Difference between revisions of "Steinbeck Archive Project"

Revision as of 09:51, 14 May 2017

This project will benefit the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives at the University of Oklahoma. We will be contributing searchable, plain text versions of letters written to Democratic Congressman (OK) Lyle Boren. These plain text versions will make discovery easier for researchers and the public. The letters concern Congressman Boren's speech before the House of Representatives condemning John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath and its representation of "Okies."

The Plan

Grab a letter
Open our shared Drive folder here
Create a new file in the above folder
Name the file (without quotes): "CAC_CC_007_2_6_49_0###" and replace the last three numbers (#) with the page numbers of the document you are transcribing, e.g. Pages 14–15 are "CAC_CC_007_2_6_49_0014–15"

Transcription

Transcribe exactly as written, including apparent misspellings

My sentiments exactly and good for you! The bas taste left in my mouth from reading

Transcribe complete document as a single column, regardless of original layout

Spaces and line-breaks should be replicated, but numerous blank lines should be transcribed as a single blank line

Congressman Boren's stationery header

LYLE H. BOREN

4th OKLAHOMA DISTRICT

HOME ADDRESS:

SEMINOLE, OKLAHOMA

If anything is illegible, ask a friend. If neither can read it, replace the word with [[?]], including the square brackets

Partial letter to Congressman Boren regarding The Grapes of Wrath, illegible

Will you please [[?]] [[?]] tell you how much I appreciate your

If there is marginalia on the document, the following should be placed in the text: ^ [[Insert text of marginalia here]] including square brackets and caret

Digging Further

The Oklahoman is mentioned throughout "The Reception of The Grapes of Wrath in Oklahoma." Many articles are available on their site. On the other hand, the entire run of the Oklahoma City Times is available—on microfilm at The Oklahoma Historical Society. An important consideration in archival work is weighing cost and availability. How do you think this will affect future writings about this event?

File:Election Day 1922.jpg

Letter from Mr. H. Barton Williams mentions an article in The Country Gentleman just before 25 Jan. 1940. Not only is this a common title for novels at the time, but there is a British periodical of the same name, making searches difficult. The Wiki page offers a clue: a series of covers that look very similar to the Saturday Evening Post of the time. Further reading indicates the two publications were released by the same Curtis Publishing Company. A search for that company's archive reveals that the UPenn Libraries hold a collection that may contain the material, but it has not been digitized yet. Interestingly, according to recently (2014) unclassified documents, the Curtis Publishing Company gained the attention of the FBI in the late 60s due to a publication entitled Soviet Life.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 HOME ADDRESS:
-SEMINOLE, OKLAHOMA{{clear}}
+SEMINOLE, OKLAHOMA</span>{{clear}}
 If anything is illegible, ask a friend. If neither can read it, replace the word with <code><nowiki>[[?]]</nowiki></code>, including the square brackets
+[[File:Borenletter.png|500px|thumb|left|Partial letter to Congressman Boren regarding The Grapes of Wrath, illegible]]
+<span style="font-family: monospace, 'Source Code Pro';">
+Will you please <nowiki>[[?]] [[?]]</nowiki> tell you how much I appreciate your
 * If there is marginalia on the document, the following should be placed in the text: <code><nowiki>^ [[Insert text of marginalia here]]</nowiki></code> including square brackets and caret
@@ Line 35: / Line 36: @@
 [http://archive.newsok.com/olive/apa/oklahoman/#panel=browse ''The Oklahoman''] is mentioned throughout "The Reception of ''The Grapes of Wrath'' in Oklahoma." Many articles are available on their site. On the other hand, the entire run of the Oklahoma City ''Times'' is available—on microfilm at [http://www.okhistory.org/research/newspapers The Oklahoma Historical Society]. An important consideration in archival work is weighing cost and availability. How do you think this will affect future writings about this event?
-[[File:Election_Day_1922.jpg|thumb|500px]]Letter from Mr. H. Barton Williams mentions an article in ''The Country Gentleman'' just before 25 Jan. 1940. Not only is this a common title for novels at the time, but there is a British periodical of the same name, making searches difficult. The Wiki page offers a clue: a series of covers that look very similar to the ''Saturday Evening Post'' of the time. Further reading indicates the two publications were released by the same Curtis Publishing Company. A search for that company's archive reveals that the UPenn Libraries [http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_MsColl51 hold a collection] that may contain the material, but it has not been digitized yet.
+[[File:Election_Day_1922.jpg|thumb|500px]]Letter from Mr. H. Barton Williams mentions an article in ''The Country Gentleman'' just before 25 Jan. 1940. Not only is this a common title for novels at the time, but there is a British periodical of the same name, making searches difficult. The Wiki page offers a clue: [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Country_Gentleman a series of covers] that look very similar to the ''Saturday Evening Post'' of the time. Further reading indicates the two publications were released by the same Curtis Publishing Company. A search for that company's archive reveals that the UPenn Libraries [http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_MsColl51 hold a collection] that may contain the material, but it has not been digitized yet. Interestingly, according to recently (2014) unclassified documents, the Curtis Publishing Company [https://archive.org/details/CurtisPublishingCompany gained the attention of the FBI] in the late 60s due to a publication entitled ''Soviet Life''.