"HELP, HELP!"

Barth’s teen-age dream was to play jazz drums. Although he swapped his drumsticks for pen and notebook, jazz drumming remained a pastime for many years. That background comes through in this story in the form of a score, first published in Esquire magazine and then in The Book of Ten Nights and a Night. The evolution of the work in manuscript suggests that Barth was concerned with its appearance as a score: it should be “playable,” but also puzzling. He made a poster for performances of the piece in public readings. An unsigned, home-made postcard—from a reader perhaps?—responds to Barth’s cry for “Help, Help!” with a collage of safety equipment.