Mickey Dailies and Carl Barks, Frank Stajano, Leonardo Gori

Daniel van Eijmeren dve at kabelfoon.nl
Sat Aug 30 04:14:00 CEST 2003


DONALD AULT, 28-08-2003:

> Regarding the Stajano/Gori interview as it appeared in Carl Barks:
> Conversations:
> 
> Frank Stajano sent me the ORIGINAL questions and answers in English, from
> which I edited the version that appears in the Conversations book. As far as
> I know, it was NOT a back-translation from Italian but a transcription of
> the original mailed questions and answers (see below). 

Francesco Spreafico has replied on DCML that the Barks interview that Frank 
Stajano and Leonardo Gori had, took place in Grants Pass, on August 6 and 
September 5, 1998. Francesco seems to have this information from their book 
"Il Grande Floyd Gottfredson". What do these dates stand for? 

I'm also a bit confused by the report on Frank Stajano's page at 
http://www-lce.eng.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/disney/barks/

Here's a small part from Frank's webpage. It refers to an (1998?) interview:

"I spent the morning interviewing Carl for the book about him I will write 
one day (probably with Leonardo again -- but this time it's got to be in 
English!). His nicest words were for his dear wife Garé. Hanging on the 
wall in front of us was a really beautiful painting of a mountain lake 
with deer. One of hers. "She was born with only this much of a left arm. 
No hand.", he told me. "When her parents saw the newborn baby without a 
hand, they cried." Then he pointed at the painting, explaining how she had 
to do everything she did, including of course painting, with just one hand. 
The love in his eyes, in his body language, in his words, was moving. He 
communicated the joy of the achievement of having created such beauty 
despite the handicap. "When her parents saw *this*, they cried." We both 
laughed, perhaps because we were about to cry too. He really made me feel 
the strength of their bond. It was beautiful."

BTW. I didn't know that Barks has ever explained this subject.

> Also, Frank could not remember the precise dates, in part because neither
> Frank not Leonardo was physically present at the "interview," which was
> conducted by mail. Here is part of the exchange Frank Stajano and I had 
> back in June 2002:

>>> The interview was definitely done in 1998. I won't be able to give you an
>>> exact DAY because I wasn't even there: I sent off the questions and some
>>> time later I got the answers back. It must have been mid-1998, say between
>>> May and July. I can probably find out at least the month once I'm back at
>>> home. The book was published in November.

What are the exact dates of Barks's letters? Or didn't he date them?

Frank shows two dated letters from Barks on his page. One seems to be dated
November 21, 1993. The other is dated December 22, 1998.
http://www-lce.eng.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/disney/barks/first-letter.jpg
http://www-lce.eng.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/disney/barks/letter-19981222.jpg
These letters don't seem to be part of this interview correspondence, though. 

--- Daniël


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