A Study in Nascent Literacy. Neo-Melanesian Correspondence from a Fore, New Guinea Youth

Bethesda: National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, 1970. Paperback. Unusual production curiously formatted: an oblong 11x17 inch fascicle bound along the top edge in plain printed white wraps that bear spine titling as well as cover and publishing data on back (evidencing format purpose, not merely ownership whim), 77 numbered pages with unpaginated preliminaries that include facsimile letters, two line maps, and several b&w photographs. The numbered pages consist entirely in facsimiles of letters alongside typed transcriptions and English translations of same, each grouping on the same enormous page - the Bethesda printer essentially set these up as side-by-side standard leaves [i.e., 11x8.5 twice, or 11x17]. Awkwardly large in light paper covers, this "paperback" invited damage and received some, the front cover being somewhat mangled; we have taped down the worst of it. Item handleable, interior unscathed, but "as is", with light dust-soil and cover-crimps also. Laid in find a lengthy Errata brochure (4 standard leaves long) in good shape and a beat-up leaf listing Gajdusek's other journals. Neo-Melanesian is one of a group of island languages differing ("completely distinct") from tribe to trribe. - "These letters are six years' correspondence from Koiye [young man first encountered in 1957 when just 6 or 7] to Dr. Carleton Gajdusek and Ivan Mbagintao, a New Guinean friend and age-mate of Koiye's who has been living and attending school in the United States since 1963..