The first text I wrote for
Arterapia Sentimental now just over three months was
STORIES OF AN EXISTENTIAL TUAREG (I) ... I do not think it have read all of you and what the first chapter - they say always makes sense to a story ... I do I read the first texts and entries to your blogs. At worst I'm wrong and are not as significant as I think, but in my case, yes ... My first text was a statement of my intentions but did not appear, you know how I like to encrypt and hide my intentions ... Well, today I conclude the story (true) with which I started my blog: the story of William & Florence Morden and book
The Garden of Kama (The Garden of Love) that years ago I found and bought in New York, right next to where lived then, inside which was a exlibris that somehow is my motto and epitaph Side
The world is a book which is not read nothing but the first page if you have not ever left the place where born ... I invite you to reread that first text and then continue with the latter ... In the following paragraphs I will relate my research , confess my intuitions, and all that was discovered in the Morden for a few days last January just opened
Arterapia Sentimental . On many occasions in these months I was tempted to publish this post-is-this output, but I preferred to keep better time, what better or worse day today ...
was Monday 28 January. For two days had finally opened my blog
Arterapia Sentimental after having been delayed for months searching for meaning and literary and existential justifications for doing so. Had spent the weekend learning the basics of how to write a blog on Blogger and especially choosing my first text-manifesto ... I titled
TUAREG STORIES OF EXISTENTIAL (I) and he declared my condition traveler and not landscapes in the world only, but also existential interior caver, love and do not know what else ... That inaugural text included an extensive reference to the beautiful book The Garden of Kama
(The Garden of Love) which for years had found in New York, had my involuntary successive inquiries to find the author of the legend of his bookplates, my failure to know who were their former owners, "William & Florence Morden" ... do not know why but that afternoon of Monday, I started looking again, now obsessed, their real stories. I immediately started to get into Google their names, crossed, looking among the entries that gave me the form ... "meanwhile was imagining a story, perhaps the beginnings of a new novel now dedicate himself to a stranger ...
Guiomar
My researches on the course began Morden Google: "William Morden
" ... click ... -840 entries found in 0.19 seconds ... The first hour was frustrating opening page references: dozens and dozens of family trees with no relevant data. One of them gave me at least a small reward, "
William Morden, captive of the Mongols "-pointed lines of a travel book:
classic stories of travel and adventure from National Geographic ... Of course it could be "my "William Morden, I assumed, was referring to a traveler ..." but there have been many in recent history. What if there was a traveler but simply a travel book reader? ... Obstinate - "
Pinghe " - continued opening and closing pages just give them a look ... until finally at the entrance to the first track 127 found effective in my adventure to reconstruct the unknown biography of Morden. The headline read: "Ernest Hemingway Message Boards
" ... hopeful and I clicked on the page dedicated to Hemingway, of course, and a great writer, a daring traveler and explorer of exotic landscapes insistent, deep inside, a melancholy also stubborn an alcoholic and suicidal exquisite copy- I found an invaluable reference to a William Morden, was a story about a book written by a passenger by that name - Our African Advent
(sic) -, which is narrated their hunting and exploration in Africa alongside the legendary professional hunter Phillip Parsifal, also commented that Morden, next to such a Clark had participated in an expedition to the Pamir Russian and Chinese Turkestan, in addition to citing his other trips to the north of Asia, Turkena district in Kenya, etc ... With just data sensed he was sure that William Morden, was "my" William Morden ... I do not know, are inclined, how you would explain I ... revelations, strange invisible certainties of someone who is accustomed to living on the dictates of their intuitions and hunches, and I knew that was the silver thread that I had to go ... period.
I went back to Google search and entered the title of William Morden, but correcting the erroneous "Advent
" wrote correctly "
Our African Adventure" and made the hopeful click: 1940 entries in 0.04 seconds ... - What fiasco, but it seems the opposite. It was not easy to find another valid reference for my research with this title. And is that the phrase
Our African Adventure (our African Adventure) is very common and handy to all those who write about their experiences in Africa and lay texts on the Internet. So after reading countless travel crap about contemporary tourists rather than from real travelers, I went to give a more consistent references ... For example, an online bookstore in pointing this book as written by "William
and Irene Morden, published in 1954-I admit that I was surprised and mosque by the name of Irene who appeared next to him: Is that not called his girlfriend or wife Florence? Finally
information substantial input in 59 ... "I confess that I was about to abandon the search path for the title of his hypothetical travel book. The track was as follows: on page on the library's African ethnography
Yale Peabody Museum is said that some of the most precious objects in the collection were collected by William and Irene Morden ... better said: So I hear that William real name was "William J.
Morden "clear, almost nothing that was not him, lacked the J! ... Morden note on my data confirmed and extended previous: Colonel William J.
Morden, explorer, hunter and collector ...
A new search engine, now of "William J.
Morden, "he reported 64 entries in 0'148 seconds, becoming more accurate and rich information. For example, the fourth reference an article in National Geographic
in English -
In search of Marco Polo argali (December 2003): "
In January 1926, William J. Morden and James L. Clark, the American Museum of Natural History, left for Central Asia in order to know the status of the population of argali, Ovis ammon polii de Marco Polo in Russian Turkestan, and the way hunt for museums zoology some examples of this unique wild sheep. Call Morden-Clark Expedition to Asia in nine months crossed 12,700 kilometers from the Indian Ocean to the Yellow Sea, crossing the rugged terrain of the "roof of the world." Upon his return, the expedition recorded his impressions in a report published by the Geographic in October 1927. We leave the reader with an abstract recreation of such extraordinary experiences reported by Morden himself ... Text of William J. Morden, photographs of Morden-Clark Expedition to Asia, published in National Geographic
in October 1927 ... This was my Morden!
Eighth entry - "
AMNH Special Collections Library" - it was too ... The Special Collections Library
American Museum of Natural History Library outlined the visual documentaries, films, made by Morden on the road, no less than 1922 to 1956-I knew that William J. Morden was born in 1886 and died in 1958 at 72 years old ... carefully reading the synopsis of the contents of his films I could write the first script of his life as a traveler, his adventures in dangerous worlds met and explored risk some exceptional circumstances of your trip, etc.. And most crucial: here I first discovered Morden Florence at his side, his first wife with whom he shared life of adventure, travel fascinating, exlibris, the legend about life as a open book and as I made my trip so long ago, and especially his literary gem - The Garden of Kama
- years ago I found (why random, out of necessity?) in New York and now belongs to me ...
In one of the movies of his travels
preserved in the American Museum of Natural History entitled
Beyond the vale of Kashmir , dated 1922-24, contains a dispatch from his first marriage Morden Africa and Asia at that time. The contents of the images outlined by telegraph: "Panoramic views of the Himalayas behind. The expedition on its way to the Kashmir Valley through western Tibet. Herford Tynes Cowling cameraman filmed portraits of Tibetan people and some of its activities. In the village of Mulbik visit a colossal statue of a god of four arms on the wall of the mountain. In Srinagar, in the Jhelum RIIO, William James and Florence H. Morden staying with a British colonel in an elegant mansion full of beautiful floating works of art and furniture "... etc. To know Florence H. Morden took me to open a new window on my screen and test new search for it with Google. So I know her husband William had published at his own expense in 1940 a posthumous book in honor of Florence, died last year:
From the Field Notes of Florence Morden , which today is a bibliographic rarity, and I hope to buy soon some of his few examples ... That same Florence H. Morden was also published in Life in the National Geographic
:
The Oriental Pageantry Of Northern India, with texts by Florence-including an essay,
Days House-boat in the Vale of Kashmir , illustrated with color photographs of Francis Price;
National Geographic Magazine, October 1929 ... For some references in the bibliographic records the posthumous book of Florence H. Morden know that this was accompanying her husband on many of his expeditions, for example tiger hunt in India in 1924, in other hunts for Eastern Africa in the twenties, in the above-discussed trip to the Valley of Kashmir, and Beijing was even waiting for William James to return the hazardous journey to the Pamirs and Turkestan, after the Mongols temporary captivity ... I recognize the courage of this woman, his loyalty, his most profound and intimate involvement in this project of life enviable common and complicity with her husband William to death.
for the content of your movies stored on the
American Museum of Natural History , I could follow some of the first William James Morden travel from the twenties until his death in 1958. Between 1922 and 1924, first visited East Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, and India, Burma, Kashmir, Tibet, Sikkim, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Indochina, the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia today, Japan and China ... Incredible! ... Along with Herford Tynes Cowling will hunt alpine ibex and visit monasteries in northern Pakistan and India ... through western Tibet and Kashmir, as I have said ... In 1926, with James Lippitt Clark begins his expedition to Asia central to the Russian territory of Pamir and Chinese Turkestan in search of strange goats fine wool-argali (Ovis ammon
polii ) - of which Marco Polo spoke with admiration of his stories. The explorers crossed the Himalayas and Karakoram mountains to the restricted areas of the Russian Pamir Plateau and the region of Turfan in Chinese Turkestan, foiled a planned meeting with a third expedition, Roy Chapman Andrews, Morden and Clark recklessly enters Mongolia without permits or credentials ... Clark and Morden are captured by the Mongol soldiers and tortured in the belief that they are actually spies ... Rescued by Russian soldiers, cross Atlas Mountains and the Siberian are taken to the Far East, and arrived at China, to Beijing, where they hoped to Florence ... Certainly it is a modern epic, one of the most fascinating and heroic expeditions that a traveler could do convulsive those times, even today. Result of that experience, William J. Morden wrote and published a lengthy article in the chronicle of that trip for National Geographic Magazine
- Caravan
across Central Asia; v. 52, no. 4, Oct. 1927 - and a beautiful monograph:
Across Asia's Snows and Deserts , New York, ed. Putnam, 1927.
In 1928 we find Morden in Russia was gathering permits and establishing alliances with the Soviet Academy of Sciences for further expedition to Siberia, visiting Leningrad and Moscow, Russian recording monuments and celebrations of the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Months later, in 1929, William traveled to Central Asia again, this time to Soviet Russia and Eastern Siberia. In the corresponding film preserved in AMNH
see images of the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, the steppes of Kazakhstan, the peoples of Eastern Siberia, the Siberian taiga landscapes appear in this profusely ... William James, at age forty three years, perhaps too old-looking for the rigors of your trip, with full beard and a beautiful look that looks into the distance and from afar.
After that time I found no other reference to Morden to 1939-date of death of Florence, and 1940, when William posthumously published field notes from his wife. I assume that during that time would review the notes and memories of his travels at his home in New York or around, enjoy your home and also his books, The Garden of Kama
, of \u200b\u200bcourse (book I bought in Calcutta in one trip) - and look after my children, I do not know if they had them or not. Would be happy ... It seems
William Morden participated in the Second World War, I do not know in what capacity, probably as a consultant or intelligence, their age, and was graduated with the honor of Colonel. In 1947, when William is now 61, emerges again leading a major expedition, this time to Africa, funded by the AMNH
. New York travel to Cape Town, South Africa, appears for the first time his second wife, Irene Morden ... It is now time to describe in detail the issue of William and Irene Morden, one point they crossed from south to north all Africa, whose most evocative stages include: Transkei Reserve, Southern Rhodesia, the Hill Matape Zimbabwe, Nairobi, Lodwar the desolate region in search of the Turkana people, the "trip" to Lake Rudolf, several pathways for Kenya, an exotic "trip" to Zanzibar, visit
Poth Farm, the farm of his friend Phillip Parcival famous professional hunter, the encounter with the Kikuyus in Kenya's northern border, while indigenous objects buy, collect visual records of the tribes who know, hunt and capture all kinds of animals, etc ... Follow her journey Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the then Belgian Congo (now Zaire)-where known-Pygmies, and then climb from its origins in Lake Victoria, on the lower reaches of the Nile by following its path directly or weaving: Murchison Falls and Lake Albert, Juba, Khartoum ... then go by train to Wadi Halfa, searching the desert culture of Nubia, and beyond to the north, crossing the Libyan desert, come to El Adem, his last leg in Africa ... The expedition returns home through the Mediterranean, Malta, Marseille, Cannes, and from there to Paris, and finally England the point of departure back to New York aboard the ocean liner Queen Mary
... Phew ... what a wonderful crazy ...
De Irene Morden have not no news found prior to this trip with her husband William. It seems that Irene was younger than him, but not an inexperienced young woman, even in a note I infer that older childless ... The truth is that Irene rejuvenated and renewed the hopes of sesentañero William and, like his former wife, our Florence H., was his inseparable companion, his partner in travel arrangements, your photographer camera at the ready or filming documentaries, his accomplice writing stories and articles from his travels. In 1953 we find the Morden marriage in Africa, this time accompanied by the collectors Walter and Lili Moesch Braun, addressing the
Etosha Park in Namibia today. After a lengthy journey through the lands of Namibia, then went to the current Botswana, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe between current and Zambia), Angola and Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), etc ... In 1954 comes out the fantastic book that I mentioned earlier, written in common -
Our African Adventure, London: Seeley Service, 1954 - profusely illustrated with maps of his travels during the 1947 expedition, bullets and photos ...
The latest issue of William J. Morden to Africa in 1956 returns to be documented visually in the
American Museum of Natural History : was a trip organized by the
Peabody Museum of Natural History Yale University to collect ethnographic and zoological specimens. The journey began again in Namibia, land of the Owambo, returning later to the Etosha Park, then the issue continued in the region of Natal, South Africa ... to later make a leap to Kenya and Tanganyika region, then and hunting, visiting Nairobi, the northern border district of Isiolo, Marsabit Reserve
, Ambesoli, Arusha, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti Plains ... hiking to Mount Kenya, Lake Paradise, Lake Magadi and Kilimanjaro, maximum height of Africa ... In the documentary can be seen in the same Irene hunting and claiming the black fur of a lion, leopard and even a rhinoceros, being honored by Masai women for his exploits as an expert hunter ... Shortly after his return to New York, William James Morden died at the age of 72 years ... A life memorable, no doubt ... that deserves to be remembered with admiration as I now do in this text as a tribute.
Finally, I can find a brief biography of William J. Morden completing reference data and so far I've collected in my research on the Internet: Who was born on January 3, 1886 in Chicago, the son of a wealthy family dedicated the manufacture of railroad materials ... who studied and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School
Yale University ... that after graduation he worked as an engineer in the
Bag and Paper Corporation (1908-1922) and that after that first labor stage, probably boring and conventional, he devoted the rest of your life to your travel dreams and his dangerous adventures in Asia and Africa ... It seems that their first exploratory trip was made in the Northern Territory Yukon American in 1921, which certainly encouraged him to devote himself to this activity ... William James Morden was director of
Explorers Club and honorary member and partner in field work
American Museum of Natural History ; was travel writer and contributed regularly to National Geographic Magazine
... William James Morden died in Chappaqua, Long Island on January 23, 1958 ... His second wife and companion, Irene, survived him until 1972-but for now know the relevant facts and circumstances of her widowhood and death, and since then I have no idea of \u200b\u200bthe subsequent vicissitudes of the common heritage of all this ... I only know that the spring of 1998, Broome St.
, right next to the house where I lived then in New York, I was fortunate to buy from a vendor beautiful
illustrated copy of The Garden of Kama his edition of 1920 ... and inside I found a telltale exlibris a previous ownership of this book, William & Florence
Morden, of which now finally we know some fragments significant of his biography ... The legend is printed on the bookplates that phrase Morand attributed to the beginning of my poem and then reinstating St. Augustine: "The world is
great book of buying a sandwich at Who They stay at home read only a page "..." The world is a book that is not read nothing but the first page if you have not ever left the place where born.
Los Morden —William, Florence, Irene— leyeron todas las páginas del libro que les regaló el Destino. Yo las mías propias y las de otros viajeros tan melancólicos como yo… También leo de vez en cuando poemas de “su” (mi)
The Garden of Kama :
This passion is but an ember
Of a Sun, of a Fire, long set,
I could not live and remember,
And so I love and forget. You say, and the tone is fretful,
That my mourning days were few,
You call me over forgetful —
My God, if you only knew! Recuerdo que fue San Agustín quien dijo: “
Ama, and do what you want "... obey, obey ...
Photos:" My garden of love in Essaouira (of dawn) ", May 2007.
" Home Broome St., NY ", New York, January 2005, before the door of the loft where I lived in NY great seasons, from 1997-2000, bought from a vendor my copy of The Garden of Kama . Years later, walking on a Sunday morning, I ended up at "my house" by mistake ... Loft on the facade of a young naif painter had installed a temporary exhibit of small works ... I remembered all those years my life happy in this house ... I thought the jokes that makes life in its paradoxes ... That girl did not know who was the owner of this loft that served as a makeshift gallery on the street, who inhabited the place, its colorful characters. Never know that behind that wall of glass paneled created some of the most memorable works of art and contemporary music ... And why do not you know something will not you come? She was happy in his own way ... I bought a box thanked me with an unforgettable smile ...
covers and inside pages of The Garden of Kama