Beschreibung
An original, carbon-copy typescript for this WPA title, compiled by the Oklahoma staff of the Federal Writer's Project, under the direction of the hard-boiled crime novelist Jim Thompson. _____ This set is comprised of 25 sheets, printed on the rectos only, stapled in the upper left corner. _____ The cover sheet is dated 3/2/39. _____ Thompson's uncredited introduction occupies the first three pages. _____ The remaining 21 numbered pages are the definitions of some 242 slang words, from "Add Up" to "Yip-Yip." _____ Accompanied by a separate cover letter, typed on Oklahoma Works Project Administration letterhead, signed by Thompson. _____ It is addressed to Winifred Johnston Perry, the editor of Cooperative Books in Norman, Oklahoma. _____ In June 1939, that firm had issued Economics of Scarcity: Some Human Footnotes, a pamphlet of four after-hours essays by WPA members: Thompson, Welborn Hope, Dan Garrison and Ned DeWitt. _____ This submission may represent an early attempt to find a commercial outlet for the dictionary. _____ In his one-paragraph note, Thompson admits that "this manuscript is by no means complete; but it should give you some idea of the thing we have in view." _____ He concludes with a solicitation of the editor's comments and suggestions. Whatever Mrs. Johnson's opinions of the proposed work might have been, it was in fact never published. _____ Retains the original WPA Oklahoma manila mailing envelope addressed to Mrs. Perry with the stamp cancelled July 26, 1939. _____ _____ "One offshoot from his folklore essay for the state guide was a fascinating glossary, A Dictionary of Oklahomaisms, which Thompson and his staff compiled but never published. _____ Covering perhaps 250 specimens of regional folk-say and concentrating on roughneck, miner, rancher, and cowboy slang, the Dictionary accentuated linguistic ingenuity, if not perversity. _____ Thompson's high-spirited preface set the tone: _____ 'Being an Oklahoman is largely a state of mind.___ Some people who made the run of '89 are "from the East." ___Others, who arrived last year, from Kansas or New Jersey, are as much a part of the state as the red beds. ___It all depends on how much you will admit or what you care to claim. ___If you see a gentleman with his hair braided and a blanket for a topcoat it is reasonable to assume that he is a native; providing, of course, that there are no traces of his complexion on his shirt, and he does not try to sell you corn salve.' . _____ Thompson introduced samples and lectured on A Dictionary of Oklahomaisms at the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Folklore Society in February 1939."__--Robert Polito in Savage Art / A Biography of Jim Thompson (Knopf, 1995, p.244) _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ The Oklahoma WPA was marked by a sharp political schism. The left branch was comprised heavily of anti-fascists and members of the Communist Party, of which Thompson was one. _____ The right wing was anchored by Zoe Tilghman, widow of long-time Oklahoma lawman William Tilghman. _____ The conflict between these two factions blunted many of the efforts of the WPA to conclude writing projects, each suspecting the others' motives. _____ Perhaps that was the fate of this Dictionary. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers R-25106
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