Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Guide to the Papers of The Summer Seminar of the Arts Auburn University at Montgomery Library Archives and Special Collections © AUM Library TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page # Collection Summary 2 Administrative Information 2 Restrictions 2 Biographical Information 3-4 Scope and Content Note 5 Arrangement 5-6 Inventory 6-24 1 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Collection Summary Creator: Jack Mooney Title: Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Dates: ca. 1969-1983 Quantity: 9 boxes; 6.0 cu. ft. Identification: 2005/02 Contact Information: AUM Library Archives & Special Collections P.O. Box 244023 Montgomery, AL 36124-4023 Ph: (334) 244-3213 Email: [email protected] Administrative Information Preferred Citation: Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers, Auburn University Montgomery Library, Archives & Special Collections. Acquisition Information: Jack Mooney donated the collection to the AUM Library in May 2005. Processing By: Samantha McNeilly, Archives/Special Collections Assistant (2005). Copyright Information: Copyright not assigned to the AUM Library. Restrictions Restrictions on access: There are no restrictions on access to these papers. Restrictions on usage: Researchers are responsible for addressing copyright issues on materials not in the public domain. 2 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Biographical/Historical Information The Summer Seminar of the Arts was an annual arts and literary festival held in Montgomery from 1969 until 1983. The Seminar was part of the Montgomery Arts Guild, an organization which was active in promoting and sponsoring cultural events. Held during July, the Seminar hosted readings by notable poets, offered creative writing workshops, held creative writing contests, and featured musical performances. The Seminar would close each year with a banquet honoring the visiting poets. The papers were assembled by Jack Mooney. Mooney, a former member of the U.S. Army Air Force and college professor, moved to the Montgomery area in 1953 with his wife Jen and two sons. He worked as a writer/editor with the U.S. Air Force Extension Course Institute at Gunter AFB, which is an annex of Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Mooney later served as the Managing Editor of the Air University Review for approximately 20 years. Jack and Jen Mooney became actively involved with the Montgomery Arts Guild upon their arrival. As an avid reader of poetry, Jack Mooney began organizing poetry readings and other literary events through the Guild. The events were well received in Montgomery, especially with members of the local literary community. He would serve as chairman of the Literary Arts Committee from 1970-83. In 1970, the Summer Seminar of the Arts Council organized the first formal Summer Seminar of the Arts. Convening during the month of July, many of the activities were held on the campus of Huntindgon College. To facilitate the events, a venue called the Down Funky Street Coffee House was created within Delchamps Hall to serve as a relaxed and informal meeting place. The Down Funky Street Coffee House venue was added to the seminar programs in 1971 for a two-fold purpose: 1) to give young musicians an opportunity to perform which, hopefully, would encourage them to develop their talents, and 2) to stimulate the reading an enjoyment of good poetry in Montgomery. Its unusual name came from a piece of artwork named “Down Funky Street”, which had won Second Prize at an earlier arts seminar hosted by the Montgomery Art Guild. It had been the custom for the Montgomery Art Guild to purchase the First and Second prizewinners from Guild art shows, and the First Alabama Bank had a commitment to exhibit the Guild’s art collection. An arrangement was worked out between the Guild and the Seminar. The Montgomery Art Guild agreed to donate the artwork to the Seminar for the Coffee House provided the Coffee House would always be 3 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers called “Down Funky Street” and provided “Down Funky Street” would always be in the Coffee House. Mooney began writing to notable poets with published works inviting them to send their poems to be read in the Down Funky Street Coffee House. Poets of national and even international prominence generously sent poems, letters of encouragement, signed photographs, holograph poems, and volumes of their poetry to be featured in the Down Funky Street Coffee House. Mooney also solicited and received dozens of broadsides of poems from poets and their publishing houses, which were displayed during the festival; and are included in this collection. Mooney received artistic contributions from poets ranging from the obscure to nationally recognizable. Noted contributors include: Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, W.H. Auden, Joan Baez, Alan Dugan, David Ignatow, Erica Jong, Denise Levertov, Kenneth Patchen, and May Swenson. The Seminar received contributions from no less than twenty-one US Poets’ Laureates and twenty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners. The following poet laureates sent in contributions or appeared at the Summer Seminar: Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Leonie Adams, Conrad Aiken, Richard Eberhart, Louis Untermeyer, Howard Nemerov, William Jay Smith, William Stafford, Josephine Jacobsen, Daniel Hoffman, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Hayden, Maxine Kumin, Anthony Hecht, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wilbur, Mark Strand, and Mona Van Duyn. Other noted contributing poets include Louise Glück and W.S. Merwin, who served as Special Library of Congress Bicentennial Consultants from 1999-2000. 1 Because of the response from these poets, the poetry read in the Coffee House had been restricted to that received or authorized by them for the Coffee House, with one exception; that is, the inclusion of the prize winning poetry from the annual coffee house verse competition sponsored by the Seminar. The winners of the contest were invited to read their prize winning verse as recognition for being the winners. Jack Mooney left the Montgomery area and moved to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida in 1984. With his departure, the Summer Seminar of the Arts lost much of the vision without his direction. The Summer Seminars were held for a few more years before the project was absorbed into other programs that branched off from the Seminar. 1 Library of Congress, Poet Laureates; available at: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/about_laureate.html 4 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Scope and Contents The collection consists of personal correspondence to and from Jack Mooney, news clippings from local and national papers, poems and poetry broadsides, biographical information on the poets (including some photos), and administrative paperwork regarding the Seminar Council. The collection is organized around the poets who either appeared at or contributed their works for inclusion in the Summer Seminar of the Arts. While there are materials in the collection dating back to the late 1960s, most items range in date from 1970-1981. Arrangement The material is arranged into the following series: Series I. Biographical info/Poems: Folders arranged alphabetically by poet or contributor. Series II. Correspondence: Folders arranged alphabetically by poet or contributor. Series contains correspondence to and from Jack Mooney. Most of the correspondence is either invitations by Mooney to poets, and responses from poets. Series III. News Clippings: Folders arranged alphabetically by poet or contributor. Series contains news clippings from local, state, and regional newspapers relating to the Summer Seminar of the Arts which were collected by Mooney. The series also contains a comprehensive list of news clippings collected by Mooney which featured various poets and contributors, but were not directly related to the Summer Seminar of the Arts. These clippings, which were primarily from the New York Times, have been removed from the collection. Researchers interested in additional information on various poets and contributors may use this list to consult past issues of the New York Times. 5 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Series IV. Seminar Information Series contains Information regarding the planning and preparations for the Seminar each year. Includes promotional materials, news clippings, memos, etc Series V. Creative writing contest Folders arranged chronologically by year. Series contains contest information, list of winners, honorable mentions, poems submitted, and promotional materials/clippings. Series VI. Publicity Folders arranged chronologically by year. Contains seminar information, clippings, and promotional materials. Series VII. Anthology Series contains a draft of a planned anthology featuring poems which were read at the various Summer Seminar of the Arts events. The anthology was never completed. Series VIII. Broadsides/art work Broadsides are arranged according to size. Inventory Box 1: Series 1 Biographical info/Poems Box # Folder name Description: Biographical info/Poems 1 Adams, Leonie 4 items: photo; (2) handwritten poems; photocopy of photo; photocopy of contents. 1 Aiken, Conrad 2 items: book cover Bo and Prelude; bio info 1 Armour, Richard 14 items: Comment on Cows-poem (3); drawing(2); The Discriminating Reader-poem (3); photo (courtesy of 6 Summer Seminar of the Arts Papers Playboy); Health Hazard (poem); Quite a Feet (poem); Train of Thought (poem); l, Money(poem); Blurb me a Blurb (poem) 1 Ashberry, John 2 items: photo; poster for book. 1 Auden, W.H. 6 items: book cover; photo; book cover-“A Tribute”; bio info; Moralities (poem); an appeasement for love (poem). 1 Baez, Joan 1 item: photo Jan. 8, 1972. 1 Barks, Coleman 6 items: Bio info (3); handwritten bio by Mooney; Choosing (poem); press release Sweet Water Press- New Words, 1 Belitt, Ben 6 items: Photo-signed; Veterans Hospital (2); Who’s Who page; Ah! Sunflower (poem); Winter pond Lake Paran (poem) 1 Bell, Marvin 11 items: Poems: Verses Versus Verses (signed), The Wild Cherry Tree out Back, Study Guide for the Odyssey, World War III (signed), Give Back, Give Back (signed), Walking Thoughts (signed), The Delicate Bird Who is Flying up Our Asses (signed), acceptance speech; bio info; Study Guide for the Odyssey (2).