly before this series, the National Gallery had begun showing a " Picture of the Month " as bombing raids lessened during 1942. Jan Gordon argued that the " war has made people feel vividly the limitations of the academic school. They have begun to realise that to express things of such a nature extraordinary methods are not only permissable but essential ." (Foss 2007). He had earlier written on the war art of Paul Nash in a similar vein: " And it is precisely this clearness of understanding which makes Paul Nash's war pictures so vividly engrossing. It is not possible to paint truly how this war has swept man, because horror will not permit this truth to be told. It is possible to depict the devastation of N...

Reading about the pilgrimage of Pope Francis to Fatima in Portugal today , I was reminded of the journey Jan and Cora Gordon made there in 1933 , 84 years ago. A gallery of illustrations made by the Gordons during this journey can be seen here . It is today 100 years since three children reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary while tending sheep. Two of the children (Jacinta and Francisco Marto) died in the 1918-1919 European influenza pandemic. The third, Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, died in February 2005 . The Gordons had timed their visit in 1933 to be able to participate in the Fatima pilgrimage honouring the vision seen on May 13, 1917. " We had hurried our departure from London to reach Portugal before the 13th May. For on that date each year a remarkable pilgrimage takes place, celebrating an event, from what can be gathered, seems to be the best-authenticated account of a genuine miracle than can be offered. " However, they noted that, " Catholic miracle...

Silvia Beach  (1887-1962) wrote a letter of protest, dated 2nd February 1927, against the planned publication in New York of an adapted version of James Joyce 's "Ulysses." She was American-born, but lived most of her life in Paris. She had published "Ulysses" there in 1922. Her Paris bookstore was called " Shakespeare and Company. " The issue being protested was the planned piracy of Joyce's work in a magazine edited by Samuel Roth . She wrote: " It is a matter of common knowledge that the ULYSSES of Mr. James Joyce is being republished in the United States, in a magazine edited by Samuel Roth, and that this republication is being made without authorization by Mr. Joyce; without payment to Mr. Joyce and with alterations which seriously corrupt the text. This appropriation and mutilation of Mr. Joyce's property is made under colour of legal protection in that the ULYSSES which is published in France and which has been excluded from t...

A chatty review of " The Luck of Thirteen " by Marthe Troly-Curtin, appears in her "Phrynette's letters to lonely soldiers" segment in "The Sketch" of April 19th 1916. She enjoyed "the funny little thumbnail sketches (minute masterpieces by Jo)." and the "rich mine of humour" that they worked with "pen and ink and paint-brush." She quotes the observation in the book on the handsome Montenegrin peasanty: " We passed many peasants and had evidently enetered the land of Venus, for each one was more beautiful than the neighbour. Since Jabliak we had not seen an ugly man or woman, and the dignity of their carriage was exceeded only by the nobleness of their features. Ugly women must be valuable in those parts, and probably marry early - humans ever prize the rare above the beautiful. " Troly-Curtin also quoted the descriptions of Jan's elaborate protection against the rain and Jo's knitted con...

Here is a photograph of the complete written works of Jan and Cora Gordon, several in multiple copies (to capture interesting dedications and variations in cover art), together with associated literature, in a library in Malaysia. To learn more about their written output, see the group of galleries presented  here . Books set during WW1 are discussed here ; novels here ; books and articles on art here ; "Two Vagabonds" travel adventures here ; books set in the USA here ; and books set in Paris and London here . Of the art works visible in the photograph, the story of the Ghent watercolour can be found here ; the Almeria dwarfs here ; the Puerto Lumbreras guitar concert here ; and the posada at Lorca  here . The central picture above the bookcase shows my father as a baby at Mesylls ( see ).

The Terre Haute Saturday Spectator (Saturday, June 27, 1925), Indiana carried the following brief account of " Two Vagabonds in the Balkans " by Jan and Cora Gordon , concluding with: " It is a book to be given to everyone who thinks he has seen all of Europe when he has been to Paris, Rome and Stratford on Avon ." This book continued on from the first two travel books by the Gordons , both set in Spain . An overview of the "Two Vagabonds" series can be found here .