ISSN: 1544-9548

S

SUMMER 2004

Volume 3, No. 1

C PECIAL

OLLECTIONS

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Borges manuscript sure to inspire

An important manuscript in the hand of Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, now resides in Special Collections as a gift from Professor Emeritus Donald A. Yates. The manuscript is the 1950 essay, “La Muralla y Los Libros” (“The Wall and the Books”), which fi rst appeared in book form as the lead essay in Otras inquisiciones, considered to be Borges’s most important prose collection. The title of the essay is a reference to the Great Wall of China and to the order of a third century emperor who extended the building of the wall and the destruction of most books. The manuscript, only two pages and 1,000

words in length, is unsigned and in Borges’s usual tiny, tight printing. The essay’s shortness belies its large literary importance, however, concluding with one of Borges’s best known lines: “Music, feelings of happiness, mythology, faces worn by times, certain twilights and certain places, want to tell us something, or they told us something that we should not have missed, or they are about to tell us something; this imminence of a revelation that is not produced is, perhaps, the esthetic event.”

Special Collections holds a notable Borges collection of published books, but never a manuscript due to their rareness and expense. Now, thanks to the generosity of Professor Yates, we have one of the fi nest, which seems fi tting given the long relationship between Borges, Yates, and Michigan State University. It began with Donald Yates’s arrival at MSU as an assistant professor of Spanish in the early 1960s. Here he became a highly respected specialist in Hispanic and Latin American imaginative literature, and especially the work of Jorge Luis Borges. As the coeditor and translator of Borges’s fi rst collection of fi ction to appear in English, Yates had a long relationship with Borges that resulted in several visits by the distinguished Argentinian writer to MSU, where he received an honorary doctorate. In fact, it was before visiting East Lansing in 1975, that Borges gave to Yates “La Muralla y Los Libros” as gift. I am confi dent that Señor Borges, once the Director of the Argentine National Library, would be pleased to have his manuscript in the Michigan State University Library where it will help educate, enlighten, and inspire present and future generations.

—Peter Berg

Jorge Luis Borges (left) with Donald Yates at a lecture in MSU’s I would like to thank Charles A. Goldsmid, who appraised the manuscript, for his assistance in Fairchild Theatre in March, 1972. Photo: MSU University Relations.

providing information for this article.

The Painted Books of Mexico

Manuscript painting was an art form that fl ourished in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Known today as codices, these pictorial records documented all aspects of the lives of the societies that produced them, with subjects ranging from the genealogies of rulers and histories of populations, to religious rituals and books of songs, to tax and tribute records. There is archaeological evidence of manuscript painting from Mayan tombs dating to 600 BCE, but only a handful of codices from the pre-Columbian era survive. After the Conquest, Spanish friars sponsored manuscript painting to which they added explanatory text, resulting in illustrated “cultural encyclopedias” of native life. The many codices that have come down to us from the Early Colonial period are invaluable resources for students of Mesoamerican history and cultures. Special Collections has recently acquired several fi ne facsimile reproductions of important codices from early colonial Mexico.

Relación de Michoacán (The Chronicles of Michoacán), attributed to the Fray Jeronimo de Alcala, circa 1540, is based on the testimony of the indigenous elite of the Lake Pátzcuaro region of Western Mexico. It records the lineage of the elite class, and by extension the history of the The work of feather

population in the region. The document also describes pre-Hispanic governance as well as artisans is illustrated in

the Conquest and its aftermath, offering a unique view of the impact of that world-altering Historia universal de

event on the conquered peoples of the region. Produced by Testimonio Compañía Editorial las cosas de Nueva

Espana.

of Madrid, the pages have the look and feel of the original held in Spain’s Escorial monastery library.

Historia universal de las cosas de Nueva Espana (General History of the Things of New Spain) is based on the accounts of indigenous informants to the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún in the mid-sixteenth century. An extensive and lavishly illustrated compendium, the Historia is considered a key document for the study of Aztec culture and society. More than 1,200 leaves in length, and with more than 1,800 illustrations, Sahagún’s monumental ethnographic work is organized into 12 books describing native society, history, religion and language, and culminating with an account of Cortes’ conquest of Tenochtitlan (present site of Mexico City), 1519-1521, told by survivors of the calamity. The fi nal version of the work, taken to Spain in 1580 and now held in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, Italy, was written in Spanish and Nahuatl and is known as the Florentine Codex. A new 3 volume facsimile edition by Giunti Gruppo Editoriale of Florence has recently been acquired, giving students an opportunity to fully appreciate the wonder of this work.

The Codex Magliabechiano is another important ethnographic source for understanding Aztec cultural life, particularly valuable for its documentation of Aztec religion and mythology, and presentation of the Aztec calendar. Created in the mid-sixteenth century, it is the most faithful of a family of manuscripts based on an earlier, lost prototype. Special Collections holds a reprint of the rare 1893 lithographic facsimile that was made following the discovery of the Codex Magliabechiano in the Biblioteca Nacionale Central in Florence, Italy, and published under the title The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans. The Codex Veytia, an eighteenth-century manuscript based in part on the same lost prototype and focusing on Aztec rites and ceremonies, has also been Far from a standard photographic

issued in a fi ne facsimile edition by Testimonio. It has facsimile, the Testimonio edition

the title Modos que tenian los yndios de zelebrar sus fi estas en of Relación de Michoacán is

Nueva Espana (Ways in Which the Indians Celebrated Their distinguished by its high degree

Festivals in New Spain). —Mary Jo Zeter

of craftsmanship. Photos: Louis

Villafranca.

The New Left in Pen and Ink

“BRADAP! FOOM! EAT LEADEN DEATH, IMPERIALISTIC REACTIONARY

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MAJORS!” —CLASS WAR COMIX, 1969

The Underground Comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s was exactly concurrent with the largest student protest movement this country has ever known. The spirit of the “underground press,” which was never really underground except for a few early skir-mishes with local laws, is clearly an aspect of a general spirit of pushing boundaries by a large number of young people of the time. The student radicals, some of whom fi nally did go “underground” in the 1970s, did lots of things that would have made good comic book stories, either as political adventures or as cautionary tales. In the 600 plus comix of the period now located in Special Collections, there are about 20,000 pages of certifi ably counter-cultural writing and drawing. One might expect to fi nd the New Left fully chronicled in this body of work. This is not the case.

It seems, from the perspective of a half-fi nished indexing project in the underground comix, that adventures in drugs and sex were much more attractive to the artists of the time than were adventures in anti-war protest. If memory serves, as the 1960s became the 1970s, the artistic crowd started to see the political crowd as a bunch of power-tripping idealists, while the more ideologically oriented slotted the paisley types into their world

“Wisconsin Story” by

view as, at best, “cultural radicals.” This division was not obvious to the silent majority and Sharon Rudahl is three pages

its media, and even within the youth culture it was easy to slip from one side to the other.

of autobiography about life as

It was possible, in other words, for activists to really go “underground” by changing clothes a radical, told in retrospect in

February 1976.

and growing hair. Though we can argue that there were two worlds of rebellion, they were inextricably intertwined. In the underground comics, explicit political content is fairly rare, but politics is never far from the surface.

This said, underground comics do indeed bring us some important scenes from the revolution. Skip Williamson’s Class War Comix were often quoted by the more “serious” radicals. “An’ when yer smashin’ the’ state, kids, don’t fergit t’ keep a smile on yer lips an’ a song in yer heart!” (1969).

There are some explicitly political comics titles, like Anarchy Comics and Merton of the Movement. These and a scattering of movement-related stories by other artists and writers throughout the genre make this a promising fi eld of study for those interested in the intersection of art and politics. This is not to be under-taken lightly, however. Twenty thousand pages of comix will take a few months to read. The Underground Comix collection in Special Collections has recently been deacidifi ed, and is in the process of being indexed by author and title on the Skip Williamson. Class War Comix, 1969.

Division’s comics website at www.lib.msu.edu/comics

—Randy Scott

References:

Pekar, Harvey and Brian Bram. “May 4-5, 1970” 12 p. in American Splen-dor, no. 2 (1977).

Rudahl, Sharon Kahn. “Wisconsin Story” 3 p. in Snarf, no. 6 (1976).

Williamson, Skip. Class War Comix: A Brief History of the Revolution. River Forest, IL M. Johnson, 1993. 8 p. — Reprints strips from 1969-1970.

Further reading:

Rosenkranz, Patrick. Rebel Visions: the Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975. Seattle, Wash.: Fantagraphics Books, 2002. 292 p.

Harvey Pekar’s story titled “May 4-5, 1970” (1977) is a 12-page refl ection on the impact of the National Guard killing of four students at Kent State University.

SPECIAL Michigan State University

Libraries, Special Collections

100 Library

COLLECTIONS

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East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1048

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H.P. Kraus, Inc. closes

Over the decades a number of

Collections was built from books

fi ne, antiquarian book dealers, both

acquired from Kraus. Although

in the United States and abroad,

our acquisitions have slowed down

have established productive rela-

of late, two years ago we acquired

tionships with Special Collections.

from Kraus a fi ne 1817 printing

Probably the most important of

of Le parfait bouvier, an anonymous

all these was H.P. Kraus, Inc. In-

pocket manual for the ‘perfect

deed, in the heyday of collection

cowherd.’

building here in the 1960s and

Given this legacy, it is with sad-

1970s, when book budgets were

ness, then, that we note the closing

fl ush with money and bibliogra-

of H.P. Kraus, Inc.,

phers extraordinaire like Robert

which was founded in Vienna in

Runser and Henry Koch walked

1932 by Hans P. Kraus, who fl ed

through these stacks, arrivals of

the rise of fascism in Europe and

books from Kraus’s headquarters

landed in New York where he

in New York were practically a

reestablished the company in 1939.

weekly occurrence. For example,

Until his death in 1988, H.P Kraus

sell the stock and the remarkable

in a letter to Koch dated January

was recognized as the dominant

reference collection in a series of

31, 1961, Kraus billed MSU for

rare book dealer in the world,

auctions which began last fall. We

six books and “24 items selected

selling to both individuals and insti-

were informed of the closing in

from previously submitted descrip-

tutions during one of the greatest

a short letter sent to all “Clients”

tions.” Among the six books listed

periods of book collecting and sell-

that ended, “We thank you for your

are a 1507 copy of Badius’s Navis

ing in history. After Kraus’s death,

past business and hope your future

stultifera ($400); a 1501 copy of De

Hanni Kraus, his widow, the family,

collecting will prosper without us.”

consolatione philosophiae ($350); and

and a devoted staff continued the

Collect we will and must, but it will

the fi rst edition of The gentleman’s

business, but when Mrs. Kraus died

seem a little lonely to do so without

new jockey ($48.50) printed in 1687.

in January 2003, the heirs decided

the presence of H.P Kraus, Inc.

With these and many others, it

the business should be liquidated

—Peter Berg

would not be an exaggeration to

rather than have the Kraus name

suggest that the foundation of

continued by others. A deal was

the rare books holdings in Special

soon struck with Sotheby’s to