Entering Sappho

Sarah Dowling, Sarah Dowling

• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781770566514
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

An abandoned town named for the classical lesbian leads to questions about history and settlement.

Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, you come to a road sign: Entering Sappho. Nothing remains of the town, just trash at the side of the highway and thick, wet bush. Can Sappho's breathless eroticism tell us anything about settlement—about why we're here in front of this sign? Mixing historical documents, oral histories, and experimental translations of the original lesbian poet's works, this book combines documentary and speculation, surveying a century in reverse. This town is one of many with a classical name. Take it as a symbol: perhaps in a place that no longer exists, another kind of future might be possible.

ENTERING SAPPHO

ORAL HISTORY

She was reading a book, I think it was.

She was a Greek, I don’t know or I don’t

remember. It was in a play, or well no,

she’s one of the characters. But anyway,

her name was Sappho. Oh. So, they was

building the old place over here, and the

store, and the hotel, and you get the post

office, so they named that Sappho. So

that’s where Sappho was originally named,

how it got its name – reading that book.

You’re ENTERING

Ninety-seven Troys

Eighty-three Eurekas

Fifty-seven Etnas

Fifty-six Antiochs

Fifty-four Athenses

Fifty-four Romes

Fifty-one Albions

And fifty Arcadias

Forty-nine Palmyras

Forty-eight Spartas

Forty-five Senecas

Thirty-nine Phoenixes

Thirty-nine Alphas

Thirty-seven Homers

Thirty-six Caledonias

Thirty-six Carthages

Thirty-five Macedonias

Thirty-three Uticas

And thirty-one Corinths

Thirty Milos

Twenty-nine Omegas

Twenty-seven Smyrnas

Twenty-five Argoses

Twenty-five Adrians

And twenty-four Olympias

Right here, over here just a little ways,

about a hundred feet the other side of

you. This is Sappho. That ain’t Sappho

down there. This is the town site here.

There’s one block over there, and one

here, and another one down below. And

one time here we had a saloon and a paper

and a hotel and a grocery and a livery barn.

When did they come out here, your in-laws?

I think about ’93, ’92 or 3, I think it was.

They built the store first, I suppose. Yeah,

the store was out front, the hall was up

over, and then the buildings and the dining

rooms and the rooms was upstairs. And the

attic. And that building was just about a

hundred feet the other side of the house

here? I think about, yeah. Toward the

highway? I’ll be damned. It stood till –

it stood till it all fell down. I guess about

1900 and 38, something-thirty along there,

just went down. And that was all.

Well did they have the hotel at the same

time as they had the store? Yes, it was all

built together. All built together, and the

hall too. What did they use the hall for,

other than dances? Well, in the wintertime

they used to use it to dry clothes, mostly.

It had a big mangle up there, a drying

mangle, they used to mangle the clothes

and sheets and everything. You mangle

them – now, you didn’t have electricity?

No. Just rolls about that big around and

about that long.

But there was no heat on it. No, there was

no heat. No, you have to have them dry

when you mangle them. You’d say it was

about two feet long? Yeah, about that, yeah.

I’ve never run across that. Then, how much

would they charge for a night’s lodging?

Seventy-five cents. Did that include any

meals, or was that just – Your supper and

breakfast and your bed. Well, I’ll be darned.

You’re ENTERING

Twenty-three Akrons

Twenty-three Clios

And twenty-two Venuses

Twenty-one Delphis and Delphoses

Twenty-one Altamonts

Twenty-one Cambrias

Twenty Catos

Twenty Ionias

And twenty Ovids

Twenty Pomonas

Nineteen Hectors

Eighteen Orions

Eighteen –adelphias

Eighteen Marses

Eighteen Urbanas

Seventeen Altas, Atlos, and Altuses

Seventeen Sardises

Seventeen Solons

Seventeen Atticas

Seventeen Cincinnatis

Seventeen Euclids

And sixteen Platos

In fact, we lived there, we was married

the first day of January in 1901, and six

or seven years we lived down in the prairie,

why we lived there practically all the time.

The prairie down here, they were down

here first. They started that before there

was any Sappho. Yeah. When they moved

it up here, then they kept the name. Oh, I

see. I think my wife’s come back.

Oh, hi. How are you? Doing good. Make

another excursion? This is my wife, Sylvia.

How do you do? I see you’...