JOEL GRIFFETT

Nothing has been written here for a while and all I seem to do is post updates periodically, but nevertheless, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been a busy boy. I am currently in the USA (Bloomington, Indiana) having won the Mendel Visiting Fellowship at Indiana University to undertake research in the Lilly Library, where a mountain of (un-indexed) Peruvian archival material ended up thanks to a man named Bernardo Mendel.

Whilst in Peru at the beginning of last year I uncovered the curiously named ‘Indiana Collection’ at the National Library in Lima, a series of what I thought were original documents, but were in fact just photocopies from Indiana. Some of it contained information about Richard Trevithick. Fast forward to now, I am here in Bloomington with the sole purpose of sifting through the parts of the archival collection relevant to me: five boxes absolutely bursting at the seams, with no indexing beyond the organisation by date. Thus, colonial documents and letters from the independent government, both from all departments, in all provinces of Peru are mixed together, mostly loose sheets, but luckily some correspondence loosely bound. I have just moved onto the third box (16th August 1821-31st December 1822) and I must have gone through thousands of pages already.

The USA is an incredibly strange place, but the main library on  campus, the Herman B. Wells Library, is a goldmine for someone like me. In the time since I began this project, I have never had such unfettered access to almost an entire floor of books about Latin American history; the British Library and the libraries of Lima have similar collections, but those books are stored behind the scenes, away from prying eyes and grubby hands, whereas here I can browse freely. There is also an auxiliary facility where certain books are housed offsite, and some of those are ones I have been unable to access in the UK. Between the Wells Library and the Lilly Library is where I will spend an entire month or so, and suddenly having no friends has its perks: no distractions, just pure research.

Updates aside, my intention is to start a new blog or newsletter on a different platform like Substack, and branch out beyond the Trevithick Trail and into the wider field of the British in Latin America up to the 19^th century. I haven’t just been researching the Cornish in Latin America in the last few years, so many tangential topics of intrigue have arisen and countless other unofficial and official British involvements in the Americas have caught my eye. Updates will still land in your inbox, regardless of which new platform I use.

I want to make a living off writing (books) but unfortunately writing solely about Cornwall doesn’t make that possible and I know that having spoken to many of the most prominent bloggers within Cornwall.

It sounds like I have forgotten about my main project but I haven’t, I just remain slightly uncertain of which path to take with ‘the lost years of Richard Trevithick.’ The academic side of things has been going surprisingly well, the fellowship just one example and I am seriously considering a PhD. The only problem with this is that I do not need 3 years to complete it, nor do I want to wait 3 years to publish and I cannot yet find a clear and simple answer from anyone about me becoming an exception to this rule.

The other option is to seek an agent and then secure a book deal, which I believe is also feasible. The new blog is a step towards securing that, as agents and publishers want to know that you have a pre-existing audience already. This is a two-step process and can also be a lengthy one – just not 3 years I hope. First I must find an agent who is interested in representing me and my project, and in turn they approach publishers where my book would be a good fit.

Either way, part two will be one big volume covering both Peru and Costa Rica. Right now I would prefer to pursue a book deal, as that way I can combine both history and my own style of travel writing together. This is by far my favourite way to write as it is both fun and cathartic. Academic writing is enjoyable for me, but to nowhere near the same extent.

A new blog will appear with a more catchy personal title, the template being: “The _____ Historian.” My current favourite is ‘Maverick’, but other similarly evocative words like ‘Accidental‘ or ‘Unconventional‘ or even ‘Rogue’ are being considered, in place of the particularly self-deprecating ‘World’s Worst Historian‘ which is a title I bestowed upon myself during my first trip to Peru back in 2023. I am fully aware that this does not come across well, especially to a general audience and is just a joke suggestion, but it does highlight the rather strange journey towards becoming an actual historian that has developed since I began this project just over 2 and a half years ago – a serious and dedicated researcher, but one who is more than willing to slum it across the world in flip flops and a holey t-shirt…

Please comment which one you prefer, or if you have another suitable suggestion, please let me know!