A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

So this brings us to today. Dealers are decidedly lukewarm about a massive, and may I add the appropriate adjective, obsessive collection of Joyce Carol Oates material. A typical response is “I have plenty of this kind of material already and it’s not selling.”

Some dealers will consider marketing the Jemal collection but, using the assigned landing slot before take-off analogy, are not optimistic for they don’t see prospects - no easy way to place the collection. Where a deal is possible the model now prevailing is a combination of purchase and gift that gets the donor some money, some tax benefits and perhaps recognition, in other words, three consolation prizes.

So who are the most logical buyers? They are institutions and there are three. Syracuse University has material that Joyce Carol Oates has given them. By many accounts it’s her Sistine Chapel. She is also associated with the University of Michigan and they too have a substantial collection. The third possibility is Princeton where Ms. Oates has been a writer in residence for decades. They apparently do not have a substantial collection and could logically be expected to have one.

All this leaves Mr. Jemal, after thirty years, in an uncertain state and this why I’m writing about his predicament. His clock is running and he believes he’ll achieve a better outcome than his heirs. He has been faithful and resolute as serious collectors are wont but the outcome has now become murky. It’s no consolation but he’s not alone. Others equally committed, as they age, face the same prospects and I have for years sought to understand this predicament that can turn a burning passion into an expensive trap. It’s complicated. That this has often been true for collectors on the wrong side of trend lines. No dealer ever told them they were throwing pennies in the ocean and that in every scenario they’d be under water. Along the way they probably suspected as much, thought they wouldn’t care but in time succumbed to hope. The world will see and ultimately appreciate what I saw and felt. But for Mr. Jemal it hasn’t turned out that way. Perhaps Ms. Oates’ next book will be “The Law of Large Numbers” and he’ll read it to learn what went wrong. The answers? Internet availability and changing tastes are leaving collectible 20^th century women’s fiction lolling in the doldrums. It’s a story you can’t make up.