archivists: nearly 200 cartons of historical material and 22 file cabinets filled with author contracts stretching back to the late 19th century. “We found about 10 boxes of plays that were published from about 1814 to the mid-1860s, and so far we’ve found 195 different authors just within these boxes,” says Davis, who was hired last year through a two-year “Hidden Collections” grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. The main collection includes pre-publication manuscripts from such authors as Lynda Barry, Lynn Redgrave, Wendy Wasserstein and Neil Simon. The collection also includes publicity photographs of actors, actresses and productions; playbills and theater magazines; costume design illustrations; musical scores; and more. Some of the older titles, while unfamiliar now, were hits in their day: Thalaba, the Destroyer: A MeloDrama, Animal Magnetism: A Farce, in Three Acts, and The Lost Diamonds! WILLIAM SWEET
Saúl’s
STORY He was homeless. He came to Amherst. Then he told his story on stage. STUDENTS U “The last Grullón thing on my mind was that appeared at the Best of my own mother would pour Valley Voices olive oil on me, and for me Story Slam to scream, ‘Anny, Anny! I’m in April. burning! I’m burning! Please help me!’” With that phone message, Saúl Grullón ’15 caught the attention of New England Public Radio’s Valley Voices story slam. Some 70 other people pitched stories, and NEPR chose Grullón as one of 10 to take the stage at a Northampton restaurant. In front of an audience of strangers, he told of the time when, as a homeless teen, he visited his sister, Anny, to get her signature on a document testifying to their mother’s physical and verbal abuse. He flashed back to a scene in which his devoutly religious mother anointed him with olive oil, trying to rid him of the “curse” of being gay. She then held a piece of paper to the stove and threw it at him, setting his shirt ablaze. His sister “Because I had a challenging rushed to help and defend him. childhood, I always liked to release As Grullón began to speak on stage, that stress or that anxiety or anguish “you could hear people talking on through storytelling or through the first floor, but when I delivered speech and debate, which I did in the ‘Hail Mary’ and the ‘I’m burning’ high school,” he says. He enrolled in part, the whole bar was just silent—I Essex County College before transcouldn’t hear a thing—and it shocked ferring to Amherst. He’ll graduate me,” he says. “I kind of felt like the with a double major in English and whole world just stopped to listen.” Spanish. The listeners voted Grullón one of “I know so many great storytellers the evening’s most impressive storyhere,” says Grullón, who encourages tellers, earning him a spot at the Best classmates to participate in local of Valley Voices Story Slam on April public-speaking events, as he has. 18 in Northampton. “There is more to school, or coming Originally from the Dominican Reto a college like Amherst, than doing public, Grullón grew up in the Bronx, academically well, having straight N.Y., and Newark, N.J., living for a As and perfect SATs. Your story matwhile in an emergency shelter. ters.” KATHERINE DUKE ’05 ROB MATTSON
boxes containing one of the largest donated archives in the College’s possession, the Samuel French Collection. The name Samuel French may not be immediately recognizable, but if you’ve ever appeared in an English-language play, chances are pretty good that you studied your lines from an unassumingly plain script book published by Samuel French, Inc. Samuel French began publishing plays in New York City in 1854. Eventually, the company practically cornered the market for publication rights of many plays. So what’s the Amherst connection? M. Abbott Van Nostrand, class of 1934, made his way up from working in French’s mailroom to becoming the company’s president. Van Nostrand started the donations, which arrived at the College in annual shipments from 1964 until his death in 1995, and which continue sporadically to this day. The most recent donation astonished
l 7 AUDIO Grullón’s Valley Voices story at www.amherst.edu/magazine