Ciaran Carson Papers, Circa 1970-2010
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CARSON, CIARAN, 1948- Ciaran Carson papers, circa 1970-2010 Emory University Robert W. Woodruff Library Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library Atlanta, GA 30322 404-727-6887 [email protected] Digital Material Available in this Collection Collection Stored Off-Site All or portions of this collection are housed off-site. Materials can still be requested but researchers should expect a delay of up to two business days for retrieval. Descriptive Summary Creator: Carson, Ciaran, 1948- Title: Ciaran Carson papers, circa 1970-2010 Call Number: Manuscript Collection No. 746 Extent: 34.5 linear feet (67 boxes) and 2 oversized papers boxes and 5 oversized papers folders (OP) Abstract: Personal and literary papers of Irish poet Ciaran Carson including correspondence, literary notebooks, literary manuscripts, and collected printed material. Language: Materials in English with some items in Irish. Administrative Information Restrictions on Access Collection stored off-site. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance to access this collection. Terms Governing Use and Reproduction All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction. No special restrictions apply. Emory Libraries provides copies of its finding aids for use only in research and private study. Copies supplied may not be copied for others or otherwise distributed without prior consent of the holding repository. Ciaran Carson papers, circa 1970-2010 Manuscript Collection No. 746 Related Materials in This Repository Michael Longley papers, Peter Fallon/Gallery Press collection, and Medbh McGuckian papers. Source Purchased from Kenny's Bookshop, 1993. Additions were purchased from Ciaran Carson from 1995 to 2013. Custodial History Purchased from dealer, provenance unknown. Citation [identification of item(s)], Ciaran Carson papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University. Appraisal Note Acquired by Director of the Rose Library, Stephen Enniss, as part of the Rose Library's holdings in Irish literature. Processing Stephen Enniss, Manuscripts Librarian and Literature Bibliographer, 1995. Updated: 2002, 2012 This finding aid may include language that is offensive or harmful. Please refer to the Rose Library's harmful language statement for more information about why such language may appear and ongoing efforts to remediate racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic, euphemistic and other oppressive language. If you are concerned about language used in this finding aid, please contact us at [email protected]. Collection Description Biographical Note Ciaran Gerard Carson (1948-), Irish poet. He was born in Belfast on 9 October 1948. He attended St. Mary's Christian Brothers' School in Belfast before going on to Queen's University, Belfast, where he graduated with honors in July 1971. In the final year of its gathering, 1971-1972, Carson participated in the Belfast group of poets and writers, a gathering of young literary talents organized originally by Philip Hobsbaum at Queens University, Belfast in 1963. After publishing poems in various newspapers and magazines, Carson's first chapbook The Insular Celts appeared in 1973. From 1974-1975 he taught school in Belfast; before joining the Arts Council of Northern Ireland as Traditional Arts Officer in 1976. In 1978, Carson received the Eric Gregory Award for his first book of poems, The New Estate. Three years later he published another chapbook The Lost Explorer (1979). Eight years passed before Carson completed his next volume of poems, The Irish for No (1987), which received the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award. Belfast Confetti (1989), a volume closely related to the 1987 collection, received similar critical success, winning the Irish Times/Aer Lingus prize for poetry. From 1979 to 1987, Carson continued writing poems and prose pieces including an Appletree Press guide book called Irish Traditional Music, published in 1986. A flutist himself, Carson returned ten years later to a more extensive examination of Irish music with the 1996 publication 2 Ciaran Carson papers, circa 1970-2010 Manuscript Collection No. 746 of the widely heralded Last Night's Fun: About Time, Food and Music. The art of story-telling continued to be a significant aspect of Carson's poetry as seen in First Language, a collection of poems awarded the first T. S. Eliot Prize for the outstanding book of poetry published in Great Britain in 1993. This volume demonstrated Carson's interest in translation including Ovid's Metamorphoses as well as poems written "after" Irish and French originals. 1996 witnessed the publication of Opera Et Cetera, which included a sequence of translations from the Romanian of Stefan Augustin Doinas. Returning to his roots, The Star Factory, Carson's memoir and homage to the Belfast of his childhood followed in 1997. Leaving the Arts Council in October 1998 to work as a full-time writer, Carson has emerged as one of the major contemporary writers working in English, publishing numerous books of poetry and translations. In 1998, he was appointed a Professor of English at Queen’s University Belfast, where he established the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. Scope and Content Note The collection consists of the personal and literary papers of Ciaran Carson from 1970-2010. The papers include correspondence, literary notebooks, literary manuscripts, printed material, subject files, photographs, and personal files. Among the correspondents represented in the papers are the poets Peter Fallon, Tess Gallagher, Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian, John Montague, and Frank Ormsby. Writings include numerous drafts (in manuscript and typescript form) of Carson's published poems and prose, as well as a significant number of unpublished poems. There are also unpublished draft materials and published versions of creative and critical work sent to or collected by Carson. Printed material includes reviews, programs, and clippings related to Carson's writings, performances and readings. The collection also contains early "group sheets" from Philip Hobsbaum's Belfast Group, Arts Council of Northern Ireland records, and an assortment of photographs and other personal items. Arrangement Note Organized into ten series: (1) Correspondence, (2) Writings by Carson, (3) Writings by others, (4) Printed material by Carson and others, (5) Belfast Group worksheets, (6) Photographs, (7) Personal materials, (8) Subject files, (9) Arts Council of Northern Ireland records and (10) Unprocessed additions. Finding Aid Note An index to selected correspondents is available for the correspondence from the mid-1970s to 1999. 3 Ciaran Carson papers, circa 1970-2010 Manuscript Collection No. 746 Description of Series Series 1: Correspondence, 1971-2010 Series 2: Writings by Carson, circa 1970-2009 Subseries 2.1: Notebooks, circa 1970-2007 Subseries 2.2: Poetry, 1971-2009 Subseries 2.2a: Collected poems, 1973-2009 Subseries 2.2b: Uncollected poetry, 1971-2007 Subseries 2.3: Translations, 1994-2008 Subseries 2.4: Prose, 1985-2009 Subseries 2.5: Scripts, 1985-2005 Subseries 2.6: Interviews, 1989-2009 Series 3: Writings by others, 1977-2007 Subseries 3.1: Poetry by others, 1977-2007 Subseries 3.2: Prose fiction and drama by others, 1985-2005 Subseries 3.3: Writings about Carson, 1989-2006 Subseries 3.4: Other writings, 1994-1998 Series 4: Printed material, 1975-2008 Subseries 4.1: Printed material by Carson, 1975-2007 Subseries 4.2: Printed material about Carson, 1976-2008 Subseries 4.3: Other printed material, 1976-2006 Series 5: Belfast Group worksheets, [1971-1972] Series 6: Photographs, 1977-2007 Series 7: Personal materials, 1975-2003 Series 8: Subject files Series 9: Arts Council of Northern Ireland records, 1973-1998 Series 10: Unprocessed additions 4 Ciaran Carson papers, circa 1970-2010 Manuscript Collection No. 746 Series 1 Correspondence, 1971-2010 Boxes 1-7 Scope and Content Note The correspondence series contains letters Ciaran Carson received from 1971-2010. A substantial part of the correspondence pertains to letters from Carson's various editors: Peter Fallon at Gallery Press, Dillon Johnston at Wake Forest University Press, and Neil Belton at Jonathan Cape and then Granta. There are also significant literary exchanges with scholars and writers from around the world, including Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney (restricted), Medbh McGuckian, Tim Robinson, Annie Proulx, and Tess Gallagher. The Ciaran Carson / Tess Gallagher correspondence is of particular interest because of the very close attention Gallagher pays to Carson's work at both early and late stages of a volume's development. She has served often as a pre-publication editor of most of Carson's major works, and her often extensive annotations are recorded on many typescripts. Invitations, contracts, and royalty statements are included in this series and arranged separately from the literary correspondence. Arrangement Note The correspondence is arranged chronologically. Some correspondence is located with specific writings in Series 2: Writings by Carson. Finding Aid Note An index to selected correspondents is available for the correspondence from the mid-1970s to 1999. Box Folder Content 1 1 1971-1989 1 2 1990-1992 1 3 1993 1 4 1994 January-March 1 5 1994 April-December 1 6 1995 January-June 2 1 1995 July-December 2 2 1996 January-March 2 3 1996 April-September 2 4 1996 October-December 2 5 1997 January-May 2 6 1997 June-September 3 1 1997 October-December 3 2 1998 January-March 3 3 1998 April-June 3 4 1998 July-October