Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Hi,
I am a Journalism & Communications major in Santa Rosa, California, where Frank Herbert used to write for The Press Democrat between 1949-53. His first sci-fi short story, "Looking for Something" was published while living here.

I am starting an internship there today, and plan to compile Frank Herbert's newspaper writings and interview locals who worked with him. Tim O'Reilly, who has written and/or edited a couple Herbert biographies, lives in nearby Sebastapol and has agreed to be interviewed as well. He pointed me in the direction of Cal State Fullerton's archives, which is just a couple miles from my aunts house.

First printing will be limited to 100 books (and I may set up a Kickstarter account for that) and eBooks will also be available. I will keep posted when things near completion.

The Press Democrat is located less than two blocks from Russian River Brewing Company, whose Pliny the Elder is rated as one of the best beers in the world. It is likely that much of this book will be written there.

Oh, and sometimes I wear a hat.

Welcome to the board! I have been down to the Fullerton archives twice, specifically to go through the Herbert archives. We have also sent two others to go through at different times. That's where my avatar came from; an illustration stored in the archives from a college newspaper about a symposium Herbert gave once. There are a lot of papers in the Fullerton archives, but not as much from his newspaper days as you would think. Some though, and admittedly I have not been able to go through every box yet.

I would be interested in seeing what you can plunder from the Santa Rosa paper. Do they have a good archive there? There are quite a few people at the site noted below who would love to talk to you about what you can pull from there.

There is a companion website to this place, called The (Almost) Undeleted, at http://tau.solahpmo.com/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is a lot there that you may find helpful. Maybe more that meets the eye.

Looking forward to read what you will dig up. And I call dibs on a copy of your work.

We LOVE hats around here!

Welcome!

Your work sounds fascinating. Will you be able to publish Frank's articles in full, or only describe them or quote from them? I'd definitely buy a copy, if available, when it's done.

HBJ

Hi all,
glad to see such an enthusiastic response to my project!

It looks like I will be able to print the full articles - that can be found. "By-Lines" (writer's credits) were not common for newspapers back in the 50's, and many news reports are by "staff correspondent". I started my research based on a scrapbook mentioned in the bibliography of a Brian Herbert book (the title escapes me now).

I have discovered a few interesting tidbits. For example, Santa Rosa native Robert "Believe it or not" Ripley died about a month after Herbert started her, and it is possible he wrote one of the dozen short unattributed articles interview teachers and friends.

I found a letter to the editor complaining of the snobby stand-offishness of Santa Rosans, and perhaps Santaroga Barrier is less fictional than it seems.
On a sidenote, I was amused by the many references to beer in Santaroga, since the world-famous Russian River Brewing Company, makers of Pliny the Elder, is less than two blocks east of the newspaper office.

I found the earliest credited Herbert article, dated May 22, 1949, entitled, "Old Automobiles, a Human Skull, Money, Silverware All in Day's Work at the Dump" which includes 4 "Staff photos by Frank Herbert"

For some reason, attempting to upload a JPG gave me "The image file you tried to attach is invalid.", so I will post the pictures on my blog instead. http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... rrier.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will let you all know when the book is close to finished.

The Words must flow!

SpiceMustFlow wrote:a Brian Herbert book (the title escapes me now).

This doesn't surprise me at all ...

Having the full articles available would be awesome. I can hardly wait!

"Santaroga" update:

I found an interesting Synchronicity doing my microfilm research. I knew that FH started writing at Press Democrat in April of 1949. I didn't think he had started on April First, but I started looking at all the articles anyway, just to get a feel for the time period.

No (April Fools) Joke: in the Friday April 1, 1949 issue, there is a short paragraph on page 14:

"Herbert Family Now Living in Eureka Home
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Herbert have moved to Eureka and are living at 2964 Summer Street. The change of residence was made when Mr. Herbert was transferred to that part of the state. He went north as soon as his orders were received, but Mrs. Herbert and their sons, Michael and Billie did not go to their new home until last week. Mrs. Herbert is the former Beverly Nielsen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Nielsen."

The weird synchronicity is that Santa Rosa had a population of only 17,900 people in the 1950 census - so what are the odds of two different people named Frank Herbert, each moving in or out of Santaroga within the same short time span?

Further synchronicity: FH's philosophies were influenced by Santa Rosa friends Ralph and Irene Slattery, who introduced him to Zen Buddhism and Jung, Heidegger and Jaspers. Irene even studied under Jung in Zurich, and Jung wrote a book called Sychronicity, which in turn influenced two song and an album of the same name written by Sting, who in turn starred in David Lynch's Dune - which was probably watched by Kevin Bacon at some point.

On a separate note, over the weekend I was awarded First Place by the Journalism Association of Community Colleges in the category "Enterprise News Story/Series" for my article (along with two other writers from my paper) about a 28-year veteran campus cop accused of embezzling over $300,000 from college parking meters:

http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... meter.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will always remember earning my first journalism award while researching Frank Herbert's journalism writings.

update?

UPDATE:
I have been very busy with school, and am Editor-in-Chief this semester of our college newspaper.
Since this is an opportunity too good to pass up, even though it's unpaid, I'm putting other projects on the back burner for now.

I'm still going through the microfilm newspaper archives one by one, but I will be busy until the end of May.

My most recent story was the annual Pliny the Younger release at Russian River Brewing Company:
http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... earth.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also, I've been covering the campus cop caught pilfering parking meters - $300,000 the DA can prove.
I've already won an award for Best News Writing for this, and the preliminary hearing hasn't even happened yet:
http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... quash.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In other national news, we have covered protests over the shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, carrying his friend's toy airsoft rifle missing the orange safety tip.

Long story short, I'll keep you all posted on when this project nears completion.

Thanks for the encouragement!
It's for fans like you (and me) that I'm embarking on this colossal labor of love.

Welcome to our sietch.
Here's a pug dog in a hat.

LAULE

I just finished Finals, as well as the court reporting of the campus cop caught stealing $286.000 from campus parking meters. He only got 4 years in prison.

Anyway, now I have time again to research the microfilm from Frank Herbert's journalism days.

I found an amazing front page photo of Santa Claus sitting on a beardless Frank Herbert's lap - encouraging him to grow a beard, no doubt:
http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... claus.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More spicy goodness to follow...

SpiceMustFlow wrote:I just finished Finals, as well as the court reporting of the campus cop caught stealing $286.000 from campus parking meters. He only got 4 years in prison.

Anyway, now I have time again to research the microfilm from Frank Herbert's journalism days.

I found an amazing front page photo of Santa Claus sitting on a beardless Frank Herbert's lap - encouraging him to grow a beard, no doubt:
http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... claus.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More spicy goodness to follow...

Nice photo and well done in advance.

SpiceMustFlow wrote:I just finished Finals, as well as the court reporting of the campus cop caught stealing $286.000 from campus parking meters. He only got 4 years in prison.

'Only'? Being unable to visit family and friends, and unable to provide for your family for a period of four years tends to be pretty disruptive, especially for people with young children. And that's just assuming the rest of the prison experience is perfectly pleasant.

I found an amazing front page photo of Santa Claus sitting on a beardless Frank Herbert's lap - encouraging him to grow a beard, no doubt:
http://erikjorgensenphotos.blogspot.com ... claus.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More spicy goodness to follow...

I hope that doesn't mean matters between Frank and Santa Claus are going to get spicy. They're looking at each other as if they're about to kiss, and the inspiration for Baron Harkonnen had to come from somewhere.

I have been making great progress with the microfilm, over halfway through, and I could be finished scanning by the end of this month. The genealogical library is only open four days a week with limited hours, but I'm there all day when I can.

I have been hitting paydirt lately. Among other tidbits, I found a photo, credited to Frank Herbert, announcing a series of talks about psychology by Dr. Ralph and Irene Slatterly. I have also found several non-news articles, columns and features. I didn't know what I would find when I started this project; I didn't know if it would all be news reports. That would be interesting to me, as a journalism major, and possibly to a few other fans or journalists. But, to my pleasant surprise, I have found some really revealing writing.

For example, I found an article from 1950, about discovering a new country road on a drive with his wife after moving to a new town. Ho hum. But it starts:
"It was a green morning and I woke up to find that my bed had three sides instead of two. The third side was a surrealist extension into the fourth dimension and the minute I stepped onto the floor over that side I knew it would be one of "those" days."

Finding that showed me I'm on the right track. I'm trying to complete this as quickly as possible. I have been keying in articles as I go (mostly on the patio of Russian River Brewing Company, across the street from the library, with a pint of Pliny the Elder) and I expect the microfilm scanning to be done by the end of the month. It may be another couple months to finish keying in and layout. There are photos as well, and those need to be photoshopped, as the microfilms are heavily scratched. I would like to have it in book form by Christmas.

I am setting up a KickStarter account when it's done, for one month (like they suggest) to raise money for a first-printing of 1000 books. This will be in September or October, I will post here in advance when I am getting close to finishing the book.

This book could not have happened unless my amazing journalism teacher, Anne Belden, took our class on a field trip to The Press Democrat. Thanks, Anne!

I just finished reading the last roll of microfilm, September 1953 - when the Herbert and Vance families move to Mexico.

The First Edition should be out in print by Christmas - I'm just going to work on getting it finished, text-wise, and not worry about including all the photographs Frank Herbert took for The Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

I'm getting up a Kickstarter account next week, and I will start a new thread, "Kickstarter for Frank Herbert's lost journalism writing" or something like that. I don't want to SPAM this board, but I think the possibility of helping Frank Herbert's lost writings see print outweighs that.

Anyway, I would like to thank everybody at Jacurutu for the encouragement. I would not have spent so much time on this project (which isn't quite finished yet) without knowing that there were fans interested in reading what I found. So thank you!

I have found some really, really interesting stuff. There are a couple articles Frank Herbert wrote between 1949 and 1953 that really foreshadow elements in Dune. You're going to love it, just like I loved finding it!

I usually don't like the x-mas period of the year. This year it will be different.

SpiceMustFlow wrote:I'm getting up a Kickstarter account next week, and I will start a new thread, "Kickstarter for Frank Herbert's lost journalism writing" or something like that. I don't want to SPAM this board, but I think the possibility of helping Frank Herbert's lost writings see print outweighs that.

I would consider that on-topic, not spam.

That is not spam at all. Post away.

I will buy your book when it's available.

georgiedenbro wrote:I will buy your book when it's available.

Shortest post yet!

Freakzilla wrote:

georgiedenbro wrote:I will buy your book when it's available.

Shortest post yet!

I'm not trying to discourage you, LOL! You obviouusly have a lot of thoughts on our topics, keep them coming!

Freakzilla wrote:I'm not trying to discourage you, LOL! You obviouusly have a lot of thoughts on our topics, keep them coming!

Seconded.