Challenge Before Dawn

To the Editor:

While reading Curtiss Clark’s lyrical ode to the catbird in “Field Notes,” Newtown Bee, July 29, 2005, I was instantly reminded of an anecdote about Archer and Anna Huntington I found in Anna’s diary for June 1, 1948. Anna was a famous sculptor and Archer, an equally famous philanthropist, and I was writing a book about them. From 1939 to 1955 when Archer died, they lived in a house they built on Sunset Hill Road in Redding. Huntington State Park was their estate. Their bedroom faced into a dense woodland.

“A whippoorwill woke us before dawn,” wrote Anna. “He sat in a tree by the window so his whooping was loud enough to make my ears ring. I moved out. Archer stayed and counted 359 calls before he went back to sleep.” Archer was not a bird lover, but he had a stubborn steak and welcomed a challenge, a situation where his wits or his patience would be tested. In this instance he would have said to himself, “Which has the most endurance, that critter or Archer Huntington?” Obviously, he was the winner.

Mary Mitchell

12 Budd Drive, Newtown                                               July 30, 2005