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Journals, 1975 - 1985

 Series
Call Number: RH MS 1552

Scope and Contents

The journals cover most of the ten-year period between 1975 and 1985, with only some small gaps. Most of the journals consist of diary entries or drafts of literary works (some of which may be fictionalized accounts of Bezzi's own life?), as well as sketches, outlines, and notes for literary works. Drafts are frequently either in first person or in masculine third person and include dialogue, focused on relationships between people. Pages may have sentences or paragraphs scratched out, and there may be corrections, additions, and other annotations. Some of the drafts and notes/thoughts in the later journals appear related to Bezzi's work on Hubble Time.

Diary entries are typically introspective and philosophical, focused on Bezzi's interior emotional and mental states, as well as relationships with other people, including boyfriends and lovers. He has a complex relationship with Wichita, Kansas and writes about it when visiting family there.

Other items that appear in the journals include recipes, lists, reading notes (mostly in the earliest journals), quotations, logs of daily events or travel schedules, written portraits of other people Bezzi meets, and notes, such as addresses and phone numbers, budgeting, etc. Other topics that appear include sailing--Bezzi was apparently an avid sailor--finances, and Bezzi's long term goals. There are sketches interspersed throughout all the journals, of people, animals, objects, symbols and patterns, and landscapes. Some sketches are more like doodles or very incomplete, and some of the people-focused sketches are only of an individual's eyebrows, mouth, or other specific body part.

Bezzi typically wrote only on the front of pages, usually in blue or black ink. Some of the sketches are colored in with crayon or colored pencil. July 1984 entries mention a hospital stay and AIDS scare; the February-July journal also mentions Bezzi visiting the Hubble house. The July-September 1984 journal includes some entries in what appears to be somebody else's hand. The 1985 journal mostly consists of sketches and notes or lists.

Dates

  • Creation: 1975 - 1985

Language of Materials

Occasionally Bezzi wrote a sentence or short paragraph in German; the majority of the journal entries are in English.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

Arrangement

The journals have been organized chronologically. Loose items found within some journals remain in the same folders with those journals.

Repository Details

Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository

Contact:
1450 Poplar Lane
Lawrence KS 66045-7616 United States
785-864-4334