Murder Ink at The New School event recordings
Abstract
The New School in cooperation with the New York City bookstore, Murder Ink, hosted a public lecture series between 1993 and 1995 devoted to discussions and readings by popular writers of mystery and crime fiction. The collection consists of audio recordings from the series.
Dates
- 1993-1995
Creator
- Murder Ink (Sponsor, Organization)
- New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y. : 1919-1997) (Host institution, Organization)
Extent
15 1/4 inch Audio Cassette
Language of Materials
English
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of sound recordings on audio cassette tapes from all four semesters in which The New School offered the public, non-credit lecture series, Murder Ink. Three authors participated each semester, with the exception of Fall 1994, when four authors participated.
All advertised speakers are present in the collection apart from Stephen Dobyns, who was slated to appear in Fall 1993. New School Archives staff do not know if the Dobyns program did not take place; took place but was not recorded; or was recorded, but the recording subsequently lost. Dobyns is advertised as a past guest in course descriptions for Murder Ink. Robert Polito is listed as the series coordinator in the final course description for Fall 1995. It is unclear if he served as coordinator in the previous semesters.
There is no known video of the events.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.
Conditions Governing Use
To publish material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives and Special Collections. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Historical note
Murder Ink at The New School was a special lecture series held at The New School in the Spring 1993, Fall 1993, Fall 1994 and Fall 1995 semesters. The events consisted of discussions and readings by popular writers of mystery and crime fiction, including James Ellroy, Donald Westlake, Sandra Scoppettone, Stephen Dobyns, Walter Mosley, Sarah Shankman, April Smith, Andrew Vachss, Tom Savage, George Green, Susanna Moore, and Lawrence Block. Three sessions, each with a single writer, were held in each of the semesters except for Fall 1994, which had four, adding James Ellroy, who returned for a second time to preview his then-upcoming book American Tabloid.
The series were held in partnership with Murder Ink, a New York City bookstore that operated between 1972 and 2006. Murder Ink, which specialized in mystery and crime novels, was located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was first opened by mystery anthologist Dilys Winn on West 87th Street, before being sold to her friend Carol Brenner in 1975, and then to Jay Pearsall in 1989. The store moved to Broadway and West 92nd Street in 1992, and in 1999 Pearsall opened an adjoining bookstore, Ivy’s Books & Curiosities, that did not specialize in mystery fiction. The store closed on December 31, 2006. Murder Ink is a playful reference to the early twentieth century organized crime syndicate Murder, Inc., which was based largely in New York City.
Sources:
Julie Bosman (2006). “Many Suspects Seen in the Death of a Mystery Bookstore.” The New York Times, December 6, 2006. Accessed July 23, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/books/20murd.html
The New School (1993). New School Bulletin 1993 Spring Vol. 50 No. 4 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1993sp
The New School (1993). New School Bulletin 1993 Fall Vol. 51 No. 1 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1993fa
The New School (1994). New School Bulletin 1994 Fall Vol. 52 No. 1 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1994fa
The New School (1995). New School Bulletin 1995 Fall Vol. 53 No. 1[course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns1995fa
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically by event date.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The staff of The New School Archives and Special Collections assembled this collection from a larger set of legacy recordings transferred from The New School's Raymond Fogelman Library following the establishment of The New School Archives, circa 2012.
Processing Information
New School Archives staff based all description in this finding aid on course catalog text and audiocassette container inscriptions. Staff did not listen to the tapes to verify content.
- Audiocassettes (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Authors (Occupation) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Detective and mystery stories, American (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Sound recordings (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Title
- Guide to the Murder Ink at The New School event recordings
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jason Adamo, Jack Wells and Jenny Swadosh
- Date
- February 4, 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin