Bunkyana
Bunky” was E. M. Jellinek’s nickname, fitting the scientist, the humanitarian, and the “screwball,” as his second wife Thelma Pierce Anderson called him in a letter to Mark Keller, held in the Alcohol Studies Archives. Contrary to what oral history has perpetuated, the word “Bunky” does not mean “little radish” in Hungarian, which Jellinek, as a native speaker, knew was nonsense, but he insisted on the nickname nonetheless.
- Read more about Jellinek's Hungarian roots in E. M. Jellinek: The Hungarian Connection
Bunkyana?
“Bunkyana” is our in-house, umbrella term used to describe artifacts, images, and documents written by or related to Jellinek. It covers his published and unpublished articles, letters from him or about his life, handwritten notes written by him such as the Bunky verses, cartoons depicting him, and physical items.
The CAS Library put out a call to invite substance abuse librarians all over the world to contribute to our efforts to collect items related to the early years of alcohol studies and received a positive response by colleagues pointing out resources or even donating items found in hidden in drawers.
A list of the Bunkyana collected so far
- Bunky’s Doodle or the Progressive Phases of Alcoholism by Dr. E. M. Jellinek
- The story behind Bunky’s Doodle, i.e., the path to the Jellinek Curve
- The Jellinek bookplate: the ape contemplating a human skull while sitting on a book entitled “Darwin.”
- Bunky verses, recollections of Mark Keller and Thelma Pierce Anderson of several witty poems that Jellinek, a gifted poet, well versed in classical poetic forms, left behind
- Bunky’s Pantheon, refers to classical myths written by Jellinek in contemporary language
- The “Bunky,” or the bust awarded by the Jellinek Memorial Foundation
- Jellinek on the Big Book – about his review / abstract of the A.A. Classic
- Who Remembers Jellinek – a post with lots of background on Bunkyana
- The Lay Supplements, Jellinek’s initiative to educate all about alcoholism
- Harold Kalant shares his memories about E. M. Jellinek