New acquisitions and interesting rare books, manuscripts, archives, ephemera, and realia; and news of collections being cataloged and processed, and events and exhibits at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML), Columbia University.
Tomorrow is graduation day here at Columbia; floors are polished in the library, flowers are planted outdoors, and already the proud participants in light blue caps and gowns (with yet prouder parents) are thronging the campus. All very festive and fancy. The soon-to-be-delivered diplomas, though, don't hold a candle to those of Renaissance Italy. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library holds three of them; they're small booklets of twelve pages, on parchment, hand-lettered (of course!) and with sumptuous bindings. Here are a couple of images of one of them, offered in salute to Columbia's new grads!
Text and picture are signed by their maker, Johannes Boninus, for the graduation in 1599 of George Calona (get it? St. George and the Dragon? and the name on the binding?) from the university of Padua as Doctor of Law. Come on up and see it sometime; it's Smith Western MS 25.
Thanks to the great work of Mellon Project Archival Processor Anne Holt, Columbia GSAS 2013, the papers of Harry Lawrence Freeman have now been processed and are available for use by researchers. The collection provides a wide range of materials related to American opera and to the artistic performance and social history of African-Americans from about 1890-1950.
Freeman is credited as being the first African-American to write an opera that was successfully produced. This was his Epthelia, that premiered at the Deutsches Theater in Denver on February 9, 1893 with a cast of 60. His second opera, The Martyr premiered there on August 16, 1893, and was performed with an inter-racial cast at Carnegie Hall in 1947, the composer conducting. As part of the Carnegie Hall Festival Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy this spring, curated by Jessye Norman, the piano/vocal score of The Martyr from the Freeman Papers is on display in Carnegie Hall's Rose Museum.
Freeman's entry in Wikipedia states "Although many of his works were successful during his lifetime, they are not played today." The reason for this is that his works were performed from the manuscripts, now at Columbia, and only a very few have been published. We hope to change this by finding sponsors to fund transfer of the manuscripts to performance copies.
Early in this blog, I wrote about the Dream Machine, and now, with the expert assistance of Alan Govenar and Doumentary Arts, I can show you how our Dream Machine works:
You'll all be able to see our Dream Machine in person this October when we'll exhibit it along with the original manuscript for Naked Lunch. It's all part of a 3 day conference:
October 8: New York University, Fales Library Panel discussion on the influence of Naked Lunch: “The Children of William S. Burroughs”
“Fifty Years of Naked Lunch: from the Interzone to the Archive… and back.”
All sessions at the Columbia University Faculty House 1:00PM: Keynote “From Dr Mabuse to Doc Benway: The Myths and Manuscripts of Naked Lunch” Oliver Harris, Professor of American Literature, American Studies, Keele University
2:30PM: Short papers Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library “William S. Burroughs: The Writer as Avant-Garde Archivist”
Brian E. C. Schottlaender, Audrey Geisel University Librarian, University of California, San Diego “Manifestations, Multiple Versions, and Showstoppers: Collecting the Various Guises of Naked Lunch”
Regina Weinreich, Professor in Humanities & Sciences, School of Visual Arts, New York City “Honing the Word Hoard: Kerouac, Tangier and Naked Lunch”
4:30PM Panel Discussion: “From the Bunker and Beyond: firsthand encounters with William S. Burroughs & Naked Lunch” Moderator: Ann Douglas, Parr Professor of Comparative Literature, Columbia University Speakers: Barry Miles, Author; Visiting Fellow, Liverpool School of Art and Design, John Moores University Bradford Morrow, Novelist; Editor, Conjunctions; Professor of Literature, Bard College; and Barney Rosset, Publisher, Evergreen Review and founding publisher, Grove Press
6:00pm Reception and viewing of the exhibition: Naked Lunch: the First Fifty Years in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 6th floor Butler Library October 10, the School of Visual Arts SVA will host an evening of film and performances, including a screening of The Beat Hotel, a new documentary by Alan Govenar. Poet Anne Waldman and others (to be announced) will read from Naked Lunch.
