KRISTINA R. GADDY
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Come in, the stacks are open.

Godmother of Banjo Research: Dena Epstein

7/27/2022

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New York, 1952
     The smell of books lingered in the air as card catalog drawers clinked closed and creaked open. Dena Epstein walked through the golden light bouncing off the stone walls. She might have felt at home in any library, even if she had never been there before. On this day in 1952, she found herself in the New York Public Library, a monument to curiosity and learning in the heart of Manhattan. Dena had studied music and library science, and had worked as a music librarian. At thirty-six years old, her career as a librarian was temporarily on hold as her husband worked a government job and she took care of their children.
     Not working in a library didn’t seem to suit Dena, though. She wanted to engage her mind, she wanted to have interesting things to think about. Unanswered research questions nagged her. One of those questions made her come to the library from her home in New Jersey.
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"Lorena" sheet music cover by Ehrgott, Forbriger & Co. Lith. Cincinnati (no date). Courtesy Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University, Public Domain.
     More than ten years earlier as a graduate student, Dena had written an essay on music publishing in Chicago from 1858 to 1871. Even though the Music Library Association published the essay, she’d come across a song during her research that piqued her interest. Her essay covered songs published during the Civil War, songs that became popular in the Union and the Confederacy, even if they were written by northerners and published in Chicago. She wanted to know more about “Lorena,” one of the most popular songs in the Confederacy, a fact that she found curious, since it was published in Chicago. She could never find much about the song’s author Henry D. L. Webster, and thought she might have a mystery worth pursuing.

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Introducing: Banya Obbligato, a Series of Extras and Companion to Well of Souls

7/20/2022

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Hi there. It’s been a while. Over the last two years, I’ve neglected this blog as I’ve been working on Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History, which will be published by W.W. Norton in October.

​But I’m back.


Nonfiction writing is often described as an iceberg—with just a portion of the writing and research showing on the surface, while an enormous mass lurks out of sight below in the water. As I was sending a full manuscript to my editor in December 2021, I decided to see what the Well of Souls iceberg looked like. The book is just over 77,000 words long. But to get there, I had 164,000 words of notes from 211 secondary sources and 114,000 words from 338 primary sources. ​

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    Come in, the stacks are open. 

    Away from prying eyes, damaging light, and pilfering hands, the most special collections are kept in closed stacks.  You need an appointment to view the objects, letters, and books that open a door to the past. 

    Here, pieces of material culture are examined in the light. The stacks are open. ​Read the stories behind objects and ephemera found in private collections, archives, and museums. 

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  • Books
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