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Denise Levertov papers, M0601. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Purchased from Denise Levertov, 1993
Denise Levertov, an Anglo-American poet who took up such social and political issues as the Vietnam war and nuclear proliferation, was born in Ilford, England, in 1923. The daughter of a prominent scholar and a Welsh mother, Levertov was privately educated in England before coming to the United States in 1948 with her husband, the American novelist Mitchell Goodman. In nearly fifty years, in 24 volumes of poems, Levertov became one of the United States's most prominent writers. Her writing is uncompromising, dignified by a spare and clear style and with an immediacy of language in the tradition of William Carlos Williams. For example, in "The ache of marriage," Levertov writes:
The ache of marriage:
thigh and tongue, beloved,
are heavy with it,
it throbs in the teeth
We look for communion
and are turned away, beloved,
each and each
It is leviathan and we
in its belly
looking for joy, some joy
not to be known outside it
two by two in the ark of
the ache of it.
Collections of her poetry include The Double Image (1946), Here and Now (1957), Overland to the Islands (1958), The Sorrow Dance (1967), Relearning the Alphabet (1970), Footprints (1972), Oblique Prayers (1984), A Door in the Hive (1989), Evening Train (1993), and Sands of the Well (1996).
Denise Levertov died on December 20, 1997. She was 74.
The Levertov papers are organized into twelve series.
Series 1, Family Correspondence and Papers, consists of 20 linear feet of materials, including the manuscripts of her father, the Rev. Paul Philip Levertoff, a Russian Jew who converted to Anglicism, a scholar of Jewish-Christian relations, a commentator on the Zohar, and a translator of Franz Werfel. The series also includes a vast correspondence between Levertov and her late husband Mitchell Goodman, Levertov and her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, as well as Mrs. Levertoff's extensive correspondence with her friend Margaret (Manga) Cornwell.
Series 1 is organized into six subseries : a. Family correspondence, b. Beatrice Levertoff papers, c. Paul P. Levertoff Papers, d. Mitchell Goodman Papers, e. Nikolai Goodman Papers, and f. Olga Levertoff Papers. Each of these subseries is organized with an emphasis on that person's correspondence, manuscripts, and miscellany.
Series 2, Manuscripts by Denise Levertov, houses extensive drafts of Levertov's writing. Organized by genre, including her poetry, prose, and translations, the series ranges from her earliest poems to the collection of poems she was working on at the time of her death, published posthumously by New Directions as This Great Unknowing : Last Poems (1999). The poetry is grouped by collection and organized, where possible, by individual poem. Series 2 comprises 31 boxes of materials. Denise Levertov's manuscripts are organized by genre into four subseries, which are organized chronologically : a. Poetry, b. Prose, c. Interviews, and d. Translations.
Series 3, Personal Papers, include the notebooks Levertov used throughout her adult life. These notebooks provide insight into the character of the woman and the genesis of the work. Also included are dream sketches, notes, and papers associated with Levertov's social and political activism. Series 3 comprises 16 linear feet. The personal papers contain working papers by Levertov, notes, miscellany, and the accumulata of a lifetime of activism and of reading. These papers are organized into six subseries, arranged either chronologically (as are the notebooks) or alphabetically. The subseries are: a. Notebooks, b. Biographical Papers, c. Dream Sketches, d. Notes, e. Memorabilia, and f. Social, Religious, and Political Files.
Series 4, Correspondence, is the largest series of the collection, consisting of more than 60 linear feet and 4,500 folders. Especially valuable in this series is Levertov's correspondence with her publisher James Laughlin and poets of her generation, especially William Carlos Williams, Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Hayden Carruth. The correspondence is organized alphabetically by correspondent and arranged into two subseries : Incoming and Outgoing Correspondence.
Series 5, Professional Papers, contains papers associated with Levertov's professional life as a poet. The series includes business-related correspondence, documents associated with her poetry readings and her teaching career. The teaching materials include lecture notes, correspondence with students, as well as student work. This series comprises 12.5 linear feet of material. The papers are organized into four subseries : a. Correspondence, b. Awards and Honors, c. Teaching Materials, and d. Readings.
Series 6, Printed Materials, consists of printed serials, broadsides, chapbooks, articles, book reviews, and clippings, most relating to Levertov's writing or to her particular literary or personal interests. Series 6 is a useful resource for finding some rare and limited editions of Levertov's published work. Printed materials comprise approximately 19 linear feet. The series houses an extensive collection of journals, articles and other printed ephemera. Many of the publications contain pieces by or about Levertov. Together, they are helpful in starting a primary and secondary bibliography of Levertov's work. The printed materials are arranged into eight subseries : a. Serials, b. Chapbooks, c. Articles, d. Reviews, e. Broadsides, f. Clippings, g. Poems by Others, and h. Miscellany.
Series 7, Photographs and Artwork, includes photographs of Levertov and her family, including an important group of seven photos by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. It also includes drawings and sketches of Levertov, her mother Beatrice, and the juvenilia of her son Nikolai.
Series 8, Sound Recordings, includes audiocassettes and reel-to-reel tapes of Levertov's readings, as well as cassettes of Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Louis Zukofsky, Basil Bunting, and Charles Olson reading. The series has sixty cassette tapes, seven reel-to-reel tapes, and three audio discs.
Series 9, People Files, houses occasional clippings and notes pertaining to various people Levertov knew or was interested in. Series 9 consists of approximately 0.5 linear feet of material.
Series 10, Subject Files. Like series 9, the subject files house information Levertov collected on various social, religious, and political issues. Series ten consists of approximately 0.5 linear feet of material.
Series 11, Manuscripts by others, contains drafts, poems, articles, and other pieces Levertov kept, mostly sent her from friends, colleagues and students. The manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by author and comprise 6.5 linear feet.
Series 12, Artifacts, houses Levertov's personal memorabilia, including her father's Doctor of Divinity Degree from Lambeth.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.