Fuck yeah, manuscripts!

lepasau-dela: Friedrich Nietzsche’s typescript, written on his...

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:01:37 -0700

Friedrich Nietzsche’s typescript, written on his writing ball: A Letter to Koeselitz, written 17th January 1882.

Copyright: The Goethe and Schiller Archive, Weimar, Germany

ffactory: Norman Mailer’s character timeline for Harlot’s Ghost...

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:23 -0700

ffactory:

Norman Mailer’s character timeline for Harlot’s Ghost [via]

poetrysince1912: “Remember” by Christina Rossetti. Read the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:01:40 -0700

poetrysince1912:

“Remember” by Christina Rossetti. Read the poem and find more expensive poetry manuscripts at Book Patrol (this one went for £33,650).

vintageanchorbooks: The Remains of the Day - with author’s...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:00:19 -0700

vintageanchorbooks:

The Remains of the Day - with author’s annotations…

See how Kazuo Ishiguro has annotated this copy of his novel. The annotations are here.

explore-blog: J. K. Rowling’s hand-drawn spreadsheet for Harry...

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:01:34 -0700

explore-blog:

J. K. Rowling’s hand-drawn spreadsheet for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

theparisreview: In a note to Fitzgerald, Hemingway shows he was...

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:51:28 -0700

theparisreview:

In a note to Fitzgerald, Hemingway shows he was better at being aggressive than passive-aggressive.

For more of this morning’s roundup, click here.

nevver: Sylvia Plath’s copy of The Great Gatsby

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:01:23 -0700

nevver:

Sylvia Plath’s copy of The Great Gatsby

theredshoes: Draft page of “Stings,” Sylvia Plath

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:01:38 -0700

theredshoes:

Draft page of “Stings,” Sylvia Plath

thefallofkain: This is page 23 of the manuscript of The Picture...

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:01:34 -0700

thefallofkain:

This is page 23 of the manuscript of The Picture of Dorian Gray (written, of course, in Oscar Wilde’s hand).

franny-squalor-glass: Drawings and notes in Dostoevsky’s...

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:01:29 -0700

franny-squalor-glass:

Drawings and notes in Dostoevsky’s Notebooks for Crime and Punishment

theparisreview: Detail from a #manuscript page by John...

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:01:38 -0700

theparisreview:

Detail from a #manuscript page by John Banville.

kafkasapartment: Fragments from pages one through three of the...

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:01:40 -0700

kafkasapartment:

Fragments from pages one through three of the manuscript of The House of Mirth By Edith Wharton. Her tentative title was A moment’s ornament, a reference to a Wordsworth poem - see on page one. Mirth (published 1905) has passed into the public domain, there are several places on the web to download a copy, including Project Gutenberg.

Chapter 1

Selden paused in surprise. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been refreshed by the sight of Miss Lily Bart.

It was a Monday in early September, and he was returning to his work from a hurried dip into the country; but what was Miss Bart doing in town at that season? If she had appeared to be catching a train, he might have inferred that he had come on her in the act of transition between one and another of the country-houses which disputed her presence after the close of the Newport season; but her desultory air perplexed him. She stood apart from the crowd, letting it drift by her to the platform or the street, and wearing an air of irresolution which might, as he surmised, be the mask of a very definite purpose. It struck him at once that she was waiting for some one, but he hardly knew why the idea arrested him. There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint movement of interest: it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions.

An impulse of curiosity made him turn out of his direct line to the door, and stroll past her. He knew that if she did not wish to be seen she would contrive to elude him; and it amused him to think of putting her skill to the test.

“Mr. Selden—what good luck!”

She came forward smiling, eager almost, in her resolve to intercept him. One or two persons, in brushing past them, lingered to look; for Miss Bart was a figure to arrest even the suburban traveller rushing to his last train.

Selden had never seen her more radiant. Her vivid head, relieved against the dull tints of the crowd, made her more conspicuous than in a ball-room, and under her dark hat and veil she regained the girlish smoothness, the purity of tint, that she was beginning to lose after eleven years of late hours and indefatigable dancing. Was it really eleven years, Selden found himself wondering, and had she indeed reached the nine-and-twentieth birthday with which her rivals credited her?

The illustration is from the first edition of Mirth.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to his editor written in July,...

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:01:43 -0700

F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to his editor written in July, 1922. He was referring to The Great Gatsby.

Mary Shelley’s handwritten poem “Absence”, on the death of her...

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:01:37 -0700

Mary Shelley’s handwritten poem “Absence”, on the death of her husband. The poem reads:

Ah! he is gone — and I alone;
How dark and dreary seems the time!
‘Tis Thus, when the glad sun is flown,
Night rushes o’er the Indian clime.

Is there no star to cheer this night
No soothing twilight for the breast?
Yes, Memory sheds her fairy light,
Pleasing as sunset’s golden west.

And hope of dawn — Oh! brighter far
Than clouds that in the orient burn;
More welcome than the morning star
Is the dear thought — he will return!

kafkasapartment: Page eleven of Joseph Conrad’s self numbered...

Sat, 04 May 2013 12:02:11 -0700

kafkasapartment:

Page eleven of Joseph Conrad’s self numbered hand writtten copy of “Heart of Darkness.” His hand written copy, both the wording and page numbering do not match exactly with the published work. Though the following excerpt from the published copy on Project Gutenberg seems to generally match his hand written text above,

For the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not worth knowing. The yarns of seamen have [start manuscript] a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.

His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence. No one took the trouble to grunt even; and presently he said, very slow—”I was thinking of very old times,[end manuscript] when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day …. Light came out of this river since—you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.

awritersruminations: Final page of the manuscript for “The...

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:01:33 -0700

awritersruminations:

Final page of the manuscript for “The Dead” by James Joyce

Researchers from the University of South Carolina’s Thomas...

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:26:00 -0700

Researchers from the University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library put a digital version of the famed author’s handwritten financial ledger on their website last week, making it available for the first time for all readers, students and scholars. See here.

picadorbookroom: A manuscript page from Marilynne Robinson’s...

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:01:23 -0700

picadorbookroom:

A manuscript page from Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead.

[via:The Paris Review]

thorngwen: Manuscript of “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred...

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:01:31 -0700

thorngwen:

Manuscript of “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. Rough draft with suggested revisions by Siegfried Sassoon.

ransomcenter: James Salter’s All That Is (Knopf), his first new...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:01:41 -0700

ransomcenter:

James Salter’s All That Is (Knopf), his first new novel since 1979, is a reflective work, a reconsideration of many of the themes he has explored in his earlier fiction. Looking back at Salter’s prior novels through his archive at the Harry Ransom Center, one can see the artist at work and better understand the sentiments that guide his craft.

Some notebooks from Salter’s archive can be seen on The Daily Beast.

Learn more about what Salter’s notebooks reveal about his creative process.