Researching Literary Manuscripts: a Scholar's Perspective

62 American Archivist / Vol. 56 / Winter 1993

Perspective SCOTT CLINE, editor Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021

Researching Literary Manuscripts: A Scholar's Perspective

LOIS MORE OVERBECK

Abstract: Scholars who do their research in literary manuscripts appreciate the professionally managed archival research collection and the archivist's role as a mediator between collectors and researchers. The author, a literary editor, discusses how the issues of copyright, restrictions on access, arrangement, description, reference policies, and copying are viewed by literary researchers and calls for collaboration between scholars and archivists to make information about collections more accessible.

About the author: Lois More Overbeck is associate editor of The Correspondence of Samuel Beckett and a research associate with the Graduate School of Emory University. She edited The Beckett Circle (1984-89) and co-edited Intersecting Boundaries: The Theatre of Adrienne Kennedy (1992). Invited to represent the scholar's perspective on literary archives, she presented a version of this paper at the fifty-second annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists in Atlanta in October 1988. A Scholar's Perspective 63

JUST AS THE NATURE of an archival collec- blocked because of company policy or gov- tion informs the nature of the inquiry, so ernment regulations. does the inquiry influence a scholar's per- Out of experiences such as these comes. ception of archives and their role in re- appreciation of the comprehensiveness and search. In recent research on the accessibility of a professionally managed correspondence of Samuel Beckett, my research collection, the service of archi- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 colleague and I have worked in many fine vists in developing, deciphering, preserv- archival collections in the United States and ing, and arranging the collection, and most abroad and have come to rely upon the of all the supportive collegiality between professional support of archivists. But it is curator and researcher that makes a literary the research we have done in materials not archives a productive and enjoyable place administered by professional archivists that to work. has made us appreciate the archivist's work. The Archivist as Mediator Between Appreciation of Archival Management Collectors and Researchers Literary research may take the scholar to materials that are not a part of library- or Literary researchers value archivists who archives-based manuscript collections. For share an understanding of the scholarly example, the study of a twentieth-century process and commitment to support re- author often involves examination of rec- search. However, what researchers take for ords that are still in the hands of a publish- granted sometimes may be at issue for the ing company. Scholars value such records archivist or for those who fund archives. A for their primary or secondary relationship reason for this becomes evident when we to study of the literary text, while the owner consider the archivist's role vis-a-vis the may view them simply as a record of busi- collector who may donate materials and the ness transacted. They may be poorly main- researcher who will use them. tained, difficult to access, and inadequately Literary manuscripts curators and re- supported with personnel or copy services. searchers encounter private collectors far more The researcher may have to sort the frequently than do archivists and archival users files—assuming that the company permits in most other fields. The collector acquires this—before the pertinent documents can literary manuscripts to see them preserved be studied. Because files must be main- and for exclusivity of ownership. The more tained as found, selected papers must be popular or significant the work and the rarer copied and replaced in files one at a time. the document, the greater the value of the The researcher with questions may find that collection. Value is preserved by maintaining the current staff has little understanding of rarity, sometimes by restricting the use and the original context or previous office prac- publication of such materials. tice. When the immediate research is com- On the other hand, the researcher values pleted, the files must be returned to storage, the richness of association that a manu- so that if verification is needed in the fu- script suggests, as well as the document ture, all of the materials would need to be itself. The scholar uses literary manuscripts brought out of storage and the whole process to understand an author's work and creative of sorting begun again. Even a company methods or to infer characteristics of a lit- with some archival support may not be in erary period; the assemblage of a collection a position to respond to scholars' requests of an author's work in one place increases with efficiency or adequate understanding its interpretive value. Dissemination through of their research process. In other cases, interpretation is the scholar's purpose. Value full access to business archives may be is enhanced by wide dissemination of 64 American Archivist / Winter 1993

scholarly work and even publication of the scripts include access, arrangement of ma- literary manuscripts themselves. terials, bibliographic description of collections, A literary manuscripts curator is neither reference and photoduplication policies that a private collector nor a researcher but plays assist research accuracy, and collaboration the difficult role of mediating between the among archives that facilitates comparative Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 sometimes competing values of the two. use of materials. Ideally, archival administration of literary Ownership, copyright, and restricted manuscripts addresses the collector's val- use. Written or oral materials of living ues through preservation, documentation, writers, correspondence between (or refer- and security and, at the same time, meets ring to) living persons, and correspondence the researcher's need for access and inter- pertaining to active business operations all pretation through arrangement, descrip- comprise rich veins for research, but not tion, copy services, knowledge of collateral without caveat. Problems of ownership, le- collections, and referrals for permissions. gal and informal acknowledgement of the Even before Candide the "best of all right to privacy, and accessibility to and possible worlds" was considered a "blue publication of material have become press- sky" proposition, but in the twentieth cen- ing issues. The archivist must determine tury the archivist's mediating role is be- the appropriate middle ground between the coming ever more challenging. As researcher's purposes and the legal limits preservation needs have become more crit- of inquiry that must be observed for any ical and the techniques of preservation more living author or work within copyright. sophisticated, the costs of maintaining a All policies related to access and use ul- collection have risen. Financial preroga- timately involve ownership and copyright. tives often permit donors to exercise con- When ownership of documents is trans- trol over their manuscripts, even after they ferred, whether to another generation in a are placed in the care of archives. As the family or to an archives, permission to pub- costs of acquiring collections rise, archives lish may be extraordinarily difficult for the may find it difficult to obtain institutional researcher to obtain unless copyright has commitment to the long-term needs of de- been assigned. In the case of correspon- velopment, curatorship, and bibliographi- dence, the recipient of a letter owns the cal services. More than good intentions and physical document, but copyright (owner- sound policy are required to reconcile the ship of the literary rights) is held by the interests of the collector and the user of writer; if the recipient gives the documents literary manuscripts. to a publicly accessible archives, he or she has no authority to transfer copyright for Issues that Matter to Literary what was written by others.1 Although it is Researchers standard practice to register information such The papers of persons who have made their as restrictions, rights, publication, and living and reputation through their writing ownership (including ownership of the lit- may offer special circumstances not usual for erary rights that may not have been as- materials in other types of archives. In lit- signed to the archives), archivists can assist erary research, all written products are po- researchers by maintaining updated files. tentially related to the evolution of the texts Naturally archivists must honor the terms that define an author's canon. In addition, collateral correspondence and manuscript materials may have a bearing on the works 'For more complete discussion of these issues, sec Trudy Huskamp Peterson and Gary M. Peterson, Ar- or their contexts. Thus the issues that are chives and Manuscripts: Law (Chicago: Society of foremost for researchers in literary manu- American Archivists, 1985). A Scholar's Perspective 65

under which collections have been devel- uscripts comprises a valued scholarship. oped. However, they should counsel a do- Establishing a dependable sequence of let- nor so that restrictions are not applied ters dated "Sunday" or faded postmarks arbitrarily. The rationale for policies ap- on envelopes takes knowledge and experi- plied to specific collections should be a ence. However, these discriminations would matter of open record. When collections be more valuable if a rationale for them Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 are acquired, donors should be given an were recorded. The great problem for the understanding of what constitutes standard researcher is knowing how a conjecture research practice, and if necessary, how to about missing information (e.g., dating or delegate or assign authority for publication sequence) was made and by whom. Has the of the materials. Curators have an obliga- recipient added the full date realizing that tion to help the donor understand what pol- the letter would someday be of great im- icies will ultimately support research and port? Has a clerk added the date because dissemination of these materials. Restric- of the bundle in which the letter was re- tions should be regularly reviewed and ceived? Has a trained archivist studied the modified as conditions change. context of the document and the collection Issues of ownership and restricted use to make an educated guess? If there is a should be discussed openly among all par- transcription of an autograph manuscript or ties involved in archival support and use: a translation of one written in another lan- donors, parent institutions, funding agen- guage, the scholar would like to know whose cies, researchers, and lawyers. Profes- knowledge is represented. An open record sional organizations should take the lead in of the archivist's rationale, filed with the setting policies so that there is a consistent document, would enable the archivist and basis for decisions in this area. At the same researcher alike to reevaluate decisions on time, new kinds of materials or new cir- the basis of subsequent acquisitions or ad- cumstances of research ought to find the ditional information; an accompanying in- archivist receptive to the researcher's needs vitation to researchers to register any and able to offer material support. concerns or hypotheses about problems One example of the problem of access would serve us all. restrictions is found in business records On one level, arrangement is immaterial within literary archives. Correspondence as long as the scholar can find the infor- between an author and editor may have sig- mation sought and can be reasonably sure nificant bearing on a literary text; yet, be- that something has not been overlooked because of financial and legal considerations cause of an unasked question. Provenance of the ongoing business, restrictions may and original order seem as good a way as be imposed on access to, and/or publication any to account for the physical location of of, the information in business records. But a document if this is the best way to main- what restrictions are reasonable for ar- tain the integrity of a series. chives to accept on behalf of future re- Description. As important as clear ar- searchers whose questions may as yet be rangement is, all finding aids are interpre- unknown? Most scholars understand the tive.2 Any single system of arrangement ways that certain restrictions may actually work to their benefit to provide broader access to some materials, but they do not re- 2Hilary Jenkinson warns archivists not to "turn stu- spond well to policy when it seems to block dent" but to be "dispassionate ... in sorting, in access arbitrarily. arrangement, in presentation" where the "tiniest modification may have the most far reaching results." Arrangement. The archivist's physical Jenkinson, "Reflections of an Archives," Contem- arrangement of a collection of literary man- porary Review 165 (June 1944): 355-61; reprinted in 66 American Archivist / Winter 1993

inhibits some kinds of access to a collection sive finding aids is expensive, but research because no single arrangement can possibly libraries could seek the support of scholars anticipate every inquiry a scholar may have. and their professional organizations in Considerable knowledge is required to find making this a priority. a system that is most appropriate for a col- Bibliographic description that transcends lection.3 What matters most to the re- individual repositories is a vital service to Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 searcher is that the finding aids describe literary researchers. As comprehensive cat- documents in as many ways as possible— alogs, checklists, and bibliographies are by provenance, chronology, subject, genre, made widely available online, scholars will and author. be able to conduct global and comparative A conventional finding aid is limited to searches at their home institutions and thus describing the single way that the collec- conserve limited time and money for re- tion was arranged, but a fully developed search travel. computer database provides the opportu- The National Union Catalog of Manu- nity to explore multiple "arrangements." script Collections (NUCMC)4 provides col- This invites the researcher to pose a broader lection-level records, with added entries if range of initial questions. Ideally finding the reporting libraries provide this detail. aids should include scope notes and sum- Although searching and updating of these maries of series as well as annotated con- records is greatly improved now that cur- tents lists, allowing the researcher to rent records are produced as an online cat- "browse" creatively and effectively with- alog, the usefulness of NUCMC is limited out disturbing the actual manuscript mate- by incomplete reporting, whether caused by rials. The researcher needs to let the nature the reluctance or the inability of an archives of inquiry determine the best approach to to report comprehensively. Although the a given manuscript collection. To facilitate Location Register of Twentieth-Century this need, the archivist must appreciate the English Literary Manuscripts and Letters5 variety of questions that may be asked of is also dependent on archival reporting, it a single document and provide many "ar- offers the scholar brief summary descrip- rangements" on-line, in addition to the tions that provide a basis to assess the im- physical arrangement of materials. portance of the holdings in various Bibliographic databases that implement repositories to their specific research. the USMARC Archival and Manuscripts Both the American Literary Manuscripts6 Control (AMC) format offer the possibility checklist and the Index of English Literary of sorting information in many configura- Manuscripts7 survey archival holdings for tions and could be used to generate analyt- ical finding aids. Conversion of existing records and creation of more comprehen- 'National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1959/61- ). 5David Sutton, comp., Location Register of Twen- Maygene F. Daniels and Timothy Walch, eds., A tieth-Century English Literary Manuscripts and Let- Modern Archives Reader (Washington, D.C.: Na- ters: A Union List of Papers of Modern English, Irish, tional Archives and Records Service, 1984), 15. Be- Scottish, and Welsh Authors in the British Isles (Bos- cause any sorting, arranging, or presenting is necessarily ton: G. K. Hall, 1988). The Location Register is on interpretive, I would urge that it be explained. Re- RUN. searchers should be aware of the rationale of archivists 6J. Albert Robbins, ed., American Literary Manu- so that assumptions that governed the original choices scripts: A Checklist of Holdings in Academic, Histor- can be modified if new information is available that ical, and Public Libraries, Museums, and Authors' presents a stronger case. Homes in the United States, 2nd cd. (Athens: Uni- 3William L. Joyce, "Archivists and Research," versity of Georgia Press, 1977). American Archivist 47 (Spring 1984): 125. 7Peter Beal, Margaret Smith, Barbara Roscnbaum, A Scholar's Perspective 67

a selected canon of literature. Although reducing the probability of error. When de- canonicity provides a necessary parameter, ciphering difficult autograph manuscript in principle it limits the discovery of ma- material or when more than one researcher terials and the questions of research. Amer- is collaborating on a project, a tape re- ican Literary Manuscripts provides a corder is helpful to note alternative read- quantitative record of collections for major ings. Facilities and rules governing reading- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 and selected minor or younger authors, but room decorum should take these tools into it does so without contextual information consideration. Researchers appreciate calm, that might help users identify what would spacious reading rooms, separated from the be helpful to their work. By contrast, the traffic and daily work of the archivist, as Index of English Literary Manuscripts pro- well as areas apart from the reading room vides comparative analysis of materials in which to consult with the staff or with available in scattered collections, allowing other researchers. the scholar to consider issues of sequence, Copies. Research is a process whose authenticity, and connections between ma- methods of inquiry are often shaped by the terials that are not evident by looking at nature of available materials.8 For scholars only a single collection or archives. unable to complete their research in a sin- The drawbacks of such resources are be- gle visit to an archives, copies are essen- coming less significant as their virtues can tial. Questions about manuscript materials be combined. As these printed catalogs are often emerge later in the research process. entered into online networks (e.g., RLIN), It would be a poor use of archivists' time they can be updated readily to reflect grow- and good will to be asked to verify mate- ing collections and, at the same time, be rials previously consulted by a researcher. searched widely, quickly, and comparatively However, return visits to collections may by the scholar and the archivist. A logical not be practical. extension of computer and telecommunica- Researchers wish that the shibboleth that tions technology will be for archives to make collections are empires could be put to rest. finding aids for specific collections available No collection should be considered so com- online or at least on disk. Then the scholar prehensive that it cannot be enhanced by will be able to conduct a comparative search other collections. Although extensive fi- of pertinent holdings at the global level of nancial commitments would be required, it archives and at an item-specific level within would be very useful to researchers if col- pertinent collections. lections could be shared among archives Reasonable reference policies. Under- (on fiche or in copied files), so that collec- standably, researchers are asked to work in tions could be accessible for comparison pencil when reading in manuscript and rare without the need to visit and revisit distant book collections, but the quill pen and bot- archives. Copies will seldom supplant the tled ink have given way to computers and need to consult the original manuscripts (thus tape recorders. These newer tools can be they will not result in "mail order ar- invaluable means of recording information chives"), but they can make research more efficiently and precisely. Transcription is efficient and productive. Because recipro- tiring to the hand and the eye, but the com- cal arrangements promise more compre- puter allows the fingers to do the work while hensive and precise scholarship, they ought the eye is trained on the manuscript, thus

"Philip D. Jordan, "The Scholar and the Archi- and Pamela White, comps., Index of English Literary vist—A Partnership," American Archivist 31 (Janu- Manuscripts, 4 vols. (London: Mansell, 1980- ). ary 1968): 64. 68 American Archivist / Winter 1993

to be seen as enhancing the value of a col- searchers who have had the pleasure of de- lection and the resources of an archives. veloping working relationships with Restrictions that apply to publication are fre- archivists recognize that they could not do quently extended to photocopying of manu- their research as well without them. Schol- script materials, with some justification. ars do not expect to have research done for

However, the restrictions applied to publica- them, but they do value the archivist's Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 tion should be adequate in most cases to pre- knowledge of a collection and of support- serve the uniqueness of materials without ing materials that may bear on their re- excessive restriction of copying that needlessly search. They appreciate the interest shown hampers productive and careful scholarship. by the archivist in their project and meth- Duplication of materials requires the same ods of inquiry. Discussions with the archi- concern for integrity of the original docu- vist throughout a research visit, or at least ments that an archivist applies to biblio- an exit interview at the end of the visit, graphic description. Crucial characteristics make it possible to secure copies that be- of the manuscript may be lost or obscured come necessary as research continues, to when materials are made available in mi- acquire permissions for publication, and to croform and photocopy.9 It should go with- be made aware of newly acquired materials out saying that sound research demands that bear on the scholar's work. Research- readable copy. Reproductions are of little ers also appreciate the acquaintance that an use when copy paper bears an obscuring archivist has with the related work of other imprint, copies are not checked for clarity researchers. When a scholar sends a com- or completeness of image, or the reproduc- plementary copy of a published work to an tions do not identify the document copied. archives in which research was done, it Although we now live in an age of me- represents appreciation, not only for the chanical reproduction, archival copying collection but also for the many profes- cannot be done without archival supervi- sionals who support the collection. sion. The other side of this reality is that Archivists and researchers can and should costs for archival copying already seem work hand in hand to develop archival hold- outrageous. Creative solutions are needed ings. When individuals hold documents of that meet the scholar's need for a fair copy value, it is in everyone's best interest to pre- within the constraints of the archivist's vent random dispersal. Often a researcher has concern for the original document. the interest or the opportunity to make initial contacts that identify potential collections. But Cooperation Between Archivists and an individual scholar cannot offer the cura- Researchers torial protection to assure the owners of man- Even the best finding aids do not reduce uscripts that their papers will be maintained the scholar's need for collaboration with a as desired. Clearly it is in the best interests literary manuscripts curator. Literary re- of the researcher to encourage owners to work with archivists to preserve a collection; but in return, the researcher is justified in the 'Sometimes it is impossible to know from a pho- desire that archives will also provide access tocopy whether a letter is two leaves, one leaf recto/ to all scholars and support to these materials. verso, or one leaf with four sides. When a writer is Scholars and archivists could also apply in the habit of folding a sheet of paper to make four sides for writing but does not number the pages, then their complementary knowledge and skills unfolding the paper and photocopying both sides of in collaborative projects to create finding the sheet does not sufficiently compose the order of aids that would make more material effec- the contents. A better copying procedure would be to photocopy side one alone, open out sides two and tively accessible. Scholars familiar with the three, and copy side four alone. materials might be involved in reviewing A Scholar's Perspective 69

such resources. Their field work with in- sive quantities of archival material impose dividuals and in other libraries may enable new priorities. Researchers hope that ar- archives to develop collateral collections or chivists will approach the choices that they alert them to lacunae in their holdings. Ar- face with a desire to facilitate understanding chivists and researchers could collaborate of the manuscripts in their care. The nine- in efforts to create and maintain a database teenth-century explorer John Wesley Powell Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/1/62/2748462/aarc_56_1_a086x87800058u02.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 of literary copyright holders. Cooperation said: "The learning of one man does not of this kind would need to be facilitated by subtract from the learning of another. ... It a national body or funding agency, but it may be wrong to take another man's purse, would serve the researcher and the archivist but it is always right to take another man's well. With more flexible and detailed find- knowledge, and it is the highest virtue to ing aids, researchers could plan their work promote another man's investigation."10 If a and be prepared to make the optimal use literary manuscript collection is not a purse of archival time. but a place where knowledge is pursued, then Researchers appreciate and share the archivist and researcher can and should col- concerns of archivists, particularly in the laborate. We both will benefit. area of literary manuscripts. All of us face the real shortage of time and funding, and we realize the enormity of the task of mak- '"Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Merid- ing archival collections available for re- ian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of search today while preserving them for the the West (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954), 292, quoted in Philip C. Brooks, Research in Archives: the future. New technologies call into question Use of Unpublished Primary Sources (Chicago: Uni- old methods of archival management; mas- versity of Chicago Press, 1969), 17.