Appendices to this edition
Spellings, neologisms, part-words, proper names, and literary allusions
Appendix 1: Misspelled and alternatively spelled words
Appendix 2: Neologisms
Appendix 3: Part-words and uncertain transcriptions
Appendix 4: Proper names
Appendix 5: Literary and cultural allusions
Appendix 1: Misspelled and Alternatively Spelled Words
Hannah Weiner’s original spellings/misspellings/alternate spellings have been retained here, for while some are almost certainly errors or just the effects of a lazy, indistinct pencil, and ones she would have corrected in a published version of the text, others, such as Weiner’s play on the word interfering and its cognates, seem meaningful.
about is spelled a bout (18)
behavior is spelled in the English way, behaviour (19, 27)
can’t is often misspelled cant (11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 29, 41, 48, 52, 54, 56, 60, 64, 66)
capable is misspelled capabable (21)
Christianity is not capitalized, christianity (87)
color is spelled in the English way, colour (89)
deceit is misspelled decipt (27)
doesn’t is sometimes misspelled doesnt (53, 68, 70)
don’t is generally misspelled dont (8, 15, 18, 28, 34, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 60, 62, 63, 65, 69, 80, 82, 84, 86, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 104, 109)
dossiers is misspelled dociers (24)
eighth is misspelled eigth (76)
eleven is misspelled elven (88)
falsely is misspelled falsley (85)
flint stone is run together, flintstone (83)
forthwith is misspelled forwith (18)
humorous is misspelled humerous (48)
I’m is misspelled I m (89)
in between is often run together, inbetween (12, 18, 41, 75, 93)
inconsolably is misspelled unconsolably (22)
inflammable is misspelled inflamable (15)
initiative is misspelled iniative (82)
insatiable is misspelled insationable (99)
insistence is sometimes misspelled insistance (72)
interfering is sometimes misspelled interfearing (20)
interference is sometimes misspelled interferrence (94)
irascible is misspelled irrascible (60)
it’s is sometimes misspelled its (25, 71, 89, 91, 98, 104)
laziness is misspelled lazyness (28)
leveled is misspelled levelled (45)
MacDonald’s is misspelled Mac Donalds (72)
occasions is misspelled occassions (26)
occurred is sometimes misspelled occured (38)
occurrence is sometimes misspelled occurance (30)
occurrences is sometimes misspelled occurances (31, 41)
over intelligent is run together, overintelligent (93)
pamphleteer is misspelled pamphletier (105)
permissible is misspelled permissable (30)
plagiarism is misspelled plagerism (27)
recurrence is sometimes misspelled recurrance (16)
referent is sometimes misspelled refferrent (106)
Samadhi is misspelled samedhi (97)
senseless is misspelled sensless (19)
some closure is run together, someclosure (97)
some space is run together, somespace (96)
strawberry is misspelled strawbery (104)
sumac is misspelled sumach (84)
symmetry is misspelled symetry (22)
there’s is sometimes misspelled theres (23)
till is sometimes misspelled til (104)
toxicity is misspelled toxisity (45)
transference is sometimes misspelled transferrence (96)
unaccountable is sometimes misspelled unacountable (48)
unaccustomed is misspelled unacustomed (25)
upside is sometimes separated, up side (23)
vaccines is misspelled vacines (104)
welcome is misspelled welcolm (69)
withheld is misspelled witheld (43)
won’t is sometimes misspelled wont (47)
The following words seem to have been deliberately coined by Hannah Weiner for use in the notebook. They are listed here alphabetically, followed by page number.
allsmy (94)
disreferential (16)
inbetween (12, 18, 41, 75, 93)
intromobile (97)
nonbalance (93)
overintelligent (93)
rememorable (100)
someclosure (97)
somespace (96)
superadjacency (81, 82)
unbefore (95)
unbought (97)
unconsolably (22)
undecidable (108)
undoubles (88)
unlax (94)
unplace (96)
unpressed (95)
unrequired (94)
unthought (108)
uphandle (96)
upsist (95)
Appendix 3: Part-Words and Uncertain Transcriptions
Part-words and uncertain transcriptions are {bracketed} in the searchable Microsoft Word transcript, but not in the diplomatic transcript. The part-words and uncertain transcriptions are listed in alphabetical order, followed by page number. I am grateful to Charles Bernstein, Susan Bee, and Patrick Durgin, as well as to my research assistants Elizabeth Cattatin and Tina Bampton, for their careful checking and rechecking of these questionable transcriptions. In places where our eyes disagreed, I have listed all the suggested possibilities.
absen (93)
archie* (90)
blow, possibly blou or flow (25)
compre (107)
de (88)
Enwai (76)
fe (16)
fract (108)
fueld (89)
instace (94)
liver (97)
loof, possibly look (72)
oblitted (74)
parof (88)
pers (94)
qui (93)
radius, possibly radios (88)
reluct (74)
rememb (74)
requi (94)
sits, possibly fits or sits (96)
sofits (97)
som (97)
spony, possibly strong (106)
sti (95)
substant (96)
un (93)
unt, possibly ent (94)
wo (94)
*Weiner scholar Patrick Durgin notes that the word/name “archie” appears throughout Weiner’s work, and suggests further that “archie” may have been a boyfriend in an early clairvoyant period.
Two groups of proper names appear in The Book Of Revelations; both, moreover, appear in a relatively narrow range of pages (69–98; sections 8–10). The first set of names seems connected with the American Indian Movement (AIM); the second set of names, found in the same range of pages, contains several allusions to towns and settlements in the Upper Calder Valley, Yorkshire, England. The connection between the two sets is elusive, and, as always with Weiner, specific allusions may fan out into more general references. Three other names appear in the notebook: first, Barbara Rosenthal, who gave the blank notebook to Weiner, signs her name on the inside cover; second, Weiner alludes to herself once in the course of the notebook; and third, Weiner offers the noun “Samadhi,” a Sanskrit term for the state of consciousness induced by meditation. The proper names are listed below in the order in which they appear in the text, followed by the page number.
Barbara Rosenthal (inscription): b. 1948, the Bronx, New York. An American avant-garde artist and writer and one of Hannah Weiner’s closest friends during the last decade of Weiner’s life. Rosenthal bought the blank notebook as a present for Weiner, and she is the volume’s first “author,” too, since she is responsible for slicing/tearing/ripping the notebook’s pages and creating the patterned sections. Weiner and Rosenthal collaborated on six projects: three books (Written In [1984], which was “written” by Weiner “in” Rosenthal’s [blank] first version of Homo Futurus, now called Homo Futurus blank book [1984, eMediaLoft]; Weeks [Xeoxial Endarchy, 1990], for which Rosenthal created photographs of television newscasts to accompany Weiner’s texts of the same; and The Book Of Revelations) and three videos (Colors and Auras [1985], in which Weiner describes auras she sees around Rosenthal’s body; Rock-A-Bye Lobster [1986]; and Semaphore Poems [1986], based on Weiner’s book of that title).
Pedro (69, 82): possibly Mary Brave Bird’s first child, born during the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee.
Henry (72, 75): possibly Henry Crow Dog, Leonard Crow Dog’s father, who held peyote ceremonies on the family allotment, Crow Dog’s Paradise.
Leonard (73): possibly Leonard Crow Dog (b. 1942, Rosebud Reservation), the spiritual leader of AIM during the 1960s and 1970s who served time in prison for his political activities. Alternately, Weiner may be alluding to Leonard Peltier, an American activist and member of AIM who was convicted for the murder of two Federal Bureau Investigation agents killed in 1975 during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and who was subsequently sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment.
Rochdale (74): possibly an allusion to the large market town in Greater Manchester, England, which lies among the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch.
Smithy Bridge (74): possibly an allusion to a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England, and close to the South Pennines.
Littleborough (74): possibly an allusion to another town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England and close to the South Pennines.
Todmorden (74): possibly an allusion to another market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England, on the moors. The town forms part of the Upper Calder Valley, and the town’s center occupies the confluence of three steep-sided valleys in the Pennines.
Hebden Bridge (74): possibly an allusion to yet another market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England, and close to the South Pennines.
Mytholmroyd (74): possibly an allusion to yet another town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Mytholmroyd is the birthplace of the English poet Ted Hughes, who married the American confessional poet Sylvia Plath.
Sowerby Bridge (74): possibly an allusion to a market town lying within the district of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England, and close to the South Pennines.
Halifax (74): possibly an allusion to Halifax, a minster town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England, and located in the southeastern corner of the moorland region of the South Pennines.
Luther (75): unknown.
George (77): possibly George Mitchell, a member of AIM.
Frank (86): possibly Frank Clearwater, a Wounded Knee occupier shot in the head in his sleep, April 17.
hannah (95): the one and only reference in the notebook to Hannah Weiner.
samedhi (97): possibly a misspelling of Samadhi, the Sanskrit term for the state of consciousness arising through the act of meditation.
John (97): possibly John Trudell (Santee Sioux), a spokesperson for the Indians of All Tribes Occupation of Alcatraz Island, 1969–1971, and Chairman of AIM, 1973–1979.
Mary (98): possibly Mary Brave Bird, later Mary Crow Dog, wife of Russell Crow Dog. The book Weiner alludes to here may be Lakota Woman, published in 1990 by Grove Press.
Russell (98): possibly Russell Means, a prominent leader of AIM.
Appendix 5: Literary and Cultural Allusions
The opaque style of Weiner’s writing makes identification of the many possible literary and cultural allusions difficult; here, only the most obvious allusions are recorded. Alert readers will hear many additional ones.
PLO (70): an allusion to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Weiner may have been preoccupied with the many attempts to reconcile tensions in the Middle East occurring in or around 1989.
FBI (70): an allusion to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This allusion is possibly related to Weiner’s meditations on AIM and the fate of Leonard Peltier.
the sex which is not one (85): possibly an allusion to Luce Irigaray’s This Sex Which Is Not One, translated by Catherine Porter and published in English by Cornell University Press in 1985.
purloined letter (90): possibly an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe’s tale “The Purloined Letter,” the third of Poe’s three detective stories (the other two being “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”) featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin.
they stretch onto the moors / she writes not me like this (98): possibly an allusion to the writings of the Bröntes.
English labor theory of value (104): possibly an allusion to Karl Marx or Marxian economics.
A new annotated edition
Edited by Marta L. Werner