Document Type
Article
Date
1997
Keywords
Alcoholism, Syracuse University, fraternities, suicide, teleplays
Language
English
Disciplines
English Language and Literature
Description/Abstract
IT IS NOT widely known that Charles Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend (1944), once attended Syracuse University. Although the official records for 1922-23 survive only on microfIlm so faint as to be nearly indecipherable, it may still be discerned that he enrolled for six courses in the newly opened College of Business Administration: Business English, Stenography, Journalism, French, Political Science, and Economics. Jackson dropped out after two semesters, however, and he never did finish college. Why he left Syracuse is unclear; but a story based on Jackson's freshman year became a twice-told tale, providing both the plot ofhis unpublished first novel and also a subplot in The Lost Weekend.
In writings about homosexuality and alcoholism, Charles Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend, seems to have drawn on an experience he had as a freshman at Syracuse University. After discussing Jackson's troubled life, Crowley introduces Marty Mann, founder of the National Council on Alcoholism. Among her papers Crowley found a Charles Jackson teleplay, about an alcoholic woman, that is here published for the first time.
Recommended Citation
Crowley, John W. "A Charles Jackson Diptych" The Courier 1997: 35-63.
Source
local input
Additional Information
Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, Volume XXXII, 1997