For months last year, the artistic legacy of Tom Verlaine, the influential but enigmatic frontman of the punk-era band Television, rested in 35 tightly packed cardboard boxes lined against a wall in a run-down studio apartment in Manhattan.
Now, three years after Verlaine’s death at 73, the contents of those boxes — reams of lyric sheets, notebooks, photographs, literary experiments and audio reels chocked with unheard tracks — have been acquired by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where they will join the archives of fellow New York giants like Arturo Toscanini, John Cage and Lou Reed, and will be open to the public for scholarly research or browsing by curious fans.
I spy an Eastern Tablet Paper King composition book (small Paper King spiral notebooks were my favorites when I was a kid), and a small Pen-Tab spiral notebook (with yellow and black tape covering most of the spiral), similar to the one I wrote about here: Wire-O and Spiral Notebooks from My Collection, Part 1. (That post also features some Paper King notebooks.)
I’d love to see more of the contents of those 35 boxes, but unfortunately the article didn’t have many more photos. I can’t really identify myself as a “fan” of Tom Verlaine or Television, but I’d be one of the “curious” who would love to browse the archives at the NYPL!
