“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(See the tracing of tonight’s envelope object on page 71 and the notes on the next page. The empty envelope used as object was mailed to me last May 26,1966, by an old friend, Wendell Crowley, and contained a letter detailing a reunion of a group of friends, all artists, that Wendell and I worked with in 1941-43. The letter was not in the envelope but was kept separate by me for reference after the session. As I suspected, some of Seth’s data referred to the contents of the letter rather than the envelope object itself.

(“It seems some connection with cars or transportation.” As stated, the object contained a letter describing the reunion of perhaps half a dozen artists who worked together in the early 1940’s. The reunion was attended by the writer of the letter. All of the reunion participants live in the New York City and New Jersey area just across the Hudson River. In his letter Wendell does not name the town or city in which the reunion, at a restaurant, took place, but from following data Jane and I surmise it took place in New York City.

(In any event travel by various modes from a cluster of surrounding towns in that area would have been necessary for the artists attending the reunion.

(“A string, as of lights, or pearls, in a string of succession, of items in succession.” We interpreted this as a possible reference to street lights at first, or a theater marquee, since the reunion was held at night, and nighttime travel would involve lights, etc. But “items in succession” could just as well refer to words in succession—i.e., the letter that had been enclosed in the envelope object or the printing and typing on the object itself.

(“A building, more like an office building than a residence. Something like the Star-Gazette building.” Was the restaurant in which the reunion was held located on the ground floor of a building like the Star-Gazette building here in Elmira? A large brick two-story building typical of many we remember in the metropolitan New Jersey-New York City area. This is only speculation on our part. Later note RFB: Newspaper comics.

(“One thirty-five.” My hunch was that this referred either to the end of the reunion discussed in Wendell’s letter—at 1:35 AM, or the time Wendell himself left the party. Inspection of his letter showed that Wendell states “I left at about 12:30 AM,” but that other member of the party remained after he left. Seth is more specific after break.

(Jack did not attend the reunion, though of course he is mentioned in Wendell’s letter of May 26. A strong connection is that Jack’s younger brother, Otto, did attend the reunion, and is also mentioned in the letter to some extent.