Lucretia Borges
From Plastic Tub
| "Few knew that there were two Lucretia's: who would have supposed that the voraciously verbose jewel hound had a twin brother by the same name? So she didn't date--big deal... closet lesbian, everyone presumed. And when the child showed up? More charity work, right? A poor adopted orphan, perhaps. But Lucretia's twin brother Lucretia knew. Though he never left the house, never spoke to anyone but “darling Lucretia”, he knew where the child came from...." So began John Wickle's disturbing tale of wealth and isolation, "Children of the Pope: The Borges from 1492 to 1982." The story, of course, was quite unpublishable (and unpalatable) at the time; it remained buried along with its author--blacklisted by the Borges family whose finacial interests were certainly more than substantial enough to bury such tawdry trash. That all changed with the internet--but who takes the internet seriously? Who indeed... Wickle died within weeks of the publication of his revisionist histories, which tackled numerous subjects (most notably the Mormo cult), many of whom, (were Wickle's claims to be taken seriously) would be more than willing and able to stamp out the teeny-tiny, little Wickle.
So what is actually ‘‘known’’ about Borges? Very little as it turns out. Extravagantly wealthy, Borges was certainly never without, and she spent a life time collecting. As founder of the independent and reviled AA fanclub, The 3rd A, her varied collection included Stimes Addisson's one-time Manhattan apartment as well as numerous first prints and original paintings by several core AAers. In addition to her AA fetish, Borges also owned one of the world's most impressive collections of forgeries and was fascinated with animals (a good deal of the San Diego Zoo's "collection" was most purchased by Borges). Wickle was correct regarding her unmarried status and the odd appearance of the strange child suddenly found by her side, but most people assumed she was barren and unlovable, and that the oddly mute and albino child was but one of her many collections of the obscure. |
Desiderata
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