Monday, October 29, 2007
NaNoWriMo
Yes, I just created bounce-pad.
I'm going to bounce my writing in here. It's my interim storage space for when I'm not on my desktop, where I can save it. Also, it might be good to have it all in cyber space, just in case my PC dies.
So yeah.
Let's just hope I can catch up on homework enough to allow myself to crank out a novel.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
JMB Quote
"My own theme [for an address] is Courage, as you should use it in the great fight that seems to me to be coming between youth and their betters; by youth, meaning, of course, you, and by your betters, us. I want you to take up this position: That youth have for too long left exclusively in our hands the decisions in national matters that are more vital to them than to us. Things about the next war, and why the last one ever had a beginning." page 5.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Library Project, for safe keeping.
Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up, has become an icon of children’s literature and movies, both in
When researching the life of a person, it usually helps to know at least a basic summary of their life and works. In the case of Sir James Matthew Barrie, briefness is not possible. Even still, I’ll try squeeze in as much of the vital information as possible. Although he is best (and often singularly) known for his children’s play, Peter Pan,
Unlike the vast and scattered collections of many writers, the papers and trappings of J. M. Barrie are relatively consolidated, but largely untapped. The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, located on the campus of the
By undertaking the huge task of compiling
Although the Beinecke Library is in possession of Birkin’s collection, their online inventory of J. M. Barrie papers, which is open to the public for research, has not been updated in a decade. Birkin alluded to the idea that the library would keep their newer acquisitions “under lock and key” for a while, and the preliminary survey of the collection instructs all those interested to contact the curator for information about items not catalogued. In the 1970s, at the request of Birkin, all of the available notebooks belonging to
One of the most difficult aspects of sifting through the
The copyright circumstances surrounding
Birkin’s dedication and perseverance laid much of the ground work for future writers and scholars of
Notes and Research:
Thanks to technology, researching and keeping track of notes has become much more manageable. I think the best course of action, for me, would be to compile my notes in Word, or another program. That way, they’re easily searchable. I’d also keep a somewhat up-to-date version on paper to protect against losing everything if there’s a computer problem, or if I need a hard copy. I would obtain a copy of
The Archives and Travel:
The fact that
Overall Estimation:
I’ve always been a fan of J. M. Barrie. It seems as if the more that I learn about him, the more interested and attached I become. Most likely, I would meander through this research project (if there isn’t a deadline to meet), and enjoy it immensely. In Birkin’s case, he was working with a deadline and felt no strong connection to
[1] Andrew Birkin, author of J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, published his story of
[2] Another biography of
[3] I’m going to include the emails I’ve received from Mr. Birkin, because I’m just too boastful. I’ll staple them to the back if you’d like to see them. They’re not that interesting, but I wanted to include them, all the same.
[4] In 1929,
[5] Andrew Birkin took a rather unconventional approach when writing J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, sandwiching his narrative between excerpts from
[6] This was decided in 1987, according to the Berne Convention’s 50-years-from-author’s-death ruling (Barrie having died in 1937).
Thursday, October 4, 2007
J.M. Barrie
http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/
All Peter Pan materials copyright Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children's Charity.
A plethora of sources, all depending on how vast the study is. Can span from research on one work, his life time, or research which envelops not only Barrie, but all of the other lives he influenced.
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, housed at Yale and thus far, still unpublished. Said to be utterly illegible at times. Birkin estimates that he translated about 2/3 of Barrie's 46 notebooks. Beyond this, they are important and untapped sources. Beinecke also houses a vast amount of Barrie papers and memorbelia which are not even catalogued, studied, or published at this time. The majority of the materials were collected by Walter Beinecke Jr., and donated to the library in the 1960s. The last update to the catalogue of the collection was in 1997, and according to the website, the entire collection is open for research.
According to Birkin, copies of the original 1975 microfilms of Barrie's notebooks can be purchased directly from the Beinecke library.
http://webtext.library.yale.edu/beinflat/general.BARRIE.HTM
"Mary Hodgson Collection" - donated by her niece to Birkin, this collection added to his research for the biography in 1977. Personally owned by Birkin (?)
"Nico Collection" - thousands of pieces, the majority being notes and letters, bought by Andrew Birkin from Nico Llewelyn-Davies before his death in 1980. As the youngest and last surviving adopted son of J.M. Barrie, Nico was a wealth of information to Birkin, and made an unequaled contribution to the memory and study of J. M. Barrie, the writer and the man. Personally owned by Birkin.
"Peter Davies Collection" - a wealth of the publisher's own papers and memorbelia about his own life, his family, and J. M. Barrie. Donated in 1992, by his son, Rivvy. Personally owned by Birkin (?)
"There’s a good deal of further “primary source material” in the form of extensive correspondence and hours of taped interviews between 1975-1980 with the (then) surviving dramatis personae of the saga: Gerrie Llewelyn Davies, Eiluned and Medina Lewis, Angela and Daphne du Maurier, Lord Boothby, Elisabeth Bergner and many others, including ten hours of audio tape with Nico himself." - Birkin's website, personally owned (?)
JMBarrie.co.uk - Birkin's personal site, with an archive of the majority of J.M. Barrie regalia from his research, and the years between then and now. A full website has been available since 2004, and Birkin continues to add to it as more becomes available.
Interesting copyright circumstances. Taken from Birkin's site - "The late Joan Ling used to run the Barrie Estate, on behalf of Barrie’s literary heirs, to works other than those embraced by the Peter Pan Gift. She - and the Asquith family - generously allowed me to quote from Barrie’s other works (including letters and notebooks) without restriction. Joan died many years ago, and the Estate was officially wound up in 1987 when Barrie’s works went out of copyright, as per the Berne Convention’s 50-years-from-author’s-death ruling (Barrie having died in 1937). But when the Convention’s ruling was extended to 70 years, Barrie (and a great many other authors/artists/composers) suddenly found their posthumous shelf-lives extended by another 20 years - in Barrie’s case, until 2007."