Research Trip to the Eaton Collection of SFF -- A Mixed Success
Well, just returned home after a 10-day research trip to the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy at UC Riverside. All in all, results were something of a mixed bag. On one hand, I have a much better sense of the conversations that surrounded Poul Anderson's efforts in 20th-century alliterative versecraft -- formerly seen as only the province of Tolkien, Auden, Lewis, and a few other Brits.
On the other hand, I had hoped to find vast secret treasures troves of alliterative verse lying forgotten in various poetry mags and fanzines. Alas, not so much. I did uncover a few such works that I hadn't before known about . . . maybe, maybe, enough to squeeze a second article out of my research trip. Nothing I found, however, will likely shatter the heavens in terms of breath-taking original finds. Oh well. Even no information is some information, as they say (or at least I do).
Still, the lack of success wasn't for lack of trying. Excluding dead time, overall I spent a solid 27 hours in those archives over those 10 days, and I pretty much exhausted all my leads. I still have some leads left, too, but these will require correspondence with various people and delving into non-archived book material, so we'll see how that goes.
All in all, it wasn't a wasted trip, not by any means. Not sure if it was worth the $2,000 being paid out by my postdoctoral fellowship, but at least they're going to get something for their money.
On the other hand, I had hoped to find vast secret treasures troves of alliterative verse lying forgotten in various poetry mags and fanzines. Alas, not so much. I did uncover a few such works that I hadn't before known about . . . maybe, maybe, enough to squeeze a second article out of my research trip. Nothing I found, however, will likely shatter the heavens in terms of breath-taking original finds. Oh well. Even no information is some information, as they say (or at least I do).
Still, the lack of success wasn't for lack of trying. Excluding dead time, overall I spent a solid 27 hours in those archives over those 10 days, and I pretty much exhausted all my leads. I still have some leads left, too, but these will require correspondence with various people and delving into non-archived book material, so we'll see how that goes.
All in all, it wasn't a wasted trip, not by any means. Not sure if it was worth the $2,000 being paid out by my postdoctoral fellowship, but at least they're going to get something for their money.
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