Wilson had an enormous s.f. collection, now housed in the Special Collections Department of Syracuse University. One of my major frustrations is scrolling through our catalog and seeing, oh! look! Leiber's Tarzan and the Valley of Gold -- nuts. Can't take it out. Oh, hey, there's Worlds of Theodore Sturgeon -- crap, doesn't circulate. Say, there's Illustrated Harlan -- phooey.
May 2021 Reading Discussion.
- Thread starter Ian Fortytwo
- Start date
- Status
Wilson had an enormous s.f. collection, now housed in the Special Collections Department of Syracuse University. One of my major frustrations is scrolling through our catalog and seeing, oh! look! Leiber's Tarzan and the Valley of Gold -- nuts. Can't take it out. Oh, hey, there's Worlds of Theodore Sturgeon -- crap, doesn't circulate. Say, there's Illustrated Harlan -- phooey.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2016
- Messages
- 2,311
That's too bad.
I see Wilson's personal papers are here:
Although you can't take them out, do you ever have the opportunity to look through some of the Syracuse collections?
Personally, I'd love to look through Clifford D Simak's papers at the University of Minnesota, but that's never going to happen.
Don't they do a copying service at these University libraries? You will need to sign in blood that it is only for personal research and that, if not, you are happy for your soul to go to hell, but as long as you aren't publishing the material I can't see why they can't do that. (They might limit the number of pages though.)
They do, and we do, too. But there is a limit set by copyright, and if it's out of copyright, it may already be out in the public domain or digitized somewhere like Project Gutenberg.
If I were actually doing research I'd definitely avail myself of Special Collections, but I'm not. My interest is of the, I'd really like to sit in a dark room and just leaf through some of these books, and really read some others. But in cases where these are first editions or the provenance of the books -- say, a gift from a noted author, not to mention being owned by a noted local writer -- makes them valuable above their intrinsic value as reading material. And it being a fairly extensive collection, a kind of cross-section of s.f. from at least the 1950s into the 1980s, gives the entire collection a certain cache that makes it worth protecting.
Which, thinking about it, makes me grin because so many of the titles (and even the exact editions) were things I saw on the book racks when I was a teen or picked up myself at used bookstores.
From Wikipedia:
"... Wilson also worked in the public relations field as director of the Syracuse University News Bureau from 1964 to 1980. In 1980 he became the University's senior editor before retiring in 1982. He died March 29, 1987.[2]
"His other major contribution to science fiction and to Syracuse University was in successfully recruiting the donation of papers from many prominent science fiction writers to the University's George Arents Research Library. As part of this effort, Wilson wrote an article entitled "Syracuse University's Science Fiction Collections" for the May 1967 issue of the magazine Worlds of Tomorrow. The collection eventually included manuscripts, galley proofs, magazines, correspondence and art donated by Piers Anthony, Hal Clement, Keith Laumer, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl and others, including Wilson himself. Initially housed in a warehouse annex, the papers eventually made their way to the climate-controlled top floor of Ernest Stevenson Bird Library on the Syracuse University campus. It has been called the "most important collection of science fiction manuscripts and papers in the world."[3]"
Just to note: Besides writers mentioned in the Wikipedia quote, SU also has a collection of Roger Zelazny's papers.
A wonderful book. Thousands of years of history and human experience pivoting around a single enigmatic carving on a hillside.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2016
- Messages
- 2,311
Years ago I walked the Ridgeway and was really surprised when I reached the White Horse at just how unpleasant I found it / the area immediately around it. I'd planned to camp close to it, but decided against it.
Thiswriterinme
Well-Known Member
May - right now, I'm reading Garden of Shadows by V. C. Andrews. Finally the last installment of that series, and I can't wait to move on! I'm also reading Your Backyard Herb Garden by Miranda Smith. Tis the season to be planting herbs, and I'm looking forward to a tea garden this year. I can write and drink yummy tea grown from my own backyard!
When was that, and how was it unpleasant? I've been there twice, the last time about 2006, and found the surroundings a bit underwhelming. The figure itself doesn't really work when viewed from ground level.
Danny McG
Lid closed, monkey dead.
I'm having a go at a non fiction.
Harrier 809 by Rowland White.
The story of the hastily cobbled together Sea Harrier squadron that accompanied squadrons 800 and 801 in the Falklands War
Harrier 809 by Rowland White.
The story of the hastily cobbled together Sea Harrier squadron that accompanied squadrons 800 and 801 in the Falklands War
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2016
- Messages
- 2,311
Nothing really spooky and, perhaps fortunately, I'm not prone to psychic experiences at the drop of a hat. I was walking westwards along the Ridgeway and had already slept out for three or four nights so may have a been a bit more spaced out than usual. It was a lovely sunny May evening (?1984) and when I reached the hill fort/ White Horse it was completely deserted and I had plenty of time to walk around it and down to the Dragon Hill. I'd been there before when young and, like you, it had been underwhelming, crowded, pointless.
It's been a good few years so I may be a bit vague, but I was very struck by how very formidable that particular hill fort was and how unpleasantly fierce its builders/ inhabitants must have been. I'm fond of hill forts and had slept in one only a night or two before, but I found this one distinctly unpleasant. The whole experience was a surprise and I decided against sleeping there and walked on to Wayland's Smithy. I didn't encounter anything else remotely unpleasant along the Ridgeway: at the time it felt like I'd just walked into something. The experience did make quite an impression on me, not, as I remember it, in the sense of psychic unease, more like what the *?!!!'s gone on here!?
Back home I was interested to see if there was anything else written of others experiencing anything similar there, but couldn't find anything. A while later I did come across a book by a once well-known spiritualist (name?) in which she had visited various sites in Britain and channelled her experiences. The book itself didn't interest me but she described the White Horse as having been a place of great evil that had been vanquished by the forces of light. I didn't set much store in her conclusions but I did feel validated that someone else had had some kind of similar experience. I didn't make any interpretation of my own experience, just that I had had it.
Last edited:
That is interesting. The book I just read gives no hint of anything evil happening at Uffington Castle, but points out that there's no evidence of habitation there. The horse's connection with the sun would make it a good choice of emblem for the "forces of light".
Danny McG
Lid closed, monkey dead.
Probably stable nowadays
*will to live ... fading ...*
hitmouse
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2011
- Messages
- 4,324
I really like that hill even if it is a bit close to Swindon. Great place to fly a kite.
By a pure coincidence, in 1985, I watched Kate Bush filming her video for Cloudbusting at the top of Uffingham, White Horse Hill when I climbed up it. It must have taken them half the day to carry all their equipment up there, including the 'rain-making, weather control machine.' That video is probably an accurate account!
It's still a good video with Donald Sutherland. Directed by Julian Doyle and edited by Terry Gilliam! And you can really see it is White Horse Hill.
It's still a good video with Donald Sutherland. Directed by Julian Doyle and edited by Terry Gilliam! And you can really see it is White Horse Hill.
Has anyone else read A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich (Wilhelm Reich's son) on which the song was based? I remember it being very affecting.
I haven't read that book, but in the video, the men in suits arrive to snatch Donald Sutherland, the boy’s father, away and Kate Bush, dressed as the boy, reaches into his dad’s jacket pocket and pulls out a book called A Book of Dreams.
I've just tried to find that bit and can't. What's the timestamp?
Wilhelm Reich wasn't arrested for his rain-making idea but for selling fake medical treatments based on his idea of orgone energy, which some people believe accumulates at ancient sites. Which makes the choice of location for the video rather clever. (Honestly, has anyone ever matched Kate Bush for sheer whatever-it-is?)
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2016
- Messages
- 2,311
A long time ago. Poignant. Left me feeling how sad it must have been to go through the loss not only of his father, but of that wonderfully (to a child anyway) strange environment. I'd love to have been a child like "Peeps" operating one of those cloudbusters. I hope his life has gone OK: he can't be much older than me. I wonder what his opinion is today about cloudbusters.
Years ago I thought about constructing an orgone accumulator, but never remotely got round to it.
Last edited:
- Status
| Thread starter | Similar threads | Forum | Replies | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
October 2021 Reading Discussion | Book Discussion | 332 | |
|
|
August 2021 Reading Discussion | Book Discussion | 190 | |
|
July 2021 Reading Discussion. | Book Discussion | 125 | |
|
|
June 2021 Reading Discussion | Book Discussion | 134 | |
|
April 2021 Reading discussion | Book Discussion | 129 |