About The Armless Marvel, Mary Belle
This site presents the complete text and most illustrations from Gualterio Quinonas' 1949 biography of Mary Belle de Vargas, a Louisiana artist who was born without arms. Mr. Quinonas maintained a long-time correspondence with Ms. de Vargas, beginning in 1937, when he read an article about her in a New York newspaper, and continuing until her death in early 1946.
Mr. Quinonas states in his Introduction that he wrote this biography in fulfillment of a promise to Ms. de Vargas, although he was forced to complete it without access to most of her personal papers, photographs, or artwork, which were controlled by her immediate family. Because he wrote the book without the cooperation of her family, he relied primarily on materials Ms. de Vargas herself provided him over the course of their friendship, as well as on correspondence with and pictures provided by her friends and acquaintances. As a consequence of his limited source materials, the book is approximately half factual biography and half personal rumination, with the latter being overwhelmingly informed by Mr. Quinonas' startlingly intense adoration of Ms. de Vargas. Thus, the book is perhaps best read as one man's memorial meditation on a subject very close to his heart, and not as definitive history.
The Armless Marvel, Mary Belle was published in 1949 by North River Press, a New York-based publishing concern. The size of the print run and the subsequent success of the book are unknown, although the book was likely published as a small, single-printing vanity project, financed by Mr. Quinonas in fulfillment of his promise to Ms. de Vargas (the financial burdens associated with its printing being directly referenced by him in the Introduction).
Notes on illustrations: With the exception of two examples of Ms. de Vargas' stenographic handiwork, links have been provided for all photographs and illustrations cited in the text. The reader may note that there are gaps in the illustration citations. These gaps are Mr. Quinonas', who did not provide text citations for every illustration or photograph that appears in the book. In such instances, illustration links have been attached to titles (when works of art are cited) or inserted as editor's notations (when photographs are cited). All illustrations and photographs were scanned from a copy of the book, making the quality often less than desirable. For that, our apologies.
