A chronicle, they say, is the detailed historical
account of events arranged in order of time without interpretation or analysis. And while the following narrative fits that
definition, it is not without interpretation or analysis. This account, then, is perhaps more an expedition of personal archeology
that attempts to piece together the parts of a puzzle that reveal a snapshot of a person’s story, in order to shed light
on it.
The account of a life’s story, as it presents itself here,
is made all the more difficult when the person giving the account has no connection to that person’s history beyond
a post-mortem reading of his edited, published diaries. This is further complicated by the editor’s use of pseudonyms
and her fusion of persons to represent individual characters.
Much of this research was begun in 1993 when widespread
Internet access to the general public was in its infancy. Easy-to-use graphical web browsers and search engines for use on
the World Wide Web were just making it onto the scene, though later the Internet would play a role in the process of discovery.
Today clues turn-up on the Internet with irregular frequency and with varying degrees of reliability. All non-original material
presented herein was extracted from the public domain, garnered from clues contained within the edited diaries.
Because of the fragmented nature of conducting research on hidden clues and composite
characters within the diaries, this account is necessarily uneven in its results. Where facts abound, it treats the entries
in more detail; where facts are less certain, the information is more sparse. No attempt has been made to address the unevenness
of this account, at present. This is an interim work that is in no sense finished.
Since
I live a good distance from where most of the actual historical events took center stage, much of the research was conducted
via distance through regular postal correspondence - a slow, arduous, and often frustrating process. Had I lived in the region
where the actual events had taken place, this research would necessarily be more detailed and rich. For now, however, I offer
what I have here, to those who might be interested, in an effort to bring one man’s story to light.
The
book form that I have chosen has practical ramifications for lending itself to revision, as I continue to research and update
the history as new evidence comes to light.
It does occur to me today,
a decade beyond the first year in the process of discovery, that the editor may have since deposited the original diaries
in some research institution or library,* which would seem to render this account somewhat irrelevant. But upon further reflection,
the material contained herein offers additional historical documentation not included within the diaries themselves, as well
as some non-traditional research sources that may be of interest to the genealogical or historical researcher. In addition,
it documents some of the events of my own quest.
*In the years since writing the Prologue,
Ina Russell, editor Jeb and Dash: Diary Of A Gay Life, 1918 – 1945, has indicated publicly that the Library
of Congress has asked to take possession of Carter’s diaries, and she intends to deposit them there. “Jeb
& Dash: Behind the Diaries” http://jebanddash.tripod.com/JD_copy/behinddiaries.html