Category: Friday File

Paint and pages converge: The A&AA artists’ books collection

“Ste. Ostrich in Manhattan : the visitations of a martyr” by Julie Chen, Lois Morrison and Elizabeth McDevitt.

The past meets the present in our Friday File series, where we delve through artifacts housed at the UO Libraries and let them talk.

 

Art doesn’t have to be two-dimensional, and a book doesn’t have to have pages.

That’s the guiding principle behind the artists’ books collection in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at University of Oregon. The A&AA library has been displaying some of the artist’s books all term; this is their last week in the library exhibition.

Continue reading →

Pulp Time Machines: Flash creator Gardner Fox’s comics collection

A Flash comic from Feb. 1941 in the Gardner Fox papers at University of Oregon.
A Flash comic from Feb. 1941 in the Gardner Fox papers at University of Oregon.

The past meets the present in our Friday File series, where we delve through artifacts housed at the UO Libraries and let them talk.

 

He created the Flash, molded Batman, and wrote the first Justice League comic, but Gardner Fox didn’t care about being famous. That’s why his name isn’t in many of the more than 600 comics in Special Collections and University Archives.

“He believed in comics,” said Jennifer DeRoss, a University of Oregon Master’s student in English who has studied Fox. “He supported the genre of comics itself. Fame wasn’t important to him.”

Fox could have been famous; entering the field at its infancy in the Golden Age, Fox began writing even before Action Comics #1 and Superman’s debut. His contributions to the fledgling cultural phenomenon put him in a category with Bob Kane, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.

Continue reading →

Carol’s Saltshaker: A Link to Lesbian Literature’s Foundations

Tee Corinne's saltshaker in SCUA and the 1984 reprint of The Price of Salt it was featured on.
Tee Corinne’s saltshaker in SCUA and the 1984 reprint of The Price of Salt it was featured on. This book was both published and reprinted under Highsmith’s pseudonym, Claire Morgan.

The past meets the present in our Friday File series, where we delve through artifacts housed at the UO Libraries and let them talk.

 

Before The Price of Salt, books featuring gay and lesbian relationships usually ended in repentance or tragedy.

But Patricia Highsmith’s second novel didn’t. That’s one key reason it was adapted into last year’s film Carol, and one reason Carol is up for six Academy Awards this Sunday, including Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

But The Price of Salt probably wouldn’t be a movie today if the book weren’t rediscovered in 1984. This week’s Friday File highlights an artifact of that rediscovery that lives at University of Oregon’s Special Collections and University Archives.

Continue reading →

Peg Lynch’s typewriter: A window into the birth of sitcoms

This typewriter belonged to Peg Lynch, one of the first sitcom writers.
This typewriter belonged to Peg Lynch, one of the first sitcom writers.

The past meets the present in our Friday File series, where we delve through artifacts housed at the UO Libraries and let them talk.

Some of the first sitcoms were typed on these keys.

This typewriter belonged to Peg Lynch, creator of the TV and radio sitcom Ethel and Albert. Premiering on ABC radio in 1944 and on NBC television in 1950, Ethel and Albert was the first “show about nothing”; it followed a suburban couple through storylines as mundane as trying to open a pickle jar, dropping Lynch’s quiet but intelligent humor into them.

Ethel and Albert’s first episode was written on this L.C. Smith & Corona typewriter, which is now part of the Peg Lynch papers at the University of Oregon’s Special Collections and University Archives.

Continue reading →