Overview

Details about the seventeen manuscripts in The Brautigan Library's "Love" category.

Background

These manuscripts are included in the "Love" (LOV) category using The Mayonnaise System, a classification system developed for The Brautigan Library. Manuscripts are cataloged according to fourteen general categories, the year of submission, and the order of acquisition into the category. For example, LOV 1992.005 indicates the manuscript was the fifth one cataloged in 1992 to the LOV(e) category. Manuscript synopses provided by authors at time of submission. Comments from The Librarian provide additional information.

Stats

Manuscripts in LOV category = 17
1992 = 3 manuscript
1991 = 1 manuscripts
1990 = 16 manuscripts
Missing = 3 manuscripts (MS #247 LOV 1992.002, MS #116 LOV 1990.014, and MS #102 LOV 1990.013)

The Best of Gifts: The Green Card

Melba Lake (Mildred A. Ritter)
MS #267
LOV 1992.003
Registered 1992/12/15 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
May and December Marriage for the Green Card (aka I Married An Illegal Alien) is a true story of a May and December marriage for a Green Card. Mario came to the United States on a student visa. The purpose was to marry any U.S. female citizen, preferably one with money and/or a good position. Included are the romancing, latin style, sex, song and dancing, proposal and the hardship of agreeing to sign a pre-nupital agreement, infertility and finally divorce. True love for Mario's happiness is how he gained his freedom as a U.S. citizen and a new prosperous life from poverty.

In His Own Image

Beatrice Rosenstein
MS #247
LOV 1992.002
Registered 1992/02/13 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Set in the mid-1930's, In His Own Image explores the lives and sorrows of five New Yorkers who seek to escape their various heartbreaks, ennui, an overpowering love affair, a shockingly sudden rejection, and in general, a deep dissatisfaction with life. They find themselves on a bus headed West, and new lives. NOTE: This manuscript is missing from the library collection.

Librarian's Comment
Unfortunately, this manuscript was missing from The Brautigan Library collection when it was transferred from Burlington, Vermont, to Vancouver, Washington.

Love and Treachery

Raymond Mendez
MS #243
LOV 1992.001
Registered 1992/01/16 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Love and Treachery said it all. Brad's heart was hurting; and seemed to weigh a ton. His live-in-woman, Jonna, had just ran off with an underworld thug, called Capo. They took the three million dollars from a drug sale and left him flat broke; in a cheap hotel in Athens, Greece. His only alternative was to call his Aunt Audrey collect in New York, and have her bail him out. He hated to do that. She always wanted him, as payment for her favors; Audrey had the morals of an alley cat.

My Victory

Richard Pitoni
MS #162
LOV 1991.001
Registered 1991/02/22 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
A young rejected sensitive boy lost in a large family in the 1950s camouflages himself in public and writes all that's in his heart on paper. Totally untaught, he fights to learn of life's joys. Through many painful moments, his poems become his best friends. He feels on paper the loss of his grandmother; raising a child on his own; the great pain of divorce and broken relationships; the wonder of life; the power of God and his delightful discovery of people who love him. From age fifteen to forty six, a collection of the agony and ecstasy of his life. So he lifts up his hands in victory and offers to the public the prizes of his life: My Victory.

Points North and South

Kate McNairy
MS #142
LOV 1990.016
Registered 1990/12/20 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
I am interested in the influence of place and family on a character and the moments when a character becomes aware of the power of that force. Is it possible for a person to break repeating cycles within a family, not substituting one habit for another, but making a profound change at the core of one's being? I'm not sure, but Points North and South works at the answers.

Den of the Cockatrice

Susan Lummis
MS #132
LOV 1990.015
Registered 1990/11/10 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Den of the Cockatrice is the story of three females, illustrating the power women possess; how they use it constructively or destructively; and the belief systems which prevent them from living fulfilling lives.

Librarian's Comment
Susan Lummis has contributed two manuscripts to The Brautigan Library. They are The Dragon Quintet (LOV 1990.006 A, B) and Den of the Cockatrice (LOV 1990.015).

Love Is Love

Beatric Kalver
MS #116
LOV 1990.014
Registered 1990/10/03 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Love Is Love is a collection of twenty six short stories, self-published by the author. NOTE: This manuscript is missing from the collection.

Librarian's Comment
Unfortunately, this manuscript was missing from The Brautigan Library collection when it was transferred from Burlington, Vermont, to Vancouver, Washington.

In Impatient Stillness

Elaine Froehlich
MS #102
LOV 1990.013
Registered 1990/9/6 by the Librarian

Author's Synopsis
In Impatient Stillness is a spineless book about a spineless love affair written from three perspectives and cut together to form a discontinuous text. Thoughts, conversations and a narrative not necessarily conjunctive in time converge on the page to create the story. NOTE: This manuscript is missing from the collection.

Librarian's Comment
Unfortunately, this manuscript was missing from The Brautigan Library collection when it was transferred from Burlington, Vermont, to Vancouver, Washington.

If You Are Looking for Love, You Won't Find It on River Road

Dan Blaukopf
MS #089
LOV 1990.012
Registered 1990/08/16 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
If You Are Looking for Love, You Won't Find It on River Road follows the black sheep of the family, left on a kibbutz in Israel as a child, beaten in the 1967 War, and now living in the U.S., is a clinical psychologist obsessed with achieving the American dream through computer technology. He goes nowhere, flees to Israel, and resurrects himself as the head of a cult.

Librarian's Comment
Dan Blaukopf has contributed three manuscripts to The Brautigan Library. They are The Fast (LOV 1990.001), A Case of Do or Die and Other Stories (ALL 1990.016) and If You Are Looking for Love, You Won't Find It on River Road (LOV 1990.012).

The Fast

Dan Blaukopf
MS #087
LOV 1990.011
Registered 1990/08/16 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
The Fast is four stories linked by a common theme, a kind of spiritual pilgrimage. The fast, itself, a charitable event for world hunger foisted on a Friend's meeting, is an anti-banquet for lost souls. Stories are about a child in a disintegrating family, a woman come home to take care of her dying father, a macho army reservist and a gay professor rooming together on a cruise, and a 60s dropout, a kind of human chameleon.

Librarian's Comment
Dan Blaukopf has contributed three manuscripts to The Brautigan Library. They are The Fast (LOV 1990.001), A Case of Do or Die and Other Stories (ALL 1990.016) and If You Are Looking for Love, You Won't Find It on River Road (LOV 1990.012).

Servant of Many Masters

Ellen Duguid
MS #085
LOV 1990.010
Registered 1990/08/13 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Servant of Many Masters explores the sexual geometry of the eternal triangle, and discovers some new angles. It examines the complex mechanisms of patriotism, religion, rootlessness, love and the lack of it, in-so-far as they shape and test the diverse members of Jane's family. Amid its tragic, and sometimes comic maneuvering the heroine's character matures, as she discovers true happiness comes through being true to yourself.

Dead Lines

John Sullivan
MS #079
LOV 1990.009
Registered 1990/08/01 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Dead Lines is a novel about Harold Pierce, a smart but raunchy, married and womanizing newsman who arrives in a small Massachusetts city after being bounced from a Boston daily. He's soon romancing Dora, mother of five and wife of the BULLETIN'S sports editor. Art McGraw, the editor, former five-time All-Pro NFL linesman, becomes involved with Mayor Joe Briggs and is threatened with exposure by Harold. After a grand jury hearing and two years later, Briggs and McGraw are dead, the widowed Dora ditches Harold and leaves Summitville with her children.

Cynthia and the Blue Cat's Last Meow

Jeff May
MS #076
LOV 1990.008
Registered 1990/07/31 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
In Cynthia and the Blue Cat's Last Meow, the young narrator enters an unusual, anthropomorphic natural setting that appears perfect. Gradually, he sees, but cannot readily accept, his own tormented soul, the demons gnawing at his heart, hidden beneath the natural beauty. This story is about the unleashing and dissolution of those demons and his maturing perception of Cynthia. It is also about her guidance and the resulting changes that occur within her.

Lessons

Robert Lee
MS #072
LOV 1990.007
Registered 1990/07/20 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Lessons recounts the ten year friendship between Edward Greer, instructor of English at City College of San Francisco, and his former student Richard. Their platonic love often seemed to mirror the relationship enjoyed by two of their favorite characters of English literature: Sebastian and Charles in Brideshead Revisited. Instead of alcohol which carried Sebastian away from Charles, Edward was taken away from Richard by the AIDS virus. Their tales of love and longing, pain and perseverance are the essence of life.

The Dragon Quintet

Susan Lummis
MS #063
LOV 1990.006
Registered 1990/07/05 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
The Dragon Quintet is an honest look at female sexuality from the female's point of view. Five short stories written by a woman, about women, for women. Each has the common theme of slaying the dragon of social conditioning and ego-misunderstandings of sex. NOTE: Contains frequent and unabashed sexuality.

The Dioscuri

Michaele Benedict
MS #021
LOV 1990.004
Registered 1990/05/25 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
The Dioscuri is a novel set in Greece which incorporates myth, magic and music into a contemporary story. Madeline and Yanni, daughter and adopted son of an American Quaker doctor, are the "twins" who are inseparable as children, and who, as adults, try in vain to live separate lives.

The Courier

Thomas Withey
MS #022
LOV 1990.005
Registered 1990/05/25 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
The Courier is a story about an off-shore mafia family's attempt to move to the mainland by taking over an independent money-laundering system, and the survivors counter measures that create pandemonium.

Librarian's Comment
Thomas Withey has contributed four manuscripts to The Brautigan Library. They are The Courier (LOV 1990.005), For Dear Old Ireland and Others (SOC 1990.006), Come Laugh and Cry with Me (POE 1991.003), and Seven Cities of Gold (POE 1991.012).

Rainbows All Around

Miriam Fuller
MS #020
LOV 1990.003
Registered 1990/05/24 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
Rainbows All Around is a love story of true love, and about faith and patience that overcomes personality addictions and age, which means fulfillment for all the characters in the story.

Oedipus in America

David Johnston
MS #015
LOV 1990.002
Registered 1990/05/22 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
In 1958 at Princeton I began my novel about the pain of first love lost. Thirty years later after many false starts I found that my notes and dream diary from my graduate school days at Berkeley could be jigsawed to form a historical recreation of my early life. The tale told by the unconscious is an adventure of misplaced libido, a fantasy of invasion and incest. Oedipus in America is the first volume of a chronicle of the inner life.

When Two Paths Crossed

Judy Greenwalt
MS #006
LOV 1990.001
Registered 1990/04/26 by The Librarian

Author's Synopsis
When Two Paths Crossed is a true story of two people from two different worlds in today's society: one from the very rich world, and one from the working middle class. Both had ambition, dreams and a lot of love and understanding to share. Both came to understand what life and love was all about. One died, the other remained, but the impact one had on the other left an imprint in those around both these people, one will never forget. Their meeting brought a family closer together and woke up knowledge about what life is and how precious and short it really is. I hope those who read this will enjoy it and realize how precious life really is.