PHONE MESSAGES, 1987-2007
Series
Scope and Contents
For many years I rarely hung onto phone messages scribbled on envelopes or scraps of paper when people called. I never had an answering machine until I think 1990 when my editor at Holt, Marian Wood, ordered me to buy one or she would quit publishing my books because she could never get in touch with me.
Earlier (1985-1989), when I was married to my second wife, Juanita, she and I saved most of the yellow slips we kept on a pad beside the phone. Lots of messages during 1987 and 1988 when my life was more out of control due to the new marriage and too much hoopla over filming and release of The Milagro Beanfield War and The Wizard of Loneliness, and other film jobs and writing projects, and a spring 1987 book tour, and our autumn 1987 European travels, and going to Vermont in December 1987 to watch filming of Wizard, and the Milagro release in March 1988.
Later, in 1994, I began keeping recycle paper beside the phone to write down messages off the answering machine. I saved all messages because sometimes it was helpful to refer back for phone numbers or other information. I dunno what happened to the messages from 1995, but here are the rest until 2007. They add up to a cryptic addendum to my JOURNAL/DIARY FILES, ENVELOPE NOTES FILES, and other excess random life information cluttering these archives. An archivist at the University of Texas, San Marcos library once told me, "Save everything!"
Often the recycled paper information is way more interesting than the phone messages themselves. They sometimes include Xeroxes of my dad's letters and journals and manuscript pages, my own letters and manuscript pages, letters to my father, and all sorts of other discards from projects I may have been working on at the time.
The inventory below includes lists of some caller identities which are not always made clear in the hastily scribbled notes of their messages taken off my machine.
Earlier (1985-1989), when I was married to my second wife, Juanita, she and I saved most of the yellow slips we kept on a pad beside the phone. Lots of messages during 1987 and 1988 when my life was more out of control due to the new marriage and too much hoopla over filming and release of The Milagro Beanfield War and The Wizard of Loneliness, and other film jobs and writing projects, and a spring 1987 book tour, and our autumn 1987 European travels, and going to Vermont in December 1987 to watch filming of Wizard, and the Milagro release in March 1988.
Later, in 1994, I began keeping recycle paper beside the phone to write down messages off the answering machine. I saved all messages because sometimes it was helpful to refer back for phone numbers or other information. I dunno what happened to the messages from 1995, but here are the rest until 2007. They add up to a cryptic addendum to my JOURNAL/DIARY FILES, ENVELOPE NOTES FILES, and other excess random life information cluttering these archives. An archivist at the University of Texas, San Marcos library once told me, "Save everything!"
Often the recycled paper information is way more interesting than the phone messages themselves. They sometimes include Xeroxes of my dad's letters and journals and manuscript pages, my own letters and manuscript pages, letters to my father, and all sorts of other discards from projects I may have been working on at the time.
The inventory below includes lists of some caller identities which are not always made clear in the hastily scribbled notes of their messages taken off my machine.
Dates
- 1987-2007
Language of Materials
From the Collection:
English
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research, however, researchers must sign consent form prior to gaining access to materials. Calavera drawings, proofs, and etchings as well as "little diaries" (Boxes 14, 125, 126, 129, 142) are housed in high security and may require up to 24 hours for retrieval. Enlarged photocopies and typed transcriptions of "little diaries" in Box 142 are located in Box 184.
Extent
From the Collection: 184 boxes (172 cu. ft.)
General
Note: Comments and description provided by John Nichols.
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451