I have been studying the writings of George Orwell through the remains he left behind: notebooks, drafts, letters, photographs, and revisions that resist settling into a single narrative. His notebooks show a careful habit of recording fragments — overheard phrases, political observations, reminders written in haste. In “Why I Write,” he refers to the necessity …
In her letters to his closest confidants, James Baldwin wrestled with the concept of love, returning to it time and again without reaching a definitive conclusion. Drafts show him struggling to find the right words, crossing out lines and rewriting them in search of greater precision or clarity. One early draft from 1947 reads: “Love …
In one of her letters, Emily Dickinson wrote: “A Route of Evanescence, With a revolving Wheel.” This image, later revised to the now-famous line “A Bird came down the Walk,” appears in multiple drafts and variations throughout her writing life. She tried out different phrasings for this concept of fleeting existence, from “Evanescence” to “a …
