Issue #7
October 27, 2023

Dear friends,

Last year on Halloween, I visited Ellis Island for the first time to research a new novel. I knew that some 12 million new Americans had passed through this single immigration station, my great-grandparents among them. But I had yet to learn about those who arrived and never left.

A 27-acre speck in New York Harbor, Ellis Island is mostly landfill. On the southern half sits a sprawling, crumbling hospital, deserted even on days when the main building on the north side is raucous with visitors. To access it, I signed up for a tour with Save Ellis Island.

Tall grasses grow in the hospital’s courtyards. Sunlight flooded some of the halls, while others remained in deep shadow. I glimpsed the Statue of Liberty through a cracked window on one of the wards.

Those 12 million were typically third-class passengers off steamships from Europe. They arrived between 1892 and 1924, and went on to beget some 40 percent of today’s U.S. population. Most of them were checked through Ellis Island in three to five hours.

But some weren’t so lucky. About two percent of arrivals were deported back to Europe, for reasons such as having an infectious disease or a criminal record, or being deemed mentally unfit.

Others, arriving sick or injured, were shunted to the island’s medical facilities for indefinite stays. The Ellis Island Hospital treated about 1.2 million patients. Some 350 babies were born there, and about 3,500 immigrants died.

The hospital was state-of-the-art for its time. The doctors and nurses were big on hand washing, sanitation, and airflow.

Other practices haven’t aged so well. In 1912, the psychologist Henry H. Goddard, concerned about the quality of “American stock,” went to Ellis Island to evaluate new arrivals.

According to the results of his study, he said, 40 percent of Jewish, Hungarian, and Italian immigrants qualified as morons, a term he bequeathed to the English language. Though his methods were soon debunked, his work became fuel for the eugenics movement and a rising anti-foreigner frenzy.

Today, some of the hospital’s walls and windows are covered with eerie, translucent enlargements of photographs of actual immigrants – an installation added by the French artist JR in 2014. Our guide had us stop and listen to the silence, though as she said, “Save Ellis Island doesn’t take an official position on ghosts.”

Actual Bad Directions?

Occasionally, young people seek me out in the hope that I can provide wise – or at least semi-informed – writing career advice. Recently, I met with a 23-year-old whose stated ambition to “write and travel” reflects my own obsessions at her age. She seemed level-headed, with the requisite talent. We covered the basics. (Get lots of practice! Keep your overhead low!) Then she wanted to know what else she should do.

I asked if she really didn’t use social media, as appeared to be the case. She said that was correct. I paused to collect myself. She’d recently spent a year traveling – and not felt the need to broadcast it on Instagram. The youth are amazing.

Then I broke it to her: You’re going to need an online presence.

She asked what precisely I’d recommend. I suddenly felt a weight of responsibility, as though I’d been asked which contagious diseases she should try. I settled on:

-A simple website to showcase your work.

-A LinkedIn page to post your resume and conduct a little light networking.

-One additional social media site of your choice.

-That’s it! Hang on to that sweet, social-media-free sanity while you’ve got it!

The kids are alright. At least, this one was. I wonder what kind of karmic payment I’ve accrued.

Five Faves: Short Stories, Some Haunted

I read a few dozen short stories a year, and the best ones are like delicious appetizers. I can sample many, and try flavors I might not order as a main dish. Here are some I loved, all available online. (If you enjoy these, you should buy the authors’ books!)

I Can See Right Through You by Kelly Link. (McSweeney’s.) Often absurd and occasionally chaotic, this story gestures at the supernatural from the get go, but waits to reveal whether it’s truly a ghost story. Two old friends meet up at a former Florida nudist colony where one of them is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. This story was also published in Link’s 2014 collection, Get in Trouble, and she won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2018.

The Plaza by Rebecca Makkai. (The New Yorker.) In the mid 20th century, a small-town beauty queen flees for New York City and finds herself trapped in a gilded cage. The story is haunted by wasted female potential and the ghost of Eloise, the six-year-old hellion from the eponymous children’s book by Kay Thompson. An audio version is also available at the link.

Breathing Exercise by Raven Leilani. (The Yale Review.) A celebrated young artist in Brooklyn has built a career on going to extremes — and may not be able to sustain it. “Breathing Exercise” is haunted by racism, sexism, art critics, and a stalker. Leilani’s acclaimed debut novel, Luster, was published in 2020.

Nostalgie by Wendy Erskine. (The Irish Times.) Driven to re-experience his former glory, an ex-pop star takes a ferry to Belfast to perform a concert. The story is haunted by nostalgia, the artistic drive, and memories of the Northern Ireland conflict. It appears in Erskine’s 2022 collection, Dance Move.

Superking Son Scores Again by Anthony Veasna So (N + 1.) This is the tragi-comic arc of a revered badminton coach in California. The tale is haunted by high school locker rooms and the Cambodian genocide. The story appears in So’s bestselling debut collection, Afterparties, which was published in 2021, shortly after he died at the horribly young age of 28. A posthumous collection of essays and outtakes, Songs on Endless Repeat, will be published next month.

Let’s Talk

Write to me at eavesdrop@elisabetheaves.com. I read every email, and I’ll try to answer every question.

Happy trails,
Elisabeth