I recently had an insight connected with the biography: In order to give Isaac’s actions or opinions some context, it would be a good idea to include some mention of historical events, especially ones related to religion or paganism. For example, in February 1979, the month in which the big eclipse ritual took place at the Stonehenge replica, Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran.
I’ve posted about the trials and tribulations of getting permissions to use old newspaper photos of Isaac in the biography. In some cases I’m quoted a price that seems high for something that’s valueless to the owner; in other cases the rights are ambiguous and I get unhelpful answers to my queries.
As long as I’m in the mood to make lists, I might as well set down my reading list for the biographical research. As with the interviews, I anticipate this list will expand; for example, before I finish reading these books, I believe Deborah Lipp’s and Oberon Zell-Ravenheart’s memoirs will be published.
One of daunting tasks associated with researching the life of Isaac Bonewits for his biography is the number of people I want to interview. Here’s the list as of 27-Apr-2012. It’s an ever-increasing list; it seems that every time I speak with someone, they say “You know, you should also speak with…”
This is a follow-up to my post on obtaining the rights to print newspaper pictures in the biography. It turned out that newsbank.com did not hold the rights to the material in their archives, but a nice person in their organization looked up who did and sent me an email. (Her name was "Janet Stewart", and for…
I’m having trouble sleeping, so I might as well blog about my day’s work on the biography.
I coded a few documents, but my primary task was to go over the folder of newspaper clippings Isaac had on the February 26, 1979 total eclipse of the sun. What made that eclipse special is its path intersected the location of the Stonehenge replica near Maryhill, Washington. A great gathering of pagans took place, to create a spiritual intersection at the same time as the astronomical one.
I spent about an hour last night writing a long blog post about research techniques. Why did I bother?
At the time, I thought it was because I’m still processing all I learned, and it would help to set it down. Late last night, I realized that there was another reason:
Isaac would have loved this.
I've completed scanning Isaac Bonewits' calendars. I thought the process would take longer, but I followed the advice of : Put on some music on full blast when no one else is around, and the task will pass quickly. I should have known. This does not remove the need for calendar parties. It means that they can…
...and one step back. Isaac Bonewits' big wall calendars take twice as long to scan as I thought they did. I thought an entire page could be scanned by my big scanner at once, but the images are chopped off at the top or bottom. I'll have to rescan those calendar pages in the flipped orientation so…