Mira Edgerly

By Mira Edgerly :

    Although I hd achieved success as a miniature painter I became more and more impressed with its limitations, and I rebelled against the limitations of conventional thinking.  True, I had the inspiration of the superb breadth and dignity of Holbein's works and of those small portraits of Cromwell by Cooper so justly called "life size in little," but the desire to include groups and full length likenesses brought me to go on and develop this entirely individual contribution in portrait-painting.  Shortly after this came the comment of John Sargent, the turning point in my career,—"Here at last is a portrait on ivory, not a miniature!"  With renewed energy and confidence I attacked the resistance of convetions and the handicap of standardised miniature technique.

From As Much As I Dare 1944 by Burges Johnson

In the early days of the first World War, two or three young women who had been students of mine were working for the Red Cross and the Food Administration in Washington and shared an apartment.  Mira Edgerly was then painting portraits at the national capital and I wrote them that they should meet her. They invited her to tea where she proved to be the center of interest.  Late in the afternoon a young Polish officer arrived, an engineer assigned by his government to inspect munitions purchased by Poland in America.  According to the accounts of my young friends he settled down by the Edgerly's side for the balance of the afternoon and the two were there when everyone but the hostesses had gone.  Two months later Mira Edgerly and Count Alfred Korzybski were married.

From that day forward she gradually gave up her painting and devoted herself to her husband's interests.  The manuscript of his first book she brought to me while I was educational adviser of E.P. Dutton & Company, and it was published on my recommendation.  That incident in itself has amusing aspects.  I was then living in Poughkeepsie and teaching part of each week at Vassar.  I left the manuscript of the Count's book on Mr. Macrae's desk with a note saying that it seemed to me important enough to justify readings by experts, and I advised him to send it up to Columbia.  Mr. Macrae had treated all of my judgments with respect, and in this case he read only the first line or two of my note saying that the book was important.  So he wrote the Count offering a contract.  The published volume lists my name in the author's foreword as one of those who helped in its preparation.  But there is probably no one with a hazier notion than I of that science which he so brilliantly adorns.

There have been other books since then, and they have absorbed Mira's enthusiasm.  Now the memory of her painting on ivory is buried under the weight of the whole Institute of [General] Semantics.  I am enough of a sentimentalist to believe that all the semantics in Chicago is (or are) not worth one good painting that will live[*] ; and Edgerly portraits at the height of her career were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Smithsonian, and museums in San Francisco, Richmond, and Buenos Aires.

New York : Ives Washburn 1944, p. 132.

    ^[*] In a way Mr. B. Johnson could be absolutely right : one notes that a principle (which he had given verbal expression) is not an application of the principle.

In other words, Mr. Johnson was actually practicing (a theory of) 'human evaluation and human orientation' (Korzybski) -- while uttering his opinion.

Please note that my statements are not in any way endorsed by the Institute of General Semantics. — (WPT 28 Dec 04).

Bibliographic notes

Author Edgerly, James A., 1846- Title The Edgerly family [microform] / by James A. Edgerly. Publisher Boston : D. Clapp & Son, 1880. Description 8 p. Series Genealogy & local history ;G3609. Language English Note "From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1880."

Author Edgerly, Dorthea Roach, 1922- Title Thomas Edgerly of Dover lineage and allied families / Dorthea Roach Edgerly, Raymond Henry Edgerly. Publisher Oceanside, Calif. : D.R. Edgerly, 1987. Description viii, 379 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

Author Kelley, William Henry, 1819-1900. Title Genealogical gleanings relating to the Kelleys of Brentwood, N.H. [microform] : and kindred families of Edgerly, Shute, Robinson, Hancock, and Cleveland / by William Henry Kelley. Publisher Saint Paul, Minn. : Press of D. Ramaley & Son, 1892. Description 48 p. : ports. Series Genealogy & local history :G2232.