Well over twenty years ago, my father-in-law purchased a large number of books from the son of an Elizabeth Broyles who apparently was a literature professor of some sort. What I have found among the books are a signed copy of Vassar Miller’s first ever book “Adam’s Footprint” and a signed, numbered copy (#130) of “Small Change.” This in and of itself is not that remarkable, but what has me puzzled is a couple of loose pieces of paper tucked into my copy of “Adam’s Footprint.”
First is a thin strip of paper in a hand different from the signatures that reads:
“This is the only copy of Adam’s Footprint around. Vassar herself has no copy. Guard it with your life!”
I can only assume this was someone writing to Ms. Broyles. I find it hard to believe that this was the only copy of “Adam’s Footprint” in existence. So I am rather puzzled as to the significance, if any, of this copy.
On a separate sheet, folded to fit into the little book is a short poem entitled “Love’s Realism” dedicated “For Betty” and signed in blue pen with shaky hand by Vassar Miller, “Much Love, Vee.” The page is type written, with strikeovers and editorial marks. It appears to be a love poem as the verse is romantic in nature (and it’s wonderful):
Love’s Realism
For Betty
Though the house lies still as sleep,
Though the waiting air hangs empty
Of your voice, I do not weep
Since love takes no felling blow –
When you leave, you do not go.
Missing you, I shed no tear
Finding absence burdensome.
Love beholds love everywhere
And abhors a vacuum.
With your presence mirrored so,
Leaving me, you do not go.
Memory need not improve
On your truth with necromancy
Of a fond heart, as if love
Ever traded fact for fancy.
Daylight lends sufficient glow
As you leave yet do not go.
I’ll make no ill-gotten gain
Of your heart, for freely spent,
Multiplied, love will remain
Like the seamless robe unrent
Covering all where it falls flow –
When you leave, yet never go.
Once again, I am not sure if “Love’s Realism” is a poem of hers that was published elsewhere later, of which this is an original copy, or an unpublished personal poem written for a friend.
I wrote the Special Collections people at the M. D. Anderson Library at the University of Houston who maintain the current set of Vassar Miller archives, seeking some advice as to the value of what I have here. Not so much in an “Antiques Roadshow” kind of way, but rather as a historical archive. She is in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame, Pulitzer Nominee, and a former poet laureate of the State of Texas. Her memory, and that of her work, is worth preserving as a Texas treasure.
