Our team is working hard on the upcoiming publication of the the Book of Guests in Esperanto by Clarence Bicknell, a little masterpiece of mountain flowers in his arts-and-crafts style opposite a short note on each of the overnight guests in the Casa Fontanalba. One subject Graham Avery raised has me stumped. He writes “The left-hand page of IMG 1439 (‘Casa Fontanalba 1910’) is missing from the text that you sent me, probably because it doesn’t need translation. But it’s an integral part of the book, and I wonder if you shouldn’t include it in the text. If you do, you need to explain somewhere why the left-hand page says ‘1910’ while the right-hand page says ‘1906’.
I replied “I would certainly explain why there are two dates… if I knew the reason. My first suggestion is that Clarence decided in 1910 that the book was complete, or needed topping and tailing, and decided to put in the year in which he wrote that left hand title page. It looks like he drew CASA FONTANALBA at the same time as 1910. Even the pencil lines are similar in both lines. But, if he was finishing off the book, why would he leave the finish date on the right hand page empty? He cannot really have decided in 1910 that the book was complete, because he continued making entries up to 1918.
“My second suggestion is that he drew the left hand page because he was expecting to show the book to someone and wanted it headed.
“My third suggestion is that he realised four years after he started that the existing right hand title page did not say Casa Fontanalba. Maybe Margaret Berry or another friend said ‘oh you silly sausage, you’ve forgotten to put the name of the house anywhere. In the future how would anyone know what place you are writing about’. Note that the font style of the left page is different to the right page (cf the figure 9) so they are clearly done at four years’ interval. He put the year 1910 in at that moment by habit… his other albums are dated.”
I have never noticed this anomaly. Valerie Lester did not write about it in MARVELS. Can you think of a reason?