The Blessing Way Manuscripts

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  1. The Blessing Way, Draft, p.1-168.

  Tony Hillerman

  This is the initial draft of The Blessing Way; this version has been heavily edited by the author, including many corrections, and revisions. It appears that many editing marks were made with a soft lead black pencil. Hillerman also used a variety of different types of paper in this draft, including UNM letterhead paper.

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  3. The Blessing Way, Copy of Draft, p.1-150.

  Tony Hillerman

  This manuscript is actually a carbon copy of a typed manuscript draft of The Blessing Way. It is possible that this was a backup copy of a draft that was sent to Hillerman's publisher, as the original typed copy of the draft is not in the Hillerman Collection.

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  4. The Blessing Way, Draft, p.5-225.

  Tony Hillerman

  This draft was originally 225 typed pages, however pages 1-4 are missing. It appears that this draft has been edited by someone other than Tony Hillerman - the editing style is somewhat informal so it is possible that this draft was reviewed and edited by Hillerman's wife, Marie.

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  5. The Blessing Way, Draft, p.5-205.

  Tony Hillerman

  This is a typed draft of The Blessing Way, which is quite similar to draft 4 (MSS 501 BC / B01-F04), in that the page formatting, ink and typewriter paper appear to be the same between the two. This draft is also missing pages 1-4. Light editing and correction are visible throughout.

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  6. The Blessing Way, Assorted Draft Pages and Notes.

  Tony Hillerman

  This manuscript is not a formal draft per se; it appears to be a grouping of notes and rough drafts of individual chapters for The Blessing Way. The pages are heavily edited throughout.

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  7. The Blessing Way, Edited Manuscript.

  Tony Hillerman

  This final version of the manuscript includes written notes and comments from the editor as well as Hillerman's responses. Written well before the popularization of email, it is apparent that this manuscript was exchanged several times between the author and the editor via regular mail, as there are initial editorial comments, then responses from the editor, and then further responses from the author all throughout the text.

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  2. The Blessing Way, Draft, p.1-108.

  Tony Hillerman

  This is an early typed draft of 108 pages that shows a moderate amount of editing and correction by the author. The draft shows a variety of major organizational changes as well as many minor alterations.