With the probate report now finalized, our group (mainly academic volunteers/grad students from USM) have begun this archival effort, but, please remember, in terms of posting quantity we're as mice chewing on the first page of an over-sized trunk full of manuscripts. There will be more added as the work progresses here in Round Pond, Maine, the last house Dr. Goodyear lived in. In the meantime we have very simply made a first sorting of his papers and we are now adding pieces, one or two at a time, as they are verified (which in itself is a very slow process).

He worked for many years, or said that he did, on a collection about living in America. While it cannot be certain which pieces he wrote for which project, the editors have added all that seem likely under his working title The American Alphabet. In opposition are things Elsewhere. Beyond geography we found much associated with food, albeit by occasionally tenuous connection. You will find these set out under Food. There are also some Letters, collected Doggerel and such, and in the hopes of tidiness, a Miscellany. Finally, and with almost absurd brevity, it is intended to include in this archive Books Never Written. A short list of vague outlines. It was thought that Goodyear intended the public to help themselves to these as desired, but there is currently threat of legal challenge regarding this matter.

As Ralph Emerson reminds us, the years teach much that the days never knew.