Some might know of Nyack, New York as the former home of the painter Edward Hopper. Just down the road from Hopper’s house is where the author Carson McCullers lived from 1945 until her death in 1967. A colonial revival house at 131 South Broadway, the Carson McCullers House is where she wrote The Member of the Wedding.
“I was always homesick for a place I had never seen, and now I have found it,” McCullers wrote of Nyack. “It is here, this house, this town.”
Tim Youd will be retyping that novel on the front porch of the building today and tomorrow. He’ll also be performing at the Pickwick Book Shop at 8 South Broadway this week (Thursday through Saturday) and will be back at McCullers’s porch on Sunday and Monday to finish the novel.
Tim Youd’s performance continues from June 3-June 11 at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility decommissioned guard tower near prison gate in Ossining, New York. The performance contributes to the artist’s ongoing project 100 Novels in which he retypes the entire novels from beginning to end in locations that are charged with literary significance in the author’s biography.
In the guard tower of Sing Sing, he is now retyping Falconer by John Cheever. The prison was the model used by Cheever to write the novel. This masterpiece is set in a state prison during the early 1970s. As Cheever biographer Blake Bailey notes: “Almost every set piece in Falconer—almost every detail—appears somewhere in Cheever’s journal entries about Sing Sing.”
After just under three weeks, Youd has finished typing The Group!
Next, Youd will retype Falconer by John Cheever. He will be typing at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and the Cheever House in Ossining from June 3–June 11. Check out the rest of this blog for more information on his project and future books!
Pictured below is the finished diptych of McCarthy’s book–on the right is the degraded top sheet and on the left is the undersheet.
Today Youd typed in Main Building’s South Tower, an old dorm room which has been closed off in recent years. It’s on the 5th floor and has quite a view! This room is quite possible the very room that Mary McCarthy, author of The Group (Vassar, class of 1933) lived during her time as a student here. In the novel, her alter-ego Kay talks about members of the group living in the South Tower of Main Building.
Come see Youd type outside Main Gate tomorrow, Tuesday, May 8th.
Today and yesterday Youd went off-campus, bringing the CAAD trailer with him. He was typing in the lot between the Crafted Kup and BurgerFi!
Youd is taking the day off tomorrow, May 4th, but come see him in the galleries of the Lehman Loeb Art Center this weekend.
On Monday Youd will be typing in Main Building’s South Tower, which is usually off-limits to students and visitors. Make sure to come see it while you can, and in the meantime, ask the artist about his ongoing project!
For all of Youd’s performances, he uses the same make and model of typewriter as the original authors. In effect, Youd replays the sounds of Mary McCarthy writing her original manuscript.
Come see Youd in the Lehman Loeb Art Center today and Sunday!
Come see Youd typing in the Library Quad today! Tomorrow he will be at the College Center in Main Building; just follow the sound of the typewriter to find him.
He’s also happy to answer questions and discuss his project!
