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In Search of Silence
The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume I, 1957-1969
Series: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany
Sales Date: 2017-02-07
The private journals of renowned novelist and critic Samuel R. Delany
For fifty years Samuel Delany has cultivated a special relationship with language in works of fiction, criticism, and memoir that have garnered critical praise and legions of fans. The present volume – the first in a series – reveals a new dimension of his genius. In Search of Silence presents over a decade's worth of Delany's private journals, commencing in 1957 when he was still a student at the Bronx High School of Science, and ending in 1969 when he was living in San Francisco and on the verge of reconceiving the novel that would become Dhalgren.
In these pages, Delany muses on the writing of the stories that will establish him as a science fiction wunderkind, the early years of his marriage to the poet Marilyn Hacker, performances as a singer-songwriter during the heyday of the American folk revival, travels in Europe, experiences in a New York City commune, and much more – and crosses paths with artists working in many genres, including poets such as Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, and Marie Ponsot, and science fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, and Joanna Russ. Delany scholar Kenneth R. James presents the journal entries alongside generous samplings of story outlines, poetry, fragments of novels and essays that have never seen publication, and more; James also provides biographical synopses and an extensive set of endnotes to supply contextual information and connect journal material to Delany's published work.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
BRONX SCIENCE AND OTHER NEW YORK SCENES
Notebook 1 – January-February 1958
Notebook 3 – January 1959
Notebook 7 – 1959 [March-April 1959]
Notebook 6 – 1959 [April 1959]
Notebook 4 – April-May 1959
Notebook 5 – 1959 [Summer-Autumn 1959]
IN SEARCH OF SILENCE
Notebook 2 – January 1959 [January-February 1960]
Notebook 8 – March 1960
Notebook 11 – Spring 1960 [Spring-Summer 1960]
JOURNAUX D'ORPHÉE
Notebook 12 – Inclusive to July 1960
CITY COLLEGE
Notebook 13 – September 1960
Notebook 14 – Autumn 1960
Notebook 9 – Winter 1960
Notebook 10 – Spring 1960 [Spring 1961]
Notebook 16 – Spring, Summer 1961
Notebook 17 – Summer 1961
MARRIED LIFE IN THE EAST VILLAGE
Notebook 18 – August 1961
Notebook 15 – September-October 1961 [October 1960 / September-October 1961]
Notebook 19 – November 1961-June 1962
Notebook 21 – Spring 1962 [January 1962]
Notebook 20 – Spring 1962 [March 1962]
THE FALL OF THE TOWERS AND VOYAGE, ORESTES
Notebook 22 – Summer 1962
Notebook 23 – November 1962 [October-November 1962]
Notebook 25 – Inclusive through March 1963 [Autumn 1962-Spring 1963]
Notebook 24 – Inclusive to January-February 1963
Notebook 75 – [Spring-Summer 1963]
Notebook 68 – [October 1963]
Notebook 71 – [Winter 1963]
Notebook 92 – [Spring 1964]
BABEL-17 AND BEYOND
Notebook 26 – June-July 1964
Notebook 27 – August 15, 1964
Notebook 28 – September 1964-January 1965
Notebook 87 – [Early Spring 1965]
Notebook 82 – [Summer 1964-Spring 1965]
Notebook 81 – [Late Spring 1965]
Notebook 29 – June-July 1965
TRAVELS IN EUROPE
Notebook 67 – [Autumn 1965-Summer 1966]
Notebook 96 – [Autumn 1965]
Notebook 31 – March 1966 [February-March 1966]
Notebook 30 – December 1965 [Spring 1966]
CHANGING SCENES
Notebook 80 – [Spring 1966]
Notebook 91 – [Fall 1966]
Notebook 83 – [December 1966-January 1967]
Notebook 84 – [February-April 1967]
Notebook 76 – [Spring-Summer 1967]
Notebook 69 – [Summer 1967]
PRISM, MIRROR, LENS AND OTHER PROJECTS
Notebook 86 – [Summer 1967]
Notebook 32 – July-October 1967
Notebook 88 – [Autumn 1967]
Notebook 33 – December 1967 [December 1967-January 1968]
Notebook 35 – 1968 [Early Spring 1968]
Notebook 77 – [Early Spring 1968]
Notebook 85 – [Spring-Summer 1968]
Notebook 90 – [Summer 1968]
Notebook 78 – [Summer-Autumn 1968]
Notebook 34 – August 1968 [August-September 1968]
Notebook 79 – [Winter 1968]
TO SAN FRANCISCO
Notebook 36 – January-February 1969
Notebook 37 – April 1969 [February-April 1969]
APPENDIXES
Appendix 1 – Notebook 89 [Winter 1957-January 1958]
Appendix 2 – Notebook 1 – January-February 1958
Appendix 3 – Three Short Works from 1959-60
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SAMUEL R. DELANY is an award-winning author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, most recently Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. He lives in New York City. KENNETH R. JAMES is a noted Delany scholar and author of the introductions to Longer Views and 1984. He lives in Cushing, Maine.
"The simple fact is that I think Delany is one of the most important American writers, one who ought to be spoken of alongside any great American writer of the second half of the twentieth century ... the recent publication of volume one of Delany's Selected Journals in a gorgeous edition from Wesleyan University Press (brilliantly edited by Kenneth James) is monumental."
~Matthew Cheney, The Mumpsimus
""A game changer for Delany studies reveal[s] how one of the most brilliant American science fiction writers of the time (and later a noted literary theorist) came of age.""
~M.J. Emery, Choice
""Delany himself, having become something of an icon in the urban literary universe.""
~Alan Contreras, The Gay & Lesbian Review
""Traversing Delany's youth, we see a precocious mind grappling with his own talent he lives on two registers, participating in the world and also observing it, living simultaneously as a kid in NYC and, 'a writer of genius'.""
~Robert Minto, New Republic
""In Delany, each work is in dialogue with the next, the fiction illuminating the nonfiction, which in turn re-illuminates the fiction. Delany's notebooks add a new voice to this dialogue.""
~Kenneth R. James, Tor
""The simple fact is that I think Delany is one of the most important American writers, one who ought to be spoken of alongside any great American writer of the second half of the twentieth century the recent publication of volume one of Delany's Selected Journals in a gorgeous edition from Wesleyan University Press (brilliantly edited by Kenneth James) is monumental.""
~Matthew Cheney, The Mumpsimus
""The first hardcover volume of Samuel Delany's journals, out now from Wesleyan University Press (covering the 1950s and 1960s) is both magisterial and inspirational—and boy, do we need the inspiration now. I am in awe of the work and scholarship involved. In collaboration with his remarkable subject, editor Kenneth James is doing an invaluable service to our field.""
~Andy Duncan, Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Night Cache
"Mesmerizing . . . a true portrait of an artist as a young Black man . . . already visible in these pages are the wit, sensitivity, penetration, playfulness and the incandescent intelligence that will characterize Delany and his extraordinary work."
~Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
"This is a tremendously significant and vital addition to the oeuvre of Samuel Delany; it clarifies questions not only of the writer's process, but also his development—to see, in his juvenilia, traces that take full form in his novels—is literally breathtaking.""
~Matthew Cheney, author of Blood: Stories
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