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American Literary Studies
Robert Pinsky Papers
The Papers
Location: Department of Special Collections, Green Library
Call Number: M0697
Size: 16.5 linear ft.
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 Pinsky (1940 - )
Born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1940, where he lived until he graduated
from Long Branch High School. Pinsky studied English at Rutgers University
(BA, 1962) and Stanford Univeristy (MA and PhD, 1967), where he was a
Woodrow Wilson, Stegner, and Fulbright Fellow. His dissertation, Landor's
Poetry, became his first published book. Pinsky's four volumes of
poetry are distinguished by a quiet contemplative style that probes the
moral and spiritual ambiguities of life in contemporary America. His first
collection, Sadness and Happiness (1975), is composed of the
published work of his first decade of writing. His next book, An Explanation
of America (1979), shifts in style, containing a single long poem
addressed to his daughter. He returned to the format of collected works
in his latest work, History of My Heart (1984), a series of autobiographical
poems. That same year he also published an electronic novel with an apocalyptic
vision of the future, Mindwheel (1984), which functions as an
interactive computer game. In 1994, he published a new verse translation
of Dante's Inferno. He has been the poetry editor of the
New Republic, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including
a Guggenheim Fellowship and the William Carlos Williams Award. He has
been a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard (1980) and Hurst Professor at Washington
University (1981), and is currently a member of the Department of English
at Boston University.
Highlights and Research Potential of the Pinsky Papers
The papers trace Pinsky's creative and intellectual development, beginning
with his years at Stanford. Included are numerous drafts of his poems,
manuscripts of the prose, documents from his service as poetry editor
for the New Republic, and extensive correspondence with his fellow
writers and friends.
The papers are organized in seven series:
- Correspondence: This series is divided between personal
and professional correspondence. Major personal correspondents include
such contemporary writers such as David Bromwich, Alan Cheuse, Donald
Davie, Digby Diehl, Donald Hall, Robert Haas, Edwin Honig, James McMichael,
and John Peck, and C. K. Williams. Professional correspondence is alphabetized
by organization or topic. Under New Republic are both letters
and drafts of poetry submitted to Pinsky. Another large section of professional
correspondence consists of Pinsky's files on his poetry readings, arranged
by the names of the host institutions.
- Poetry: Manuscripts of Pinsky's Sadness and Happiness
and An Explanation of America are arranged in order of revision,
from the first draft to the final manuscript. The drafts of Sadness
And Happiness are listed under various titles as the book progresses,
and all copies of poems which have been deleted are to be found following
the draft in which they last appeared. The drafts of An Explanation
of America are organized according to the internal sections of
the book itself. Manuscripts for History of My Heart and Pinsky's
translation of the Inferno are also available.
Miscellaneous poetry: Manuscripts are arranged alphabetically
by title.
- Criticism: Included in this series are articles by
Pinsky, as well as book reviews for the Los Angeles Times.
The notes, drafts, and revisions of The Situation of Poetry
are organized by chapters, in order of revision.
- Academic Papers: These undergraduate and graduate
papers and notes remain in the order in which Pinsky arranged them.
Major papers included are his undergraduate honors thesis, "The
Plays of T. S. Eliot", and his graduate thesis, "The Poetry
of Walter Savage Landor".
- Memorabilia: The items in this series include invitations
to readings, newspaper clippings, and other miscellaneous material.
- Prose and Poetry by Other Writers: Included in this
series are published and unpublished works by other writers, sent to
Pinsky by his friends and former students.
- Galley Proofs: The papers include the galley proofs
for Pinsky's most recent books.
Criticism on Robert Pinsky
- Contemporary Authors, First Revision. (Detroit : Gale Research
Co.) Green Library Gen Ref Z1224.C6, V. 29-32R
- Dictionary of Literary Biography, 1982. (Detroit : Gale Research
Co.) Green Library Gen Ref PS129.D521982
Last modified:
July 5, 2006
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