If you are like me, you
eagerly awaited the time when the Huntington Library opened the archives for
Black feminist science fiction author Octavia Butler. It took some time
for those dedicated library folks to go through the collection, which initially
contained "two four-drawer file cabinets and about 35 cartons." Going through such large numbers of items is certainly a daunting task, but if you've spent any time within any library's special collections, you know that archivists are dedicated to respectfully handling materials with the goal of organizing those items for interested visitors.
Scholars of Butler now have the opportunity to spend time with her draft and other ephemera now housed at the library.
Scholars of Butler now have the opportunity to spend time with her draft and other ephemera now housed at the library.
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| Draft of Butler's novel Kindred The Huntington Library |
As an instructor of both literature and composition, the above draft page is remarkable; not only is it an early page from the novel that would become Kindred, but it contains Butler's notes and edits. Students who are able to view these kinds of materials can see clearly that producing writing is a process and not something that published authors don't create perfect drafts from the start. Crafting a novel takes intense effort, along with the willingness to let go (delete) some of that work in order to further a story or idea.
Another benefit of archival research is that there is always the possibility of discovering an item that is remarkable. The piece below is just that - a wonderful discovery, written on the back of a composition book by Butler and now housed at the Huntington Library. Considering the amount of visitors who have been through the archival collection, it is my hope that more incredible discoveries are on the way.
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| Butler's hand-written notes The Huntington Library |
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