Merion and the Wilson/Oakley Letters - Feb. to May 1911 & Wilson's 1916 Account

[Bryan Izatt]

[Bryan Izatt]

I have added 10 more letters that Tom Mac has provided to the sequence.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Bryan,

Thanks for all the Oakley letters. Good stuff.

I do note that CBM stops by to see Oakley and refers to MCC as their work, not his.

[DMoriarty]

Bryan,

Thanks for all the Oakley letters. Good stuff.

I do note that CBM stops by to see Oakley and refers to MCC as their work, not his.

Jeff, could you point this letter out, because my recollection is that it was Oakley speaking, and not directly quoting Macdonald or even implying the distinction you draw.   Plus, I believe what he said was something like "Macdonald expects to visit your COURSE sometime soon."   
- Wouldn't you agree that it was Merion's course whether or not Macdonald designed it? 
- Wouldn't it have been confusing if Oakley had written that the expected to Macdonald to visit his course sometime soon?   

[Tony_Chapman]

David -- The letter of April 28th, 1911 states as follows, "Mr. C.B MacDonald called at the office today and spoke very encouragingly of your work at the Merion Golf Club."

[Mike_Cirba]

Oakley tells them to lime the whole course and CBM called Oakley and "spoke very encouragingly of YOUR (Wilson's) work at Merion".

[Tom MacWood]

David -- The letter of April 28th, 1911 states as follows, "Mr. C.B MacDonald called at the office today and spoke very encouragingly of your work at the Merion Golf Club."

Well that proves it. Hugh Wilson designed Merion. I'll be going home now. Bye bye.

[Bill_McBride]

Oakley tells them to lime the whole course and CBM called Oakley and "spoke very encouragingly of YOUR (Wilson's) work at Merion".

Mike, it says CBM "called at the office," i.e. visited Oakley's office in person.

It's nice to some written material instead of just conjecture, after thousands of posts on this Merion issue.

[DMoriarty]

David -- The letter of April 28th, 1911 states as follows, "Mr. C.B MacDonald called at the office today and spoke very encouragingly of your work at the Merion Golf Club."

Thanks  Tony,  I was referring to the March 23 letter, where Oakley wrote, "I had a visit from Mr. Macdonald a short time ago and he told me that he expected to visit your course sometime in the spring."

My points remain largely the same.

- Oakley was the speaker, not Macdonald.   
- Last I checked the plural of "your" is "your" so the sentence is the same even if Oakley was referring to everyone involved.
- Would we expect Oakley to have written CBM spoke encouragingly of his work . . . ?  Wouldn't that have been confusing?

Given how SELF-centered many here seem to think CBM was, why is he talking about and bragging about Merion, a course where most of you think he only had a peripheral role?   Wasn't he known for trashing courses that were not his own?

[Mike_Cirba]

Tony,

Back to grammar school with you!  

You need to study the true meaning of "your", as in, "your WORK*".  



* A word strangely msising from the new David's Dictionary of all things Merion.  

[DMoriarty]

Tony,

Back to grammar school with you!  

You need to study the true meaning of "your", as in, "your WORK*".  



* A word strangely msising from the new David's Dictionary of all things Merion.  

No Mike,  I understand the meaning of "your."   Do you?   Is it possible for more than one person can do work?  Or do you think this an inherently solo endeavor.   Do you think he was excluding everyone else but Wilson?   Should the rest of the committee be offended?

What makes you think that "work" refers to the initial design?  Don't you argue that they had "laid out five plans" before then.   By your definition, did this not qualify as work?    How about working the soil?  Is that not work?     

[Mike_Cirba]

Yes David, CBM was complimenting Wilson's work at toiling the soil...that's the ticket! 

[DMoriarty]

This is just classic.

We have a vague pronoun and a word (work) that could mean anything...and everybody sees ONLY what they want to see in it.

Only on a Merion thread...

Given that the letter is dated April, as I understand it, construction work had commenced by this point (that's true, is it not?)...so the only logical interpretation of this passage is that it is too vague to mean anything specific when it comes to architectural attribution.

I do think that Wilson speaks on behalf of Merion so often that it is reasonable to only ascribe the singular to "you" or "your" where the context CLEARLY indicates so. The same goes for ascribing the plural.

Dave,

I agree.   But the only finding the answer in "your work" is Cirba, and he thinks anything that might apply to Wilson means that Wilson necessarily designed the course.   

[Mike_Cirba]

These threads are better than an episode of Monty Python!  

Oakley addresses the letter to one person, Hugh Wilson.

He tells Hugh Wilson that Macdonald is complimentary of "your work at Merion".  Seems simple enough, on the face of it...hmmm...must be a trick.

He does not say "the work of your committee at Merion"

But even if he did...

Even if he meant it collectively...

What "work" could Macdonald be possibly referring to that Wilson and the Commitee had been doing.

It's April, 1911...the Board has just now decided on a final routing and gives the go ahead to begin construction.

What could Macdonald be saying?   Hmmmmm................

Oh wait, I know!

He's saying, "You Hugh Wilson, (or You Hugh WIlson and your committee) have been doing a bang-up job turning over cornstalks and shovelling shit at Merion!   Nice job, laddie...a splendid effort and I'm deeply enthused!! "  

See, you can figure these things out without lawyers!   Who knew?!  

[DMoriarty]

Mike,  have you ever noticed that you fall into your hyperbolic absurdities whenever you really have no actual argument or rebuttal?    We cannot draw the conclusion you want us to draw.   Live with it.  Preferably without the fireworks.

[Bryan Izatt]

Wilson's 1916 account found in P&O's book