Finding a lost Manuscript

This post is a short story about finding a 40 year-old lost manuscript. Yesterday, I found a very large green folder in a closet in my photo room. About 400 pages of a typed manuscript were clipped to the green folder. This was an early version of a book manuscript that was published in 1990 by the Innovative Publishing Division, Addison-Wesley. The manuscript I found was typed using a new electric typewriter I had just purchased. I had to wait a year to purchase my first Apple computer (Apple II).

Laying on top of the green folder pages, was an additional 100 pages of loose pages. Here, I found four chapters of writing, but noticed that Chapter 1 was missing. Chapters 2 – 5 were there in tact. Where was chapter 1? What did I find? A lost manuscript? There wasn’t a name on the manuscript. Did I write it? I scanned the chapters, and starting reading. I found proof that I did write these chapters. The titles of the chapters were intriguing.

• Chapter 1. Missing chapter
• Chapter 2. It’s all in your mind
• Chapter 3. The make believers
• Chapter 4. In search of the answers to questions unknown
• Chapter 5. The rage to know

After reading the pages of this “lost manuscript” I realized that these chapters were part of a manuscript I had submitted to Goodyear Publishing in 1980. I had co-authored three books with Goodyear in the last 1970s, and thought they would be interested. Chris Jennison was editor of education at Goodyear, and I knew him from my previous publications. They turned my manuscript down. I decided to make major changes in the manuscript, and worked on it over the next 10 years, finally getting it published in 1990 by Addison-Wesley.

But there is still the mystery of the four chapters I found. Looking through the manuscript I found a section called “love affairs with science.” Here before my eyes were five biographies of scientists that I had interviewed for the book. For years, I looked for my original documents which were detailed answers to questions I asked each of these scientists (the questions are embedded in Figure 3, which is a section from the lost manuscript). Eureka! I found them. There in chapter 3 were five short story-like biographies that I wrote 40 years ago. These biographies were based on the answers to the interview questions I asked them.

Five scientists were featured. I couldn’t believe I found them. First of all, I was so happy they agreed to answer my interview questions 40 years ago, not to mention how thrilled to find them again in this lost manuscript. Those I Interviewed were Suzanne Churchill, Harvard Medical School, David Finkelstein, physicist, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ellen M. Herron, geologist, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, S. Anne Smith, veterinarian, alternative medicine, and Bill Romey, Geologist, Sarah Lawrence College. Unfortunately, David and Bill passed away. I will be sharing these biographies in a later post.

I’m in the process of contacting Suzanne Churchill, Ellen M. Herron and s. Anne Smith to let them know of my discovery.