Algernon D. Black: 40 Addresses (1962-1966)

Algernon D. Black (1900-1993)

Last September, I spent some time in the archives of the New York Society for Ethical Culture.  While there I had the opportunity to focus attention on a single container--Box 9D--one of a few hundred such boxes.  It was my luck that this mostly random selection turned out to include three thick folders of lectures by Algernon D. Black.  OK, I saw his name on the box, but I could just as easily have chosen others.  This is all to say that I enjoyed finding more lectures from Black, since it was his 1944 lecture, "The Meaning of Hitler's Defeat," which I discovered on an auction site, that was a major part of my impetus to attempt this Bibliography.  But there are so many more yet to "discover" in the archives.  

In Box 9D, I found the aforementioned three folders.  The addresses were organized by date, from March 15, 1962, to December 25, 1966.  The topics ranged from current events to issues of war and peace to personal relationships and, of course, more.  The addresses were either in the format of a mimeographed bulletin (The Ethical Platform) or as a carbon copy or photocopy of a typescript, sometimes both.  Only in the period immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were any of the addresses typeset and printed in the format of a numbered volume of the serial.

The format of the addresses raised some bibliographic issues.  With only a couple of numbered issues found in this box, most of the addresses were dated but unnumbered.  How to document this serial (a NYSEC publication)?  After some searching, I found the Chicago answer in the recommendation to treat the publication as a magazine if there is no volume number.  Following that recommendation, I have now entered in the Bibliography the 40 addresses that were individually printed in The Ethical Platform and filed in Box 9d.

I am now contemplating what to do about the typescripts in that box.  Some of them were typescripts of the published addresses.  The others seem to be lectures that were either not published in The Ethical Platform or for which the published version is simply missing from the archives.  Either way preserving this record is important for two reasons:

1. In some cases, there are clearly some differences between the typescript and the published version, a matter of some scholarly interest.
2. Without a published version, these typescripts may be our only record of these addresses.

It is not, however, generally (and as far as I know) typical bibliographic practice to document every manuscript in an archive.  Rather, the practice is to document the archive itself as the resource which would then be accessed directly.  In the interest of being as thorough as possible, I actually want to document these addresses, knowing that setting that precedent will lead to more dilemmas about archived items that are more relevant to history of events than to history of thought.

While I ponder the issue of how much to include (and how to document it), I also need to point out the sad fact that I didn't actually have time to read more than snippets of these addresses.  I made a note about the unpublished typescript of Black's "Civil Disobedience and Loyalty: Are They Contradictory?" (November 17, 1963).  Black said:  "If we have a good hell, a nice hot one, we'd have better attendance from our members."  It seems that these typescripts were transcriptions of audio tapes (so noted on at least one of the typescripts), and, in this instance, Black was casually mentioning a lack of attendance before moving on to the subject of his address.  In his address, "Peace Is Everybody's Responsibility," (June 27, 1965) I noted that he had referenced or quoted a poem about nuclear war by Stephen Vincent Benet to remind myself to look it up.  (*Reminding self again.*)  

My point is that I would like to have read them all.  

I will be returning to the NYSEC archives in March (I hope), but even that will not allow me much time to read these addresses by Algernon D. Black or those of the other leaders who have contributed their talents to the Ethical Culture Movement.  A bibliography is, of course, a good thing to have, but it eventually becomes a tantalizing hint of inaccessible delights, rather like looking through a store window at things we could only dream of having.  To me this means that we need to start digitizing the archives as soon as feasible.  Feasibility of course means a plan and the resources to implement it.  Great!  So now I'm looking for more hands, more eyes, and money.

In the meantime, more tantalizing delights are now included at the end of the Bibliography.  I am listing the typescripts as best I can and will figure out where they fit in later.