Paul Alexander Bartlett (July 13, 1909 – April 19, 1990) was an American writer, artist, and poet. He made a large-scale study of more than 350 Mexican haciendas, published novels, short stories, and poetry, and worked as a fine artist in a variety of media.
Life Bartlett was born in Moberly, Missouri. He was the son of Robert Alexander Bartlett and his wife, Minnie Lou Dobson. Paul Alexander Bartlett studied at Western Reserve Academy,Biographical information from Western Reserve Academy. Oberlin College, University of Arizona, Academia de San Carlos, Universidad de Guadalajara, Escuela de Bellas Artes de Guadalajara, and the National University of Mexico.Biographical and other information from "Paul Alexander Bartlett" entry in Contemporary Authors Online. Literature Resource Center. Gale Document Number: GALE H1000005836. Detroit: Gale, 2013. His professional life was devoted to writing, fine art, and poetry.
In 1941, he met American poet Elizabeth Bartlett in Guadalajara; they were married in 1943 in Sayula, Mexico. Elizabeth Bartlett (1911–1994) is the author of many published books of poetry, anthologized poetry, individually published poems in leading literary journals, short stories, and founder of the international non-profit organization, Literary Olympics, Inc.Biographical and other information from "Elizabeth Bartlett" entry in Contemporary Authors Online. Literature Resource Center. Gale Document Number: GALE H1000005815. Detroit: Gale, 2013. They had one child, Steven James Bartlett (b. 1945), a published author in the fields of psychology and philosophy.Biographical and other information from "Steven James Bartlett" entry in Contemporary Authors Online. Literature Resource Center. Gale Document Number: GALE H1000305527. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Over a period of more than four decades, Paul Alexander Bartlett lived in numerous areas of Mexico while he undertook a lifelong extensive study of more than 350 haciendas throughout the country, documented in art and photographs.Data and other information from the Paul Alexander Bartlett Collection held by the American Heritage Center of the University of Wyoming . This collection contains 78 original pen-and-ink hacienda illustrations by Bartlett as well as 1,271 prints and 799 negatives of photographs taken by Bartlett of the Mexican haciendas (these are in addition to those included in the collection of his hacienda illustrations and photographs held by the University of Texas described under "Permanent Collections"); works of fine art by Bartlett, consisting of more than 1,000 of his paintings in multiple media, drawings, and sketches; literary and publishing correspondence; personal records and journals; notes; newspaper clippings; program and exhibit announcements; book reviews and commendations by others of Bartlett's work; original manuscripts by Bartlett; a collection of his published books, short stories, essays, poetry, and book reviews; a collection of his publications in literary reviews, journals, and newspapers; and anthologies in which his work was published. Also included in the collection are original copies of a wide variety of as yet unpublished manuscripts consisting of books, short stories, and poetry (see under "Unpublished Manuscripts"). An online inventory of this collection is available .Data from Paul A. Bartlett Drawings and Photographs of Mexican Haciendas held by the Benson Latin American Collection of the University of Texas . This collection includes 294 original pen-and-ink illustrations of the haciendas of Mexico by Paul Alexander Bartlett, and 903 hacienda photographs, 279 negatives, and 69 slides taken by him.Information from Bartlett, Paul Alexander. The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record. Foreword by James Michener. Introduction by historian of the Mexican haciendas, Gisela von Wobeser, trans. by Steven James Bartlett. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1990. Illustrations and photographs reproduced in this book were selected from the collection Paul A. Bartlett Drawings and Photographs of Mexican Haciendas held by the Benson Latin American Collection of the University of Texas . Periodically he, his wife, and son returned to the U.S. where Bartlett worked as a free-lance writer, editor, book reviewer, and fine artist.
In 1942, he served as Editor of Workshop (an annual of creative writing based in Ciudad Guzmán, Mexico).Finding aid for the Paul Alexander Bartlett Collection of Submissions to the Literary Annual, Workshop, 1940-45, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. He taught creative writing at Georgia State College (now Georgia State University) in 1955. He was Editor of Publications for the University of California, Santa Barbara, 1964–1970. After purchasing a home in Comala, Mexico, his health failed in 1975; he and his wife then settled in San Diego where Bartlett continued to write and create works of art until his death in 1990.
Study of the haciendas of Mexico Bartlett made a large-scale study of the Mexican haciendas, realized between 1943 and 1985; during this period he visited more than 350 haciendas located throughout Mexico.News release written by Gene M. Gressley, former Director of the Western Research Center (now the American Heritage Center), Dec. 21, 1979. He was drawn by their architectural variety, by an interest in the life of both privilege and oppression they represented, and by their physical remoteness; as a result he devoted the majority of his life to their study. Often accompanied by his young son, Steven, he visited haciendas throughout Mexico, reaching them on horseback, or by mule, car, train, boat, and sometimes on foot.Information from Bartlett, Steven James. "Introduction." In the Project Gutenberg edition of Paul Alexander Bartlett's When the Owl Cries. Bartlett made a record of the haciendas he visited through some 370 original pen-and-ink illustrations and more than 1,000 photographs taken on location by him, resulting in the publication in 1990 of The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record. Mexico's historian of the haciendas, Gisela von Wobeser, provided the Introduction, while James Michener, who became aware of Bartlett's hacienda study in 1968, and commended his work,Michener, James. "Foreword." In Bartlett, Paul Alexander. The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1990, p. xv.Documents and other materials on file in the Paul Alexander Bartlett Collection held by the Department of Special Collections of the Charles E. Young Research Library of the University of California in Los Angeles. contributed the foreword to the book.
The hacienda system played a fundamental role in Mexican history parallel to that of America's plantations in the South.Information relating to the history of the Mexican haciendas, hacienda life, and the often deteriorating condition of the haciendas when Bartlett visited them is taken from Bartlett, Paul Alexander. The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1990. After the Mexican Revolution of 1910, a great many of the haciendas have become ruins and many that Bartlett visited early in his study have ceased to exist; especially for these, Bartlett's record in art and photography is in many cases the only surviving testimony to their historical, architectural, and economic importance.Bartlett, Paul Alexander, The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1990, p. xvii.
Collections of Bartlett's original art, photography, notes, and other materials are preserved by the Benson Latin American Collection of the University of Texas, by the American Heritage Center of the University of Wyoming, by the Charles E. Young Research Library of the University of California at Los Angeles, by Tulane University, and by the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. (For online finding aids to these collections and descriptions of their contents, see below under "Permanent Collections.")
Bartlett's lifelong study of the Mexican haciendas has received recognition by historians and art critics: Early in Bartlett's study Mexican historian Ricardo Lancaster-Jones learned of Bartlett's project and contributed a group of hacienda photographs. Critical assessments of Bartlett's hacienda study include: "Work of indubitable historic and artistic interest... [S]ince these edifices are fast disappearing, his work has great value for the history and monumental art of Mexico" (Silvio Zavala, historian of Mexico and former Ambassador of Mexico to France);From University Press of Colorado, publisher's printed book publication announcement of The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record, 1990.Quotation from Silvio Zavala's letter dated Dec. 12, 1966, copy in the Paul Alexander Bartlett Collection held by the Department of Special Collections of the Charles E. Young Research Library of the University of California in Los Angeles "extraordinarily worthwhile collection" (Donald B. Goodall, former director, Blanton Museum of Art of the University of Texas).Literary and art correspondence in the Paul Alexander Bartlett Collection, American Heritage Center . "These [pen-and-ink illustrations of the haciendas] are interpretations by a strong personality. The themes are projected as though by a creator of the theatre. [Bartlett's] technic, or better still, his technics, are full of wisdom and experience. They express not only the true character of the places represented, but also a personal atmosphere that is decorative and imaginative. There is always mystery in his drawings. He evokes this mystery in black and white, and there is no doubt that his work expresses the qualities of a magnificent poet artist" (Roberto Montenegro, Mexican artist). Frank Tannenbaum, Professor of History at Columbia University, wrote: "[Y]ou really have something which is beautiful and permanent, and something which is the result of long and devoted interest to a phase of Mexican history which is passing away.".From Frank Tannenbaum's letter dated May 21, 1968, copy in the Paul Alexander Bartlett Collection, American Heritage Center Writing about the single-artist exhibition of Bartlett's pen-and-ink hacienda illustrations hosted by the Los Angeles County Museum, Gerald Nordland, former Dean of the Chouinard Art School, described the exhibit in the Los Angeles Times: "In a valuable art exhibit, Mr. Bartlett documents the architecture, sculpture, and utilitarian objects related to the life of the hacienda, in sensitively descriptive drawings of the feudal villas of the Mexican past. This exhibition material... [offers] a record of the vanishing architectural-social-economic history of Mexico."
About Bartlett's The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record, Oakah L. Jones, Professor of History, Purdue University, wrote: "This publication will aid scholars as a reference work for illustrative material and descriptions of decaying or lost haciendas. At the same time, the work will be of great interest to the general reader interested in Mexico and its history." Historian Barbara A. Tenenbaum of the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress described The Haciendas of Mexico: An Artist's Record as "a remarkable book in many ways, and one whose virtues can only grow with time. Paul Alexander Bartlett began sketching and photographing Mexican haciendas in the 1940s, and although his works reflect a considerably different style, they are comparable with Frederick Catherwood's historic renderings of the Maya ruins found by John Lloyd Stephens a century before."Tenenbaum, Barbara A. "Mexico, So Close to the United States." Latin American Research Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, 1995, pp. 226-236.
Works of fiction and critical response Paul Alexander Bartlett's published book-length works of fiction include:
When the Owl Cries