Being an avid reader and book collector, I tend to go through a lot of books. It doesn’t help any that I write book reviews for two different publications. Every once in a while, I have problems finding things that I need that I’m sure that I’ve read somewhere.
For the past three days, I’ve been on the hunt for something I am being to think that I’ve made up. I’ve been trying to wrap up a local history project about Avery County - the youngest county in North Carolina. There is a community in Avery called Linville - a famous resort community. I thought I had read that some member of the Wedgewood company (yes the pottery Wedgewood Company) came to Linville and mined kaolin (clay) for use in their pottery. But now, I can’t seem to find that reference. I know that kaolin was mined in Linville, and I know that Wedgewood used clay from other parts of western North Carolina, but I can’t seem to get the two linked up.
This is not the first time that this has happened. Often, you will read something, and decide that you don’t need it, only to really need it later on in the manuscript. Then the hunt is on to find it again.
Oh well, back to the hunt....
Michael:
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. I once spent several days looking for a list of the types of artillery used in a certain expedition, and like you, began to wonder if I had just dreamed it all up. I'm cursed with what I guess is a semi-photographic memory. I could remember the length of the piece, the side of the page it was on, and even the color of the highlighter I had used to mark it, but I couldn't remember the source. I looked through mountains of paper; of course, it was on one of the last sources I had to check.
Not a pleasant experience. Good luck!
Randy
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI hate it when you can't find an item you know you have in your mounds of research.
I was sharing a story with Donny Taylor one day at Wyse Fork, ref:
COL Shaw of the 54th Mass Infantry and how his sword was recovered in a NC home by Union Soldiers after Sherman's departure of Goldsboro. I discovered the written story during my research for No Such Army... and had tabled it for later since it was post Averasboro.
Well, it took me several weeks, but I discoverd the copy I had made. What a relief.
Wade Sokolosky