A Joyce Carol Oates Patchwork
These manuscript images have been selected from the Joyce Carol Oates Papers in the Special Collections Research Center at the Syracuse University Libraries. Images were chosen for their intrinsic visual […]
These manuscript images have been selected from the Joyce Carol Oates Papers in the Special Collections Research Center at the Syracuse University Libraries. Images were chosen for their intrinsic visual interest, and for their ability to display some of JCO’s work-habits in the early, note-taking stages of her novels.
A “typical” novel in the archive would consist of folders of notes, as well as up to three complete type-written drafts. The images here were taken almost exclusively from the notes.
See “The Madness of Scholarship: In the Joyce Carol Oates Archive” for Greg Johnson’s fascinating description of JCO’s working papers.
All manuscript images are in pdf format.
Images may not be reproduced without permission of Joyce Carol Oates.
Annotation by Joyce Carol Oates:
“Rejected ending of American Appetites.”
Annotation by Randy Souther:
I found this page interesting for the very reason that JCO notes: it is a variant ending from the one that we know from the published novel.
RS:
Notes for Part 3 of the novel: individual characters and events. Much of it crossed out.
RS:
A short typed paragraph, with the written note “End?” next to it. This in fact became the novel’s beginning, rather than its ending.
RS:
The discovery of Vernon’s book of poetry: “Query.” Typed page with interesting written notes that seem to have little to do with the typed material: the time, date, weather, and fauna (seen outside JCO’s window?). Several women’s faces surrounding the character name “Rache,” and the word AVENGER repeated several times. Very interesting.
RS:
Trying out an early title: “Bellefleur: A Pastoral,” with “an informal index of various motifs, events, people, themes.” Among many interesting notes we find that Raphael started out as “Phineas.”
RS:
Continuation of the previous “index.” Includes an early, and very different, sketch of “Duck,” better known in the published book as “Nightshade.”
RS:
Early outline of parts 1 and 2 of the novel. Typed and heavily annotated.
RS:
Hand-written table of contents with page numbers.
RS:
Table of contents (continued).
RS:
Notes on Mahalaleel and Gideon on University of Windsor memo paper.
RS:
Early draft of opening paragraph. Typed. Note that it is in the first-person, spoken by Germaine.
RS:
Notes on the night of Germaine’s birth. (And did Dutton pay a $1 million advance on this book . . . ?
RS:
Another early attempt at the opening paragraph. Hand written. Clearly earlier than “Bellefleur 08.”
RS:
Top half of page is part of a typed manuscript. Bottom half is a sketched meditation on the words “Bellefleur” and “Blood.”
RS:
Typed notes for Book II. Heavily annotated by hand.
RS:
Notes for Book III. Heavily annotated.
RS:
Another version of the opening. Now in the third-person, and getting close to the published version.
RS:
Notes on the chapter “The Elopement.”
RS:
Notes on Matilde. “Mad baroque quilt(s). Paradigm of novel.”
RS:
Notes for chapters on the Varrells, the Indian boy Charles Xavier, and Jedediah. And a particularly dense quilt of sketched names and faces.
RS:
An entire page of sketching and doodling. Of purely visual interest.
RS:
Fascinating synopsis of the novel via the characters. “Episodic, loosely structured, anecdotal: something I have never tried before. A series of tales centered about the Bellefleur rise and fall. But of course really a vast metaphor (as lavish as I can invent) for Germaine’s childhood, the imagination of childhood . . . the imagination itself.”
JCO:
“(rejected fictitious author’s note to BELLEFLEUR) None of the statements on the page is true! I only vaguely recall writing it. I see that I’d even drawn my parents (my father’s name is misspelled with a ‘k’) into it. I don’t want anyone to think that any of this is true.”
RS:
Notes on John Quincy Zinn and Prudence Kiddemaster.
RS:
If you’re having difficulty keeping all the characters straight in Broke Heart Blues, here’s a handy chart to aid you.
RS:
Character chart continued.
RS:
A scary scene, complete, in its way, on two sides of an envelope, side 1.
RS:
Scary scene on evelope, side 2.
RS:
Lists of flowers and herbs for possible use in the novel.
RS:
Lists of furnishings for possible use in the novel.
RS:
Dramatis Personae.
RS:
Dramatis Personae (continued).
RS:
Rejected openings?
RS:
Top of page seems to be from Because It Is Bitter And Because It Is My Heart. Bottom of page is from Foxfire.
“Not long ago I saw an old movie of Marilyn Monroe’s from the Fifties, the sudden perception came to me that there was a person trapped inside the jiggly overripe slightly comical flesh . . .” (A hint of novels to come.)
RS:
Hand written notes in two columns: Legs in Red Bank. On top of type written notes running in opposite direction: tattoos.
RS:
The evolution of the title, of Cala’s name, and of her color scheme.
RS:
A column of hand written notes and a column of doodles, written on a working page for the play Tone Clusters.
RS:
Type written page, heavily annotated.
RS:
A plan for part 1 of the novel, at this point titled “My Heart Laid Bare: A Chronicle of the Infamous Lichts of Old Muirkirk.” Typed and heavily annotated in multiple colored pens. Included in the margin are sketches of women’s faces and repeated names of characters and places; both elements appear in many manuscript pages, with the repeated names often taking the form of variations on JCO’s own name.
RS:
The rules of The Game. “Past?—it is but the graveyard of the Future.”
RS:
“How, how to organize this welter of material!”
RS:
Early versions of the “Author’s Note” to the first mystery.
RS:
Hand-drawn map of Winterthurn City. Likely hung over JCO’s desk during composition of the novel.
RS:
Table of contents to The Bloodstained Bridal Gown, appropriately written in blood (or perhaps red ink).
RS:
“Angels may turn demons …” Working out an important theme of the novel.
RS:
Early musings: “Mysteries of Winterthur”; “Sherlock Holmes”; “My spiritual autobiography”
RS:
Crossed-out notes on the first mystery, and Simon Esdras. Doodled faces.
RS:
Kilgarvan family tree, and important characters.
RS:
Creating Georgina’s poetry.
RS:
“Clues” to the final mystery.
RS:
Lists of potential names, both character and place. Mysteries of Solebury County … interesting.
RS:
Outlining the second mystery.
RS:
Map of Union City.
RS:
Notes on Corky at Mass.
RS:
Hand written list / outline of novel’s “Events.”
RS:
Map of Port Oriskany.
RS:
Outline of part 2.
RS:
Notes on boxing, Felix, and Joe Louis.
RS:
Notes on Lyle Stevick.
RS:
“A Plan for Zombie”
RS:
A checklist of possible scenes.
RS:
“Is time outside me?” Drawing of clock with no hands.
RS:
Quentin purchases his first ice pick.
I'm a Reference Librarian at the University of San Francisco's Gleeson Library, and I run the Joyce Carol Oates web site, Celestial Timepiece.
Celestial Timepiece 
Hello,
My name is Frida Neema Järnbert and I work with Mr Stig Björkman on a documentary with and about Joyce Carol Oates. Would you please respond to me at frida@mantarayfilm.se
My absolute best wishes / Frida Neema Järnbert
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