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Clayton Eshleman Papers

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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4779n9hp No online items Clayton Eshleman Papers Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Copyright 2005 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 [email protected] URL: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/index.html Clayton Eshleman Papers MSS 0021 1 Descriptive Summary Languages: English Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 Title: Clayton Eshleman Papers Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0021 Physical Description: 66.4 Linear feet(148 archives boxes, 42 oversize folders) Date (inclusive): 1958-1993 Abstract: The papers of Clayton Eshleman, American poet, translator, and editor. Included is extensive correspondence dating from 1963 to 1992; original typescripts and manuscripts of Eshleman's prose and verse writings; travel notebooks; interviews; original typescript and manuscript drafts of original works; drafts and correspondence pertaining to Eshleman's translations of Antonin Artaud, Bernard Bador, Aime Cesaire, Michel Deguy, Juan Guzman Cruchaga, Cesar Vallejo, and others; original submissions, later drafts with editorial changes, and paste-ups, all relating to the publication of Sulfur; and various personal ephemera. The collection comprises an extensive source of information on the American, Latin American, and European poetry scene of the post-Beat era. Related Materials Eshleman Family Papers. MSS 177. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. Scope and Content of Collection Accessions Processed in 1987 The Clayton Eshleman Papers document Eshleman's career as writer, editor and translator. The papers also shed light on the post-war American poetry scene which Eshleman helped to shape. Materials relating to Eshleman's journals Caterpillar and Sulfur are especially valuable in relation to the literary scene ca. 1960-1986. The entire collection dates from 1959 to 1986, although the bulk of the materials were created between 1970 and 1985. The collection is divided into seven series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS, 3) CATERPILLAR MATERIALS, 4) SULFUR MATERIALS, 5) TEACHING MATERIALS, 6) PERSONAL EPHEMERA and 7) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES. SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE The bulk of the CORRESPONDENCE is organized alphabetically by the correspondent's last name. Also included are materials arranged by first name, accommodating unidentified correspondents. Within each folder, materials are in chronological order. The correspondence dates from 1963 to 1986, although the bulk of the materials are from the years 1970-1985. Extensive correspondence between Eshleman and John Martin (of Black Sparrow Press) provides an unusually detailed record of the activities surrounding the publication of Eshleman's work. Multiple drafts and revisions of Eshleman's own letters offer insight into his diligent compositional methods -- methods that give his letters remarkable energy and accuracy. Typical letters offer considered observations on poetry and publishing, and the frankness of many letters makes for lively exchanges. Among Eshleman's correspondents were many important figures in the world of contemporary American writing. Included is correspondence with Donald Allen, Charles Altieri, David Antin, Rae Armantrout, Charles Bernstein, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, David Bromige, Hayden Carruth, James Clifford, Michael Davidson, George Economou, Susan Howe, Fanny Howe, Nora Jaffe, Lyn Hejinian, James Laughlin, Jackson Mac Low, Michael Palmer, Marjorie Perloff, and Jerome Rothenberg. SERIES 2: WRITINGS The WRITINGS Series is divided into four subseries: A) Poetry, B) Translations, C) Notebooks, and D) Miscellaneous. A) The poetry subseries contains original manuscript and typescript drafts, worksheets with holograph revisions, photocopies, carbon copies, page-proofs, and final published states. Comprised of 24 archives boxes, this subseries is organized chronologically from 1959 to 1985. Chronological ordering best informs the complex compositional evolution of Eshleman's works. For example, materials that appear in the final typescript draft of What She Means (1978) appear as early as 1975, and then again, in different form, as part of the early typescript material for The Name Encanyoned River (1986), dated from 1984 to 1986. The poetry has been arranged chronologically wherever possible, with published and unpublished works forming one unified sequence. B) The second subseries of WRITINGS contains those materials relating to Eshleman's work as a translator. The materials are here arranged by author, in alphabetical order: Antonin Artaud, Bernard Bador, Aime Cesaire, Michel Deguy, Juan Guzman Cruchaga, miscellaneous translations, and Cesar Vallejo. Correspondence relating to legal problems publishing Clayton Eshleman Papers MSS 0021 2 Vallejo completes the subseries, together with a collection of notes for an anthology of Vallejo, Artaud, and Cesaire, an anthology probably published as Conductors of the Pit. In the translation subseries, materials include original manuscript and typescript drafts, corrections, correspondence with the author or executor, finished translations, and materials relating to publishing rights. The materials are arranged by individual work, and thereunder in the approximate order followed in the process of producing the work. In some cases individual works are arranged alphabetically. C) The third subseries within the WRITINGS consists of Eshleman's notebooks. Like the poetry subseries, the notebooks are in chronological order and date from 1964 to 1983. Because the chronological progression of the notebooks corresponds to the progression of the poetry subseries as outlined above, the notebooks may be cautiously regarded as worksheets for the published texts. Much of the text of the notebooks reflects Eshleman's diverse interests and wide reading (Reich and Bakhtin are prevalent), interspersed with inconsequential notes concerning travel and money. D) The fourth subseries of the WRITINGS consists of miscellaneous writings and is divided into five parts. The first contains poems and letters written, probably by Eshleman, under the pseudonym Horrah Pornoff. Many of these Pornoff materials were sent, presumably as a hoax, to several influential editors. The hoax was sustained through a long correspondence with Cid Corman. The rest of the miscellaneous writings include essays, reviews, public announcements (such as press releases), and writings by other authors. The essays written by Eshleman are arranged in alphabetical order by title. These are followed by reviews about Eshleman, many, self-reflexively, by Eshleman himself. The reviews by Eshleman are organized alphabetically by the author reviewed. The writings by other authors include typescripts and photocopies of typescripts, many of which may have been sent to Eshleman for inclusion in Sulfur or other publications. SERIES 3: CATERPILLAR MATERIALS Contained in the CATERPILLAR series are a small group of materials relating to Eshleman's work on this journal. The folder labeled "Caterpillar Anthology" contains working materials used by Eshleman in producing the journal, including edited typescripts of submissions. Very few original submissions are included. The essay "Doing Caterpillar" summarizes the entire enterprise. SERIES 4: SULFUR MATERIALS The SULFUR series is comprised of documents relating to Eshleman's work as editor of this influential literary journal. Included are a wide range of materials relating to all aspects of production, including correspondence with contributors, business correspondence, drafts of submissions (often annotated by Eshleman), artwork, blues, and paste-ups. The materials for Sulfur 2 present the most complete and detailed documentation of the production process. Much correspondence with individual contributors to Sulfur has been included in the CORRESPONDENCE series. Since work on Sulfur has been an important facet of Eshleman's activities, it was often impossible to separate those letters relating exclusively to Sulfur. SERIES 5: TEACHING MATERIALS The TEACHING MATERIALS comprise a small series documenting some aspects of Eshleman's academic positions. Of special interest are students' letters to Eshleman. SERIES 6: PERSONAL MATERIALS The PERSONAL EPHEMERA Series includes Eshleman's non-literary personal papers, materials relating to Eshleman's employment at UCLA extension and as part of the Los Angeles "Poets in the Schools" program, materials related to travel, and materials relating to the Dordogne region in France where Eshleman studied paleolithic cave art. SERIES 7: ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES The ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES series contains the originals of brittle or high acid content documents that have been photocopied. Accessions Processed in 1995 The accessions processed in 1994 continue to document Eshleman's career as writer, editor and translator. A considerable section of these papers covers the production stages of books by Eshleman published between 1986 and 1990, but the bulk of materials covers the production of Sulfur magazine from 1986 to 1991. The accession dates from 1976 to 1993, with the majority of the materials concentrated between 1986 and 1992. The collection is arranged in nine series: 8) GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, 9) WRITINGS, 10) BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTS AND EPHEMERA, 11) WRITINGS ABOUT ESHLEMAN, 12) WRITINGS BY OTHERS, 13) CATERPILLAR ANTHOLOGY, 14) SULFUR, 15) PHOTOGRAPHS, and 17) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
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