Periodicals Put Out by Vietnam PEN Club during Republic of Vietnam

From: Nu-Anh Tran <tran_n_a@yahoo.com>

Date: Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:47 AM

Subject: [Vsg] periodicals put out by Vietnam PEN club during RVN

To: vsg@u.washington.edu

Dear list,

I am looking through periodicals put out by the Vietnam PEN club in Saigon during the RVN period, in particular, _Tin sa/ch_ . The journal was a monthly that ran from 1960 to 1967/8 that featured reviews of most major books published in the RVN, so it is incredibly useful for scholars to consult to get a sense of what was published. I think I have discovered the only available copy of the 1960 and 1961 run of _Tin sa/ch_ in the Restricted Collections at the General Sciences Library in Saigon. I have seachred WorldCat, Cornell, and other libraries, but they have yielded only later issues, but not the full 1960 and 1961 set. Yale's online catalogue lists no 7-8 and no 10-11 of 1961, but the 1961 issues were actually Jun-Jul, Aug-Sep, and Oct-Dec, so I am mystified by Yale's listing. I was wondering if anyone knows of a different location for _Tin sa/ch_, 1960-1, other than the ones I have mentioned or which issues the Yale library actually has, if they

have actually consulted those issues.

There are two reasons why I ask. The first is that I'd rather avoid costly copies at the GSL. The second, and more important, is that the GSL has officially removed this periodical from their catalog b/c the library does not deem it important. While it still belongs to the "restricted" material w/ high copy costs, the library doesn't consider itself "responsible" for maintaining it, and who knows whether it'll be discarded or not in the future. If this is the only library copy available in the world, then that is reason to worry indeed.

Also, I was wondering if anyone knows how much overlap there is between _Tin sa/ch_ and the _Viet-nam PEN Review_, which ran at least from 1961-1962 (only Cornell seems to have it, so I cannot locate it in Vietnam to make a comparison).

Thanks for any leads!

Nu-Anh Tran

Grad student

UC Berkeley