Scope and arrangement
The Geoffrey Biddle Alphabet City papers primarily concern the publication and creation of the book Alphabet City. The collection contains photographs, recordings, correspondence, clippings, notes, book mock-ups, and other materials related to New York City's Lower East Side in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Photographs include prints and contact sheets of the images published in the book, as well as other photographs that Biddle took in New York City during the period. Interviews that Biddle conducted with Alphabet City's subjects in 1988 and 1989 are represented by sound recordings and partial transcripts. Sound materials are unavailable pending digitization.
Correspondence and research files include letters to and from people featured in the book; correspondence with publishers (primarily academic ones) who ultimately rejected the book; and clippings and notes that Biddle made regarding the project that became Alphabet City, as well as other New York-based photography projects.
The development of the concept, text, and layout of Alphabet City is documented through correspondence with staff at the University of California Press; drafts and mock-ups of the book; galleys; and Biddle's notes on content and design.