I. Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike
Scope and Contents
Summary: This series contains material relating to the research, writing, and publication of Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike. Among the topics of the book are the building of the turnpike, its workers and policies, crime, and perceptions of the people who drive on it. For each chapter/section, folders containing data collected for that section come first. Folders that contain the drafts of each chapter come immediately after the data. Generally, the folders that contain data hold handwritten notes, correspondence between the authors, newspaper/magazine articles and information sources of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. Most articles were taken from local papers: The Home News, The Star Ledger, The New York Times, The Bergen Record. Information from the Turnpike Authority is usually in the form of two news sources: Trailblazer and The Pike Interchange.
The papers for the Looking for America include a copy of a 1986 paper by Michael Rockland that was printed in NJ Monthly entitled "Why Don't they say 'Thank You' on the New Jersey Turnpike?" Related to this article is correspondence between Michael Rockland and the Governor's office in 1979 in which he files a complaint about the rude attitudes of turnpike employees. Research on crime and legal issues related to the turnpike can be found in "Chapter 4" folders on Joanne Chesimard (now known as Assata Shakur), Harry Messerlian/Henry Wilkowski, and David Levinson. Chesimard, an activist in the Black Liberation Army, was convicted of killing a state trooper on the turnpike in 1973. In 1979 she escaped from prison. The Messerlian/Wilkowski case contains articles from April-May 1988 on the case of two state troopers accused of beating a man to death on the turnpike in 1982. The David Levinson materials contain articles about Levinson, who was arrested for taking pictures on the turnpike (a prohibited activity) at the scene of an accident.
Gillespie and Rockland also researched the people whose homes were affected by the turnpike. The folders labeled "Chapter 7 Data—East Brunswick" contain information regarding the formation of the Concerned Citizens of East Brunswick (CCEB) group in 1971 and 1972 who opposed expansion of the turnpike on the grounds that it was environmentally dangerous. The folders contain newspaper articles and op-eds from 1971-1972, court documents for the case of East Brunswick vs. New Jersey Turnpike Authority, and information on Emily Allman, leader of the CCEB, and mayoral candidate in 1979.
Other items of interest in the collection deal with the portrayal of the turnpike on television, and in literature and songs (discussed in Chapter 9).
Notes on Drafts Folders
- Chapter 2 is titled "Building the Pike," but in its early versions it was called "The Old Corridor" and "The Turnpike as Fact and Symbol." Because of the process of rewriting and revising, some of the documents for this chapter have these alternate titles and some call the chapter, "Chapter III."
- Some of the drafts for Chapter 7 are titled "Neighbors," as that was the original title for the chapter. During revision the title was changed to "Over the Fence."
- The drafts of Chapter 8 sometimes say "Chapter IV, Turnpike Culture" or "Life in the Rest Stops." These notes simply reflect the original ideas for the structure of the book.
- Some of the drafts for the text of Chapter 9 are labeled "Chapter X" in reference to the original breakdown of the chapters. Additionally, in the third draft of the text, one of the copies contains only pages 13-32. A copy in the "Assorted Drafts" folder only contains pages 30-37.
- Some of the drafts for Chapter 10 are labled "Chapter XI."
- The draft of Chapter 11 is sometimes labeled "Chapter XII" and is sometimes called "The Greening of the New Jersey Turnpike." Any documents labeled in this way reflect the original outline the authors intended for the book.
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Arrangement: This series is arranged with files about the book and its publication coming before files pertaining to the individual book chapters. The non-chapter material is filed alphabetically, and the chapter material is filed first by chapter number, then by material type (i.e., background material and notes for a particular chapters are filed before its drafts). The drafts are filed by version number, but the researcher should be aware that multiple drafts may be labeled with the same number. The Looking for America materials were received by Special Collections and University Archives in multiple accessions, which may account for the different numbering systems (roman or arabic) on the folders. Comparing the versions and edits inside may help determine which draft preceded which. In some instances, it was difficult to distinguish the order of the drafts, and so folders labeled with the designation "Assorted Drafts" were created. The Assorted Draft folders come immediately after the known drafts of each chapter, as needed. After the book chapters is a box of fifteen audiocassettes, which mostly appear to contain interviews in the form of observations while driving along the turnpike.
Drafts for each section usually contain multiple copies of the text with annotations from the authors for revision and correction. At times, because of the process of rewriting and revising the book, the chapters have different title names and numbers than listed on the folder. Folders with draft versions of chapters also may contain correspondences between the authors that detail suggestions for changes within the chapters.
Table of Contents
For reference purposes, the following is the list of chapter titles for the published book:
- Chapter 1: The Machine in the Garden State
- Chapter 2: Building the Pike
- Chapter 3: A River of Cash
- Chapter 4: The Authority of the Authority
- Chapter 5: Waiting for a Tow
- Chapter 6: Road Hazards
- Chapter 7: Over the Fence
- Chapter 8: Rest Area Culture
- Chapter 9: So Bad, It's Good
- Chapter 10: Tunnel Vision
- Chapter 11: The Future of the Turnpike
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