Friday, May 14, 2010

Junk in Rauner

A cover for the pulp paperback "Junkie," featuring a man wrestling a hypodermic from a woman.Sometimes Junk proves to be pretty cool. Pictured here is our first edition of William Burroughs' Junkie (New York: Ace Paperback, 1953). This book is a real rarity. Frequently a book is first printed and marketed as "a modern masterpiece sure to become a classic." But so few books do, and most that make the claim when they are first published fade quickly. In the case of Burroughs' first novel, it was originally printed and marketed as ephemeral pulp fiction dos a dos with Narcotic Agent. Burroughs himself distanced himself from the work by publishing it under the name of his alter ego William Lee (our copy is inscribed "William Burroughs for William Lee").

A cover for the 50th anniversary edition of "Junky," featuring a cartoon of a syringe with a face in it.Fifty years later, it was a modern masterpiece on its way to becoming a classic. The contrast between the first edition and the 2003 Penguin edition could not be much more stark. The "Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict" had become "The Definitive Edition of Burroughs' Seminal First Novel" with lots of scholarly apparatus: an extended introduction by Oliver Harris (with footnotes!), seven appendixes, including a variant of Chapter 28, and a glossary. The spelling of the title was restored to Burroughs' original, the title page references the manuscript title "Junk" and the Burroughs' name appears prominently on the title page and cover.

The cover for the pulp paperback "Narcotic Agent," featuring a woman seated at a table covered in cigarettes and a needle, as the hands of a man come into view and place handcuffs on one wrist.It is interesting to think about how someone who had never heard of the book would approach these two editions: my guess is that if they hit a line in the 1953 edition that didn't make sense they would say, "This William Lee is a bad writer," but if they hit the same line in the 2003 edition, they might worry, "Maybe I am not smart enough to understand this book..." One privileges the reader, the other the writer.

To see the original pulp fiction "classic" ask for Rare PS3552.U75J86.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Adrian Bouchard: First Dartmouth Photographer

A photograph of Bouchard in a suit, posed next to a camera.
The First Dartmouth College Photographer
Adrian N. Bouchard
worked from 1937 - 1976
except for three and a half years
between 1941 - 1945
when he served in the US army.

An article in The Dartmouth, January 9, 1941
reads "Bouchard and Cutler Leave For Army."

A photograph of skiers on a hill at a distance.
Tuckerman Ravine
winter 1937-1938
Adrian Bouchard first came to Hanover to work in the Ford Sayre Ski school which may explain how he had the skill and agility to maneuver to this high vantage point with medium format camera equipment to shoot skiers in action.
Negative D 152.

A photograph of men walking downhill by a small house.
Bouchard was able to capture students activities on campus and off. From the November 1946 Dartmouth Alumni Magazine: This month's cover picture was taken atop Mt. Moosilauke during the annual D.O.C. Freshman Trip before the opening of college. Adrian Bouchard was the photographer.
Negative 11-46-01

A photograph of people outside the Hanover Inn, looking at a display of Harvard pennants.
People in town for a football game pause by the Hanover Inn in the fall of 1955.
Negative 10-55-92

A photograph from the interior of the Hopkins.
Headline in the Valley News
April 26, 1963
"Bouchard Wins Several Awards at Photo Show"

New Hampshire Professional Photographers Association first prize commercial division.
Negative 3-63-130

A color photograph of the clock tower with Mickey Mouse's face and hands pasted over the 12 and the hands.
Evidence of a clever student activity is recorded in this image made from a 35mm Ektachrome transparency taken in June 1966.
Baker Library tower 5-13

Several photographs of women on a snowy campus.
Photography as pictorial history shows that women had become an integral part of college life in the 1970s.
Negative 1-72-1051 (1052-1053-1054-1055-1056)

A page of handwritten text.
Meticulous hand written records providing information about the photographs made by Adrian Bouchard were created by Anne H. Scotford from 1961 - 1989. Her article, in the November 1985 Dartmouth College Library Bulletin, Photographic Records, Now in Baker details how the Photographic Bureau was managed and where it was located during Bouchard's tenure.

A screenshot of text about the College Archives.
Only a small set of photographs taken by Adrian Bouchard in a category called College Life A - Z are described in the catalog.

Text-only records also appear in the catalog for the work of subsequent college photographers Stuart Bratesman (1985 - 1993) and Joseph Mehling (1993 to the present).