Geoffrey’s Estate:
Progress to Date & Future Plans
Greeting Friends of Geoffrey,
It was 8 years ago, in the winter & spring of 2001, that I helped clean
out our friend Geoffrey’s cabin alongside Camp Creek. We removed roughly
50 boxes of cabin contents, mostly papers, into temporary storage. These
papers, along with assorted memorabilia & performance tapes, condensed
to a total of 42 boxes, were accepted by the Arizona Historical
Foundation in the following year. There they lay for 4 years, in the
Hayden Library on the ASU campus in Tempe and later in an off-campus
warehouse facility. Little was done to further organize the papers
during that time.
In the spring of 2006 I was informed by a newly installed archivist that
AHF, in recovery from an overzealous collecting binge, no longer wished
to house Geoffrey’s papers. Several reasons were given but the clincher,
the one I could only agree with, was the deplorable state of the papers.
They remained largely unorganized and of mixed quality, a real mess to
be quite honest. At our Annual Bench Gathering in April of that year, a
local Cave Creek resident, Katherine Elswick, stepped forward to offer
the use of her basement as a temporary site for storage and further
sorting. We jumped at the chance and the 42 boxes were dropped off by
AHF a couple of months later. Since then, beginning in the fall of 2006,
I have managed to schedule sorting sessions in the spring & fall of each
year. This makes 5 sessions to date with a final session planned this
coming spring. In this effort I have been ably assisted by Katherine
Elswick & Tom Sonandres, both of whom knew Geoffrey well and have a
great sensitivity for his legacy. The end result has been that the 42
unsorted boxes have been condensed to 20 boxes, sorted roughly by
category. We hope to reduce the total to 16 boxes in our final session.
These will be stored at my home in Oracle, Arizona for as long as
required. Hopefully the newly condensed & organized papers can find a
permanent home in upcoming years.
Now just add 4 boxes to the above total. These are papers that I, as
executor of Geoffrey’s estate, have retained at my home. The 4 boxes
include 3 boxes from Geoffrey’s “cliffside stash” plus a box of
accumulated estate & memorial papers. The cliffside stash was found
shortly after Geoffrey’s death. These papers, boxed & covered, were
tucked into a niche in the cliff just above the outhouse. Geoffrey’s
personal version of a safe deposit was established as insurance against
a possible cabin fire. These papers include his cabin journals and all
his unpublished travel journals, most in their original handwritten
form. Among these journals are several unpublished solo trek journals
plus a series of Mexico journals that practically beg to be published in
some form.
The other contents of the cabin, including everything from books &
furnishings down to an eclectic assortment of interesting bones,
bottles, potsherds, rocks, and other cabin “art”, were distributed in
the years following Geoffrey’s death. Some items were shipped off to his
family in England. Other items were given to friends as mementos. I have
retained about a third of his library at my home in Oracle. A large
collection of assorted cabin contents was donated to the Cave Creek
Museum. These items were listed in great detail during the donation
process. I can produce a copy of this list for anyone who might be
interested. The museum has not displayed any of these items to date,
partly due to lack of space in their current facility. A couple of local
friends are quietly monitoring the situation.
I would say that this fairly well summarizes our progress to date in
regards to our friend’s material legacy. In future years I hope to see
the best of Geoffrey’s interview & performance tapes digitally mastered
and copies made available. I also hope to see the FOG website,
desertlaureate.org, evolve & improve as time passes. And of course the
archives, as detailed above, could use a permanent home. A personal
project is to publish his Mexico journals in some form under the title
“Madrecita!”. This was of course our friend’s affectionate term for
Mother Nature. Geoffrey’s childhood friend, Bill Paul, has already made
great progress in typing these journals. I hope that he and I, working
together, can bring this effort to some sort of conclusion in upcoming
years. I also have in mind to solicit biographical essays from
Geoffrey’s many friends. You should be hearing more about this project
very soon.
Feel free to contact me through the website with any questions or to
visit the archives at its temporary home in Oracle. And Happy New Year.
Charles LeFevre / Oracle, Arizona / January 2009
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