Bessie Head letters--insights into her inner world.

Cullinan, P., comp. 2005. Imaginative trespasser: letters between Bessie Head and Patrick and Wendy Cullinan, 1963-1977. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. 268 p. Price: R180,00. ISBN: 1 86814 413 5.

Best known as an original and major poetic voice, Patrick Cullinan has published eight volumes of poetry, including White Hall in the Orchard and Other Poems (versions from the poetry of Eugenio Montale, 1984), Selected Poems (1991, rev. ed. 1994) and Transformations (1999). He is also the author of the biography Robert Jacob Gordon, 1743-1795: the man and his travels at the Cape (1992) and the novel Matrix (2002).

Cullinan's vast experience as a writer and his subtle poetic talent are clearly in evidence in this major new work on Bessie Head. In Imaginative trespasser we encounter not only a set of astoundingly frank and fascinating letters between Bessie Head and Patrick and Wendy Cullinan, but also bridging commentary by Cullinan himself, that is both riveting and felicitously written--written, in other words, by a poet.

What those who do not know much about Bessie's life perhaps do not realise is that the period 1963 to 1977 (the time-span of the letters contained in Imaginative trespasser) is without doubt the most important phase of Bessie's rather short and unhappy life. This period begins just before her momentous decision to leave South Africa, covers her early days in Botswana as a teacher, then her life as a refugee and forced-to-be writer, her early successes with When rain clouds gather (1968) and Maru (1971), the onset of her mental troubles, the writing of her tour de force novel A question of power (1973) and her accession to international status as a writer.

Thus, the letters gathered in this book offer unparalleled insight into a troubled and yet productive phase of Head's life. Notwithstanding some excellent biographical work already done on Head (Gillian Eilersen's superb 1995 biography is the key text here), I believe that this new volume contains some of the most revealing information yet released on this enigmatic writer.

Cullinan has played a more significant part in Head's life than has perhaps been realised before. He provided vital assistance to her when she was desperate to leave South Africa, he gave material and moral support during her early days as a writer (indeed, her first published work When rain clouds gather is dedicated to Pat and Wendy Cullinan), and he was there in the middle years as well. And now he has produced a landmark biographical work on the writer.

This is the second of the "bookends" at either side of Head's writing life that Cullinan has provided. The first was the manuscript that Head sent to him as a gift to thank him for his help in the early years. That manuscript became, under the skilled editorship of Margaret Daymond, a vital early work that would otherwise have been lost--The cardinals (written in the early 1960s, but published only in 1993). The first "bookend", then, was this callow, but important first work, the second is this, I believe, last major archive of Head's letters.

For Head's letters are very revealing--more so, perhaps, than those of most writers. She is frank, forthright and sometimes downright outrageous. Imaginative trespasser offers us an alternative Bessie Head--one not clearly discernible in her more carefully crafted novels and stories. Head, after all, was not a prolific writer (certainly not as measured in her total published output: rive novels, two story collections, one social history of Serowe and some miscellaneous autobiographical writings). So her copious letter-writing is an alternative literary oeuvre--offering insights into an inner world that was as frightening as it was fascinating. Cullinan has done the South African literary world a great service in providing us with such a readable, revealing book.

Here is a sample of his style:

   There is another fact that emerges from these 1964 letters.
   Bessie establishes her ability to write, her power over words,
   from the very start. It is a little tentative at the beginning:
   logic, grammar, spelling sometimes go a little astray. Despite this,
   the writing is convincing. It comes as something of a revelation
   that the sad young woman who first wrote, harassed and vulnerable,
   from the poverty of Modisakeng Street, was undoubtedly that
   rare creature: a born writer. Furthermore, however uncertain
   Bessie's feelings about Botswana were then and however
   equivocal they would remain throughout her life, it was the
   country that first allowed her to look at the world anew and to
   examine it with a gaze of canny intensity.

As for the letters themselves, this is a fairly typical piece:

   It's easier to accept Karl Marx's view of the brotherhood of man
   than that of Jesus Christ. Jesus is almost a myth, but Karl Marx
   was born in 1880 something [sic]. He figured out his
   brotherhood of man in [pounds sterling] .s.d. which is so much
   easier to understand than mystical clap-trap. Somehow, [pounds
   sterling] .s.d. is no answer to me. The inner pain and agony and
   uncertainty is too real. It is real enough to drive me to insanity,
   suicide and yet, as I have such a strong instinct for survival it
   must be to some good purpose and meaning. If I am to live it must
   be meaningful and above all I live with the inside of myself. The
   outside, brown eyes, 5 ft 2 ins, 40-30-40--what is it? A shell. A
   husk!

Cullinan's remark about Head's logic and grammar going astray is clearly apposite here--but so is her astounding capacity to provide startling insights.

Finally, a word about Cullinan's great personal courage in producing this work. Head, famously, turned on just about everyone close to her, and some of the unfounded (frankly, mad) accusations she flung at Patrick (and, of course, others) later on must have made this project an extremely painful one for him. He apparently nearly gave up at the point when he discovered the full extent of Head's treachery (she used confidential information provided by Wendy as ammunition against Patrick when she decided to turn against him). Had he indeed given up, the world of South African letters--and Head studies in particular--would undoubtedly have been the poorer.

Reviewer: Craig MacKenzie

Department of English, University of Johannesburg