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American Literary Studies
Robert Creeley Papers
The Collection
Location: Department of Special Collections, Green
Library
Call Number: M0662
Size: c. 360 linear feet
Finding Guide: A printed version is available
in the reading room of the Department of Special Collections. Electronic
versions of this finding guide are also available. If you have Microsoft's
Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher, click here
to connect to the XML version on the Stanford server; if not, click
here
for the html version on the Online Archives of California server.
Research Access and Use: Materials in the Department
of Special Collections are non-circulating and must be used in the
Special Collections' Reading Room in the Cecil H. Green Library.
The Reading Room is open 10:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday.
Photocopies, photographs, and microfilm can be made of some materials
in the collections. For more information about the collections and
access policies, please contact Special Collections by telephone
at (650) 725-1022, by electronic mail at speccollref@stanford.edu or by regular mail
at the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, California 94305-6004.
Career of Robert Creeley (1926 - 2005)
American poet, novelist, short story writer, editor, and essayist,
Creeley was born in Arlington, Massachusetts in 1926, and attended
Harvard before receiving degrees from Black Mountain College and
the University of New Mexico. He was the editor of the short-lived
but highly influential magazine, The Black Mountain Review
(1954 -1957), through which he developed a lasting association with
members of the 1950s avant-garde, including Charles Olson, with
whom he collaborated to produce Mayan Letters (1953). He
was a presence in the poetry renaissance of San Francisco, beginning
a life-long association with members of the Beat Generation, including
Kerouac, Ginsberg, McClure and others with whom he has maintained
a lengthy correspondence. Known principally as a poet, Creeley published
thirty volumes of verse since 1952, including For Love: Poems
1950-1960 (1962) and Words (1967). His work is now
available in Collected Poems (1982) as well as Selected
Poems (1991). Creeley remained a significant influence in the
contemporary literary scene, reflected in his highly regarded Collected
Essays (1989). He was also the author of a novel, The Island
(1963), and a collection of short stories, The Gold Diggers
(1954). Creeley taught at the University of New Mexico, the State
University of New York in Buffalo, and Brown University. Robert
Creeley died on March 30, 2005.
Highlights and Research Potential of the Creeley Papers
The Papers feature Creeley's own working manuscripts for his poems
and critical writing, both published and unpublished. These appear
in a variety of formats: notebooks, filled with autograph drafts
of poems; typescripts, often annotated in holograph; frequent pieces
written on random scraps of papers, as well as many floppy disks
(post-1988) containing files for individual poems and works of prose.
The Papers also contain approximately 20,000 personal letters from
other writers and artists, including large correspondence files
with Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Louis Zufofsky, Charles
Olson, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, and Denise Levertov as well
as such visual artists as R. B. Kitaj, Robert Indiana, Jim Dine,
and John Chamberlain. Also important is Creeley's business correspondence,
which includes letters to him from his editors and publishers, royalty
statements, correspondence about readings and lectures, the tapes
and corrected transcripts of interviews as well as the production
materials for his books- the designer layouts, galleys, and page
proofs that trace the text's literal manufacture. Present as well
are tapes of his readings, photographs of family and colleagues,
the manuscripts sent him by other writers, and innumerable miscellaneous
documents reflecting his life and career as poet, critic, editor,
publisher and artistic collaborator.
The papers are arranged in fifteen series:
1. Correspondence
2. Manuscripts by Creeley
3. Manuscripts by others
4. Business records
5. Black Mountain Review / Divers Press Editor Files
6. Academic records and teaching materials
7. Interviews
8. Announcements
9. Memorabilia
10.Photographs and Artwork
11. Publications
12. Audiovisual Materials
13. Computer files
14. Creeley Family Ephemera
15. Oversize Materials.
Selected Biography and Criticism
- Allen, Donald, editor, Robert Creeley, Contexts of Poetry:
Interviews, 1961 - 1971, Four Seasons Foundation, 1973.
- Edelberg, Cynthia Dubin, Robert Creeley's Poetry: A Critical
Introduction, University of New Mexico Press, 1978.
- Ford, Arthur L., Robert Creeley, Twayne, 1978.
- Paul, Sherman, The Lost America of Love, Louisiana
State University Press, 1981.
- Sheffler, Ronald Anthony, The Development of Robert Creeley's
Poetry, University of Massachusetts, 1971.
- Wilson, John, editor, Robert Creeley's Life and Work: A
Sense of Increment, University of Michigan Press, 1987.
Bibliography of Robert Creeley
- Novik, Mary, Robert Creeley: An Inventory, 1945-1970,
Kent State University Press, 1973.
- Murray, Timothy and Boardway, Stephen, "Year by Year Bibliography
of Robert Creeley." In Robert Creeley: The Poet's Workshop.
Ed. Carroll F. Terrell. Orono, Maine: Nationbal Poetry Foundation,
1984, P. 313- 374.
Related Manuscript Collections at Stanford
Other Manuscript Collections
Last modified:
July 3, 2006
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