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SIGNATURES
Identified individuals are represented by a biographical sketch, a list of connections to other signatures, and, in most cases, an artifact from the Ransom Centers collections. Help us identify more signatures by submitting your suggested identification.
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THE DOOR
Location on door: front, panel 1
JOHN MISTLETOE
John Mistletoe lived for many years in the imagination of the writer Christopher Morley. He appears most prominently as the eponymous protagonist of John Mistletoe (1931), Morley's novel-cum-autobiography. But Morley began "quoting" Mistletoe much earlier. His 1918 essay collection Shandygaff begins with an epigraph in the form of Mistletoe's definition of the drink shandygaff (a mix of ale and ginger beer) from his Dictionary of Deplorable Facts (among other things, he states that it is "drunk by the lower classes in England, and by strolling tinkers, low church parsons, newspapermen and journalists, and prizefighters"). Elsewhere in this volume, he cites Mistletoe's unpublished letters. Further quotations of Mistletoe pepper Morley's later works and advertisements for his books, and in 1927, he published a story in the British mystery magazine Argosy titled "The Curious Case of John Mistletoe." Some friends played along and cited Mistletoe as an actual writer, and at times, Mistletoe's name appeared in place of Morley's in the literary gossip columns.
A photograph of the John Mistletoe Bookshop, Albany, New York, undated
Christopher Morley's biographer Helen McKelvey Oakley writes that Morley was "delighted" when Eleanore Foote decided to name her Albany bookstore after his alter ego. It operated from 1934 until at least the late 1960s.