The Elulsaive Roman Jakoson Archive

[Jim Curtis]

Hello All--
    I thanked everyone on this listserv the other day for quick responses to my inquiry about the Roman Jakobson archive.  I think it's the least I can do to update you.
    Several people said that that Jakobson archive was at MIT.  So I visited the MIT Library website. However, there were no e-mail addresses at the website and only one general information number.  However, visitors (intruders?) are sternly warned that "telephone inquiries are discouraged."  Nothing daunted, I called the only number available to me as someone who doesn't teach at Harvard of MIT.  Needless to say, no live person answered the phone and I left a message, which no one has yet returned.
    But several people also said that the Jakobson archive is at UCLA.  I even got the e-mail address of someone whom I don't known but who has a perfectly delicious name--Olga Yokoyama.  So I e-mailed Professor Yokoyama with my request for information.  She e-mailed me back and said that she didn't know where it was, but that she was forwarding my request to Brent Vine, whom I also don't know, and who is President of the Roman Jakobson Society.
(Incidentally, Sic transit gloria mundi--when I initially called the AAASS office, the person who answered had never heard of Roman Jakobson and wanted to know what field he was in.)  Brent Vine didn't know where the archive was, either, and advised me to contact Steven Rudy at NYU, who is writing a biography of Jakobson.  I visited the NYU website and was not surprised to learn that it, too, contained no e-mail addresses.  However, Professor Vine had kindly given me Professor Rudy's number.  So I called that number and...he doesn't have an answering machine.
    This is the "Stand der Forschung" at the moment.  I have enough questions that perhaps I could apply for research support in my quest, for that is what it has become, to find the archive: How many Roman Jakobson archives are there?  Is there only one?  If there is only one, why do so many people think that it's in at least three different places--MIT, UCLA, and NYU?  If there is only one, how would I find out where it is?  If there is more than one, what is the relationship between them?  Are they divided by genre, time period, or what?

Best Wishes to All,

Jim
James M. Curtis, Ph. D.
5531 Doral Drive
Wilmington, DE 19808
302/366-0545
jcurtis at ezol.com