EILSHEMIUS, LOUIS (scribe and attributed author).
[November-Eve]. Unpublished, undated manuscript on paper in blue-black ink, 9 ff. (numbered in MS "11"-"19"), written on rectos, on ruled paper. Light dampstain in three outer margins.
The original manuscript of a curious, unpublished dramatic poem entitled "November-Eve" (or "The Muse?"). The characters of the poem are The Muse and The Lonely One. Though unsigned, the handwriting is doubtlessly that of Eilshemius, for which see Smithsonian Institution "Louis M. Eilshemius" (1978) fig. 3, which is virtually identical. The Smithsonian letter is dated 1932; the present MS appears to belong to an earlier date.
Eilshemhuis, who came from a background of wealth, studied under Bouguereau in Paris, before returning (or retreating) to the New York family brownstone. His later work began to exhibit "outsider" characteristics, as did his behavior. Both Marcel Duchamp and later Joseph Stella were admirers of his work, and he had an exhibit (his first solo) in 1920, at the Societe Anonyme. The present manuscript had almost Blakean overtones.