All roads lately have been leading to Joseph Cornell. Reading from Charles Simic's collection of ekphrastic poetry about Cornell, Dime-Store Alchemy, I came across this a poem-/essay-type-thing titled "Miss Delphine." According to Simic, the titular woman (full name Delphine Binger) apparently "collected goose, turkey, and chicken wishbones so she could boil them and polish them and then decorate them with charms and ribbons. She sent them to presidents, movie stars, famous politicians in the same way Cornell sent gifts of scraps of paper and odd objects to ballerinas he loved" (6).
I had to know more about this Miss Delphine. So I looked around.
From the June 1939 Popular Science |
Also this:
From the May 24th 1954 LIFE Magazine. The original caption reads, "Old bones from spinster's collection form a wishbone web. |
Will wonders never cease?
I also discovered the little cut-and-pasted movies of Mr. Cornell today, too. Here's a good one called By Night With Torch and Spear:
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