Suspenders Manuscript
Scope and Contents
The item in question is a small (12.5 cm.) handmade pamphlet of 8 leaves, with paper wraps, bound with thread. The front wrap doubles as a title page; accomplished in purple copying pencil, it reads: "Suspenders. An Epic Poem by Kreuzer. MK. Illustrated." The rectos of each leaf contain framed narrative scenes drawn in pencil, sometimes with secondary figural elements in the margins. The scenes are rendered in great detail; the representational style tends towards the naive but the compositions are quite accomplished. Each scene is accompanied by verse, written by Kreuzer in a miniscule hand. The narrative is outwardly simple. A miserly youth, finding his suspenders worn out, journeys to the city to buy a new pair. In a shop he is shown some that prove a perfect fit, but he ultimately fails to buy them because he finds the price too dear. In returning home along the railroad tracks he narrowly avoids being hit by a train, and tears his sagging pants as he scrambles over a fence. That night he sees a pair of suspenders, radiant, in a dream, but wakes to find himself in his old predicament. The tale is humorous and patently moralizing, more like a fable than a mock epic, but the story in the local paper that provoked it remains for the present a mystery. The moralizing content is underscored by marginal figures outside the narrative scenes: i.e., a man in a tug-of-war with the Devil, each holding an end of a pair of suspenders. The inside of the back cover bears the scribbled pencil notation "March 20th 1872," less than three weeks after the article mentioned in the front of the pamphlet.
Dates
- Creation: 1872
Creator
- Kreuzer, M. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
There are no access restrictions on this item.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Biographical / Historical
The author can be identified only by the surname Kreuzer and the monogram MK, which appear on the booklet's cover. An inscription on the verso of the cover, reading "For 'Key' to the following - See local column Lawrence Journal. March 2d '72" provides a possible association of the author with Lawrence, Essex County, Massachusetts.
Extent
1 item
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
A homemade pamphlet with eight pages of elaborate pencil illustrations and accompanying verse, telling a moralizing tale of a young man's search for a new pair of suspenders.
- Title
- Suspenders Manuscript
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Debra Dochuk and George Rugg
- Date
- 2017
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Notre Dame Rare Books & Special Collections Repository