Teaching and outreach assistant Maggie McDonald makes some magic in the stacks in celebration of the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay opera at IU.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon tells the story of Joseph Kavalier and Sammy Clay, cousins who enter the nascent world of comic books in the era surrounding World War II. In 1939, Joe escapes occupied Czechoslovakia with the help of his former magic and escapism teacher; following several unexpected complications, he arrives in New York, where he meets his cousin Sammy and the two strike up a partnership making comics.
Together, the cousins bring a new superhero, the Escapist, to life. Inspired by Joe’s past as a student of magic and escape artistry, as well as the cousins’ Jewish background, Czech heritage, and anxieties about Joe’s family, the Escapist is a member of the Society of the Golden Key, who have pledged to fight tyranny and free the oppressed. He’s able to perform superhuman feats of strength, agility, and escapology and, on the cover of the inaugural issue of Radio Comics, is painted slugging Hitler so hard his head is knocked partially off-page.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was met with critical acclaim when it was published in 2000; it has been so well-received since then, in fact, that the story has been adapted into an opera by Mason Bates and Gene Scheer, which will see its world premiere on the Musical Arts Center stage on November 15, co-produced with the Metropolitan Opera.
The themes of Kavalier and Clay are reflected in several collections at the Lilly, including the recently acquired Ricky Jay Collection, once owned by magician, author, researcher, and collector Ricky Jay. Jay mss. II contains Jay’s research files on subjects including conjuring, vaudeville, the circus, ventriloquism, juggling, gambling, freak shows, occultism, spiritualism, and spirit photography. It includes some drafts of his books, articles, lectures, and more, including his 1986 Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, as well as scripts and production materials for movies that he consulted on, as well. Also featured is Jay’s correspondence and the papers of Max Katz, Jay’s grandfather and an amateur magician who was part of the New York magic scene of the 1940s and 1950s, when much of the action of Kavalier and Clay takes place.

The Lilly hosts a collection of Marvel Comics first appearances, too; if you’re a fan of comics, these may be equally as thrilling as Joe Kavalier’s debut cover painting of the Escapist. First appearances in our collection include Spider-Man, Black Panther, Iron Man, and Captain America. Those more interested in modern and contemporary comics can find newer materials in the Michael E. Uslan Collection, which comprises comics and graphic novels from the 1990s to present day.


Finally, while Kavalier and Clay may be most concerned with comics, they also bump shoulders with some notable Surrealists, including Salvador Dalí, who they meet at a party. The Lilly holds a bevy of materials on Surrealism, such as works by and about Dalí, André Breton, Guillaume Apollinaire, Kay Sage, Vitězslav Nezval, Jindřich Štyrský, Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, and more.

Those interested in working with any of the Lilly collections included in this blog post–including our signed copy of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay–can get in touch at liblilly@iu.edu. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay opera premieres on November 15 at the MAC; tickets are still available.
About the author: Maggie McDonald is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and graduate student in the Master of Library Science and MA Curatorship programs at Indiana University – Bloomington. Their academic and artistic interests include artists’ books, modern and contemporary art, erotica, pleasure, surrealism, zines, yearning, gender and the body and voice, fanfiction, and fowl. Maggie’s work has recently been featured in Tangent Gallery, Backspace Gallery, Great Honkers, and through an artist talk titled Work and Play in Practice. They live and collaborate with their cat, coauthor, and muse, Mister Elvis Peppers.
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