Diary of Anna Clift Smith
The winter of 1904 was a cold one in Chautauqua County. The winds whipped across the surface of Lake Erie, freezing it into dunes of ice and snow, and pushing it into huge mounds of frozen slush near the shore. Life on the Lake was not easy, and many ships had been lost in its angry storms. The few people who lived along the beach, between Dunkirk and Brocton New York were hearty souls who were often regarded with a mixture of awe and dismay. "How can they stand it?" village folk wondered. One of these Lake-loving individualists attracted even more attention and speculation than the others. She was a young woman, 26 years old, an artist and a well-traveled non-conformist who followed the advice of her heart.
Anna Clift Smith spent much of her life on Lake Erie. She traveled widely in the United States and possibly abroad. Although she was not a native of the area, and left for several years to see the West, she loved the locale so much that her heart always brought her back to this sometimes wild, always beautiful, spot on Lake Erie. During a few months of the winter of 1904, Anna composed and illustrated a charming literary work that seems to be a letter, or perhaps a diary or a journal, and in ways might be an adventure or a romance.
This slight, unbound, manuscript is one of several local documents on deposit in the Local History Collections at Daniel A. Reed Library. Its hand-written text, with delicate colored pencil and water-color illustrations, done on paper almost as thin as tissue, conveys the sometimes wistful, sometimes hale and hearty world view of this paradoxical young woman.
Anna titled her little book Van Buren Life. It is the account of her daily experiences during that harsh winter on the Lake at the location of the then tiny summer community of Van Buren Point. The tales start with her recounting an especially fierce storm which frightened even staunch Anna, with its whistling winds which made the walls strain and moan. Anna wondered whether her simple cottage would stand throughout the night.
Other "chapters" tell how she painted and drew, even when the cold numbed her hands. She talked about how she coped with irresponsible day laborers who had been hired to cut wood, but who worked so slowly that she dismissed them and did the wood-cutting herself. She described of her menus and her cooking, and of her well-stocked pantry, full of provisions which she had laid up during the harvest season for the cold weather ahead.
She wrote her story to a mysterious friend, about whom we never learn much. The tales are told in a down-to-earth, yet stunningly evocative narrative style. Complemented by her appealing illustrations, this book is a very special bit of testimony about her life and the life of people of that day in this locale. Many chapters are begun with a homey illustrated initial, calling to mind the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.
The manuscript was the starting point for a rewarding project for the Friends of Daniel A. Reed Library. In October 1995, after hearing a dramatic reading from the book, the Friends suggested an ambitious project: that we publish our own edition of Van Buren Life, in facsimile, with an essay about Anna's life and times, and with a transcription of the text so that readers don't have to decipher Anna's difficult handwriting.
Following an idea session where the group generated ideas on how to achieve the goal, interested individuals gathered with others who were interested in looking for examples of Anna's art, editing the original manuscript for publication, working on layout and production aspect, or researching the life and times of Anna Clift Smith. The group soon discovered Anna's reputation, during the Years of the Prohibition, as one who helped protect the shoreline against rum-runners from Canada.
The groups then worked independently, sharing information through an effective informal network. Individuals making a discovery of more information wrote brief notes to the Director of the Library, and the Secretary duplicated and distributed the information to the Research Team, as the group of dedicated volunteers called themselves. Although there was no "Coordinating Committee" or other authority charged with checking up on how the work was progressing, in less than one year the project was complete!
Especially dedicated work was done by many individuals, all of whom worked as volunteers. One woman, a surveyor interested in local history, took on the challenge of editing the accumulation of bits of information which had been collected by the Research Team. A second individual, a designer whose specialty is typography, volunteered to prepare the layout and work with the commercial printer who did the production of the book. A third person, an artist who is especially expert in book binding and paper-making, taught us how to bind the standard edition, and with a few specially talented others, bound all of the Deluxe edition.
The 1996 Friends of Reed Library Dinner was a festive event, indeed. The Research Team was able to present to the membership, two beautiful editions of their work. Each is hand bound, but the "Deluxe" edition is bound with original decorated handmade paper, and has a unique design that makes the book a real collector's item. In fact, this edition has won a place in a American Institute of Graphic Arts traveling exhibit of fine works of design which "foster understanding."
Over the next few months, from October until Christmas 1996, we were busy filling the requests for orders of both versions of the book Anna Clift Smith's Van Buren Life, with an Essay on Her Life and Times. The local newspapers covered the project with frequent reports, as we completed the research and were able to offer the book to the public, as a fund-raiser. Articles appeared in the Dunkirk Observer, the Chautauqua Sampler, the Buffalo News, and the Jamestown Post Journal. By Christmas we had sold nearly half of our press run.
Bookstores in Buffalo and Jamestown assisted by making the books available to their customers, but most copies were sold by direct order through the administrative offices of Reed Library. In February 1997, the Empire Friends, an organization whose mission is to promote the Friends of Libraries in New York State agreed to distribute the deluxe edition through their offices. They will help us make the book more well-known thorough the state.
(The above report refers to the 1996 edition, which has been sold out)
The Friends of Reed Library decided to order a second printing of the diary in the Fall of 2004. This version is a paperback whose cover features a wraparound cover photograph showing a beautiful Lake Erie sunset. The photo was provided by Charlotte Morse.
The book is available for sale in Reed Library, the Campus Bookstore and in local gift shops and bookstores
Colorful postcards and bookmarks related to the diary can also be purchased
For more information, please call the Library Director's office at (716)673-3181 or Gerda Morrissey, Co-President of Friends of Reed Library at (716)673-3192.
