THEY SAVED RAFAEL SABATINI FROM OBSCURITY

A team that worked as one: Jesse Forrester Knight III (February 28, 1946 - December 6, 2008) and Dollie Carol Smith (née Landenberger 30 July 1938 – 18 October 2019)

Today is the birth anniversary of Jesse Knight, and this year is the seventieth after the death of Rafael Sabatini. Rafael Sabatini had not tried to ensure that he would be remembered as a person; for him it sufficed that his books were read, his name being on the title page as author. His obituary notices were, in effect, the last that readers heard of the man Rafael Sabatini.

Only one reader made up his mind that he would set out in search of Sabatini. That was Jesse Knight. When Jesse, with Michael Ward's support, first went online about Rafael Sabatini, the generality of readers around the world had fragmentary knowledge of Rafael Sabatini. An entry here, a mention there, a rare article focused on him, were all the resource that successive generations of readers had, and these often carried errors, or purveyed misconceptions. Even Sabatini’s books were a jumble dumped into a section marked 'swashbucklers' subtitled 'period' or 'romance', read at random by those who liked them; and dismissed by critics as outdated work by a justly forgotten writer.

Jesse spent years, effort, and money in his search, which took him across the United States from East Coast to West Coast, across the Atlantic to Europe, seeking through Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy, and across the Channel to England where, in London and in Liverpool, at Brockweir House, at the grave in Horsham, and at Clock Mill, Jesse went seeking Rafael Sabatini.

[River Wye, down from Brockweir House]

With Jesse went his muse, as he called her, Dollie the invaluable partner, energetic, adventurous, shrewd observer, and always ready to help, who took photographs and ... but let her speak of Jesse’s Sabatini work, of their travels in this project, and express her views on related matters:

• That Rafael does have you enthralled as he did Jesse. And, I with Jesse.
• ... the tremendous work and energy during the thirty years that Jesse spent searching for information on Sabatini's life and promoting appreciation for his work.
• He struggled many years to get what he had because there were no records. And the Bank and Whoever else wouldn't release access.
• Jesse knows that he kept Sabatini alive for readers. He was very grateful to be able to do all that he did.
• I have Clock Mill photos. I actually took them. Not very good. We visited Viscount Portman and his wife for an hour. They were very formal. We walked around the grounds, etc. I cannot recall exactly what photos I may have. I did take some of Christine's sculptures. I don't know which one Rafael may have used in a novel. Back then, I did not think about the future use of photos. Also, I ... did not have a camera that was easy to use like the ones today. [Jesse] had everything in his files which were not well organized. So, I will have to search for them - and some may even be slides. ... I didn't have the right equipment or know how. We went there in the 80's [July 1985]. I had an old camera. I did not know anything about setting up a photo for the available light, etc.
• When we visited Sabatini's first wife's relatives in England, Jesse was able to get some photos. An uncle [it was a nephew] had photo albums and he let Jesse take some of the photos and have them copied. I dare say that they may have died by now. That was in 1986 [1985].
• I want you to know how totally thrilled I was on the trip to England with Jesse to visit Sabatini relatives [in November 1985]. They were all so kind and treated us beautifully.  I even went to a "men's club" in Liverpool for lunch. Prior to meeting Viscount Portman, I didn't know what a Viscount was. We did hang back and were very careful not to be intrusive. They too were very nice. Our visit was like a little break from their daily routine. They enjoyed discussing the information Jesse had. They were aware of the tragedy of Lanty's plane crashing.
• We went to Jesi twice. The first time we did not find out much of anything - in the early '80's. The second time is when he participated in the conference [2001]. We were kept quite busy - the locals wanted us to see everything else, but didn't really have a handle on Sabatini. I think Jesse knew more than they did. The Sabatini festival was paid for by monies from the European Union for "Cultural" events. It was all very interesting and fairly comical. There was some in-fighting amongst the various factions of educational institutions. Everyone wanted to be in charge. If the money hadn't been there, they couldn’t have cared less.
• While in Adelboden [August or September 1986] I took photos of the bedroom in which RS died. It is really a very plain room.

• Jesse was so fortunate that I took care of all the stuff involved with day in and out living.
• Rafael's penmanship was so difficult to decipher. Jesse would stare at it through a magnifying glass and then would ask, "What do you think this word is?" How frustrating for the reader. Sometimes I wonder if the people for whom he inscribed books could read what he wrote.
• During the Sabatini Symposium in Jesi, Italy, in 2001, it was debated whether or not Sabatini should be recognized as an historian. With a great deal of Italian deliberation, it was the "Novelist" writer who won out, albeit, "Historical Novelist".

Dollie herself had comments about Sabatini’s novels that are worthwhile:

• So much is there and woven in so intelligently that most readers don't spot it. Inasmuch as Sabatini researched the background for his writing in great detail, I would wonder if he had read about such a person, or maybe several persons rolled into one, that he incorporated in the story. I always thought that his characters bore some resemblance to someone in real life (except maybe for the women with the heaving chests that he perhaps got from his daily life).

And on the subject of unrest, indecisiveness, and unwise decisions on the part of citizens facing choices she made a comment that could have come out of Sabatini’s two SCARAMOUCHE novels:

• History and Knowledge are what good decisions are all about.

while remarking on the subject of war’s cost in soldiers’ lives:

• How wonderful it would be if the commanders all fought each other instead.

It was Jesse Knight who first beat a path to the gates, and laid out the flagstones which made that path easy to tread. Without him Rafael Sabatini would have, by this time, been lost irretrievably in that outer darkness to which critics and scholars had consigned him. All readers with any interest in Rafael Sabatini the man should be grateful to Jesse and to his invaluable partner, Dollie.

Ruth Heredia is the originator and holds the copyright to all material on this blog unless credited to some source. Please do not use it or pass it off as your own work. That is theft. If you wish to link it, quote it, or reprint in whole or in part, please be courteous enough to seek my permission.