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Todd Lockwood and the Brautigan Library

by Todd Lockwood?

The Brautigan Library got started, in spirit, about twenty years ago when Richard Brautigan wrote his fourth novel, The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966. Among other things, this book helped redefine romance for the sixties counterculture - breaking away from simplistic gender roles, and offering up the possibility of relationships founded on mutual respect and communication, not just passion alone. It was a book that tended to have a profound effect on those who read it, evidenced by the "this book will change your life" inscriptions one often finds scrawled in old copies of the novel.

And, of course, Brautigan's book described a library - a weird little library where unknown, unpublished writing could find a home. As Brautigan put it, "This library came into being because of an overwhelming need and desire for such a place. There just simply had to be a library like this." When I first read those words in the mid-seventies, I couldn't have agreed more. Such a library seemed like a splendid idea. It seemed perfectly plausible to me that someone, somewhere would one day open such a library, using Brautigan's story as a model.

Well, life nearly began imitating art shortly after the novel was released: Brautigan had given his readers an actual library street address in The Abortion, right down to the zip code. As it turned out, the address was indeed the address of a library - the Presidio Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. They were subsequently flooded with inquiries from all across America, wondering if they indeed accepted unpublished manuscripts. Sadly, the answer was "no."

Years ticked by as I pursued a career in photo-portraiture, and in 1980 started a music recording studio in Vermont. The Abortion continued to own a space on my bookshelf, and it got a rereading every year or so. With every reading, I would be reminded of the library idea. By the mid-eighties, I really began thinking of the library as "something I was going to do." It was simply a matter of when.

Brautigan's suicide in 1984 was a terrific blow to thousands of readers whose ideals survived the cynical seventies with the help of Brautigan's insights and humor. Coming to grips with the reality of his troubled life - a life perceived as fun-loving and well-founded - has not been easy. His death made the library idea seem a bit trivial, so it stayed on the back burner for another five years.

In August 1989, I happened to go to the film Field of Dreams with my wife. I had no idea what the movie was about, but before long it became clear that, for me, the movie was about building the Brautigan Library. Somehow, I knew the time had come to get things rolling. The very next day I called Brautigan's literary agent, and off we went.

The Brautigan Library idea has not been greeted with universal praise. A number of published authors have declined invitations to be advisory trustees to the library. In fact, one poet had her lawyer send us a cease & desist letter, to insure that her name wouldn't be associated with the library. The fact is, even when Brautigan was at the peak of his career, his own work was not held in high esteem by the literary community. He was an outsider. Academics thought his writing was trivial, yet his popularity was undeniable. He was writing for readers - not for writers.

Perhaps it was Brautigan's unpretentious approach to writing that made him such an inspiration to new writers. Probably no other American author since the sixties has inspired so many people to write down their story for the first time. Brautigan shows us that ideas need not be wrapped in layers of grammar and vocabulary to be relevant; that vision is the seed that makes for a moving piece of writing.

A few months ago, we received a two-page manuscript from a woman who drives a school bus. It was filled with spelling errors and incomplete sentences. While trying to decide whether or not to send it back for corrections, I finally just read it, as it was written. The short story tells of sunlight beaming through a snowstorm "like a diamond patch." So beautiful was this moment that she pulled the school bus off the side of the road so her passengers could enjoy it. I learned something in reading her story: Ideas with vision will usually survive a less-than-perfect presentation. But the most elaborate presentation in the world is no substitute for vision. In an era when technique is the most discernible asset one finds in most art and literature, this is indeed a concept worth pondering.

We already have all kinds of writing in the Brautigan Library, but the vast majority is writing which shares a personal vision. Many of our books are written in first person, which is, to me, a signal that we are already building an archive that will distinguish us from other libraries; that will be of use to historians; that will offer a unique, grass-roots view of America.


The 23 [Brautigan Library Newsletter]
November 1990
Online Source: http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/todd-lockwood-and-brautigan-library.html(external link)