P. J. Capelotti Papers (Mss. Gr. 45)

Series 1. Personal
Series I, Personal, consists of records from Patricia McMillan's (Peter Capelotti's mother) family; birth records and service records; photographs from Capelotti's grandfather's retirement from The Brockton Enterprize newspaper after forty years of service; clips of music written by Capelotti in high school from 1974-78; and general personal correspondence and notes from the spring of 1980. Most of these notes concern drawings and plans from an underwater archaeology expedition that was undertaken on the Nemasket River, a tributary of the Taunton River in Massachusetts, in August of 1980. There is also a letter from Harry 'Red' Caughron, director of athletics at Woodberry Forest Prep School in Virginia, to Patricia McMillan concerning Capelotti's aborted Lewis and Clark voyage.

Series 2. Manuscripts
Series II, Manuscripts, consists of articles, essays, novels, and collections of essays in various stages of completion. The unpublished 1979 novel, The Panacea Papers, is perhaps most well documented, with four long-hand notebooks and the corrected manuscript mostly intact. Many of the early essays and articles were collected into a book, Coming of Age on the Third Planet, which was turned down by Bertha Klausner, the literary agent, in the summer of 1981.

Addendum
In November 2000, Dr. Capelloti sent draft copies and research materials for the book, The Svalbard Archipelago: American Military and Political Geographies of Spitsbergen and Other Norwegian Polar Territories, 1941-1950, edited and with an introduction by P.J. Capelotti, Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2000. There is a copy of the book in Distinctive Collections Rare Books, G778 S83 2000. The materials were processed and added to the original collection in March 2001.

Series 3. Notes and Notebooks
Series III, Notes--Notebooks, consists of several 8 1/2-11" note pads, as well as many loose notes and memos, used by Dr. Capelotti during the years 1979-1982 for articles, essays, and interviews written in that period. The note pads also contain class notes, and random scribblings. One folder contains several "embargoed for delivery" speeches that were delivered at the 1980 Democratic Convention. These were given to Dr. Capelotti by his employer at that time, Richard Curtis of Curtis Liquors in Whitman, Massachusetts, who worked as a page for ABC News that summer. He got for Capelotti a note done in jest by ABC Correspondent Sam Donaldson, which reads "Good luck to a great novelist." There is also some correspondence from the Earth Research organization and letters from a brief time in the spring of 1980 when Capelotti served as coordinator of a Peace Studies program.

Series 4. Correspondence
Series (IV), Correspondence, consists of 29 letters predominated by fifteen letters from novelist Norman Mailer. After authoring an article about Mailer researcher Michael Lennon, Capelotti began a correspondence with Mailer that continues to this day. Mailer helped the unsuccessful effort to get A Riff in Empire published in 1983, and since that time has helped interest publishers in financing Capelotti's cross-country Ultralight expedition. Also included are seven letters from Lennon, and letters from archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl, oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and a letter written to Capelotti when he was thirteen by hiker/ explorer Eric Ryback. There is also a letter from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy congratulating Capelotti on his trek on the Appalachian Trail. Box 6 contains the originals, and Box 7 a set of Xeroxed research copies.