New York Public Library acquires Tom Verlaine archives

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has acquired the archive of Tom Verlaine, the Television frontman who died in 2023, the library said. The material — boxes of music, notebooks and other artifacts gathered from Verlaine’s former Manhattan apartment — will join the library’s holdings alongside figures such as Arturo Toscanini, John Cage and Lou Reed.

The collection includes lyric sheets, 145 notebooks, photographs, audio reels and about 240 surviving cassettes, along with studio and rehearsal tapes from Television and Verlaine’s solo work. It holds multitrack master tapes of Television’s 1974 demo session with Brian Eno, Neon Boys rehearsals, dozens of unreleased tracks and two unopened mail packages containing tapes.

The assembled material occupies roughly 40 linear feet; Michael Chaiken, who helped organize the archive, called it "shockingly complete." The papers and recordings illuminate Verlaine’s working process: lyrical drafts, song sketches and months of recordings that show how key songs such as "Marquee Moon" evolved.

The archive also reflects his private habits — thousands of items were destroyed after his death in keeping with his wishes, his longtime partner and executor Jutta Koether said, and collaborators described a meticulous, sometimes obsessive approach to sound and equipment. The library said the materials will be available for scholarly research and public browsing.

Key Topics

Culture, Tom Verlaine, Television Band, Jutta Koether, Cbgb, Marquee Moon