Anne Waldman Papers, 1945-2012 (majority within 1965-2000)

Summary

Creator:

Waldman, Anne, 1945-

Abstract:

American poet; co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. Papers include correspondence, poems, essays, photographs, art, biographical material, and audiovisual materials.

Extent:

119.5 Linear feet (85 record center boxes, 7 ms. boxes, 4 large flat oversize boxes, 10 medium flat oversize boxes, 2 small flat oversize boxes and 2 portfolios.)
Printed material in boxes 77-80 and Portfolio 1; Artwork in boxes 81, 82, 99-108, and Portfolio 2; Photographs in boxes 83, 84, and 98 (includes slides); Audiovisual materials in boxes 85-92 (including reformatted copies).

Language:

English

Authors:

Finding aid prepared by Rebecca Bizonet, Daniel Santamaria (2001-2002), Rosemary Pal (2013-2014), Beth Myerowitz (2015).

Background

Scope and Content:

The Anne Waldman Papers were purchased by the Special Collections Library in 1998. Periodic additions to the collection have been made.

The papers document Waldman's personal and professional life from childhood to adulthood in great detail, and provide a rich and unique source for the study of American poetry. The collection includes textual material, photographs, audiovisual material, and artwork that extensively document Waldman's writing, publishing and performance efforts; her administrative leadership and teaching activities at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery and Naropa University's Writing and Poetics program; and her relationships and interactions with a remarkable number of prominent poets, writers, and artists.

The Biographical series (approximately .5 linear feet) contains biographical summaries written by Waldman and others, resumes, travel and work itineraries, and publicity material such as press releases, pamphlets, and quotes and "blurbs" for books.

A highlight of the series is Waldman's autobiographical essay and drafts for the Contemporary Authors' series. A small folder of poems written about Waldman is also included. The researcher should note that additional material written about Waldman can be found in the Correspondence and Name File Series.

The Correspondence and Name File series (25 linear feet of material, divided into several subseries) provides insight into Waldman's professional activities and relationships, and her personal relationships with many poets, writers, and artists. Poets including Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, Joe Brainard, Tom Clark, Diane di Prima, Kenward Elmslie, Joanne Kyger, Bernadette Mayer, Ron Padgett, and many others are well represented in the series, as are visual artists such as Alex Katz, Jasper Johns, Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Rivers, and James Rosenquist. Material in the Correspondence and Name File was created during Waldman's college years and adulthood (approximately 1962-1999). Correspondence from Waldman's childhood and teenage years, and correspondence with family members can be found in the Early Years and Family series respectively.

The Name File subseries is an alphabetical file consisting primarily of more prominent personalities and frequent correspondents. Although the bulk of the material in the Name File is correspondence, manuscripts and other material created by or related to the person listed may also be found in the files. Where large amounts of material related to a person exist, the type of material has been grouped by genre and indicated separately in the finding aid. In cases where the type of material is not listed separately, the file contains mainly correspondence, but may also include small amounts of other material, most likely manuscripts. The researcher should note that some manuscripts submitted to Waldman and a small amount of correspondence related to Waldman's specific publishing ventures or specific subjects have been left with the appropriate subject file or organizational records.

The Miscellaneous Correspondence subseries contains more routine correspondence. This subseries is arranged alphabetically.

The Unidentified and Fragments subseries consists of approximately .75 linear feet of material from correspondents who did not identify themselves, identified themselves by their first name only, or whose signatures were illegible. This material is arranged chronologically, and is divided in to unidentified correspondence and unidentified manuscripts. Although every effort was made to arrange correspondence in the appropriate place in the Name File and Miscellaneous Correspondence subseries, researchers interesting in viewing all the correspondence from a particular person may want to examine the Unidentified and Fragments subseries.

The series also includes two folders of Anne Waldman's outgoing correspondence, as well as several folders of printouts of Waldman's outgoing and incoming email. The email correspondence spans the years 1997 and 2009. Researchers should note that there is substantial overlap between the Email and Correspondence and Name File subseries.

The Writing series (11 linear feet) consists of Anne Waldman manuscripts and other material, such as correspondence, administrative files, and ephemera, related to her writing. This series is divided into five subseries: Early Work; Fiction; Essays, Speeches, and Interviews; Poetry; and Contributions to Other Works.

The Fiction sub-subseries is divided into Drama and Short Stories. Much of this material is also early work, from Waldman's college years or shortly thereafter. Within Drama and Short Stories, the pieces are arranged alphabetically by title.

Essays, Speeches, and Interviews comprises Waldman's prose work, consisting of essays, articles, speeches and addresses, and interviews, as well as book blurbs, introductions, forewords, and reviews. Many of these pieces exist in various stages, from handwritten notes to published articles. The Essays grouping contains essays and articles written for various publications. The Speeches grouping, arranged chronologically, consists of speeches and speaker introductions made by Waldman at various events. Undated material is located at the end of the section. The Interviews grouping is divided into interviews of Anne Waldman by others, arranged chronologically, and interviews of others, which for the most part have Waldman as either interviewer or co- interviewee. These interviews are arranged alphabetically by name of interviewee.

Also included in the Essays, Speeches, and Interviews subseries are "Biographical Sketches" of other authors. (Biographical and autobiographical sketches of Anne Waldman can be found in the Biographical series.) Most of these sketches appear to have been written by Waldman, although some were contributed by the authors themselves. In addition, the researcher will find a Notes grouping, made up of Waldman's loose collected notes, both literary jottings and everyday work lists. Some of the notes are of unknown authorship, although a few appear to have been Reed Bye's.

The Poetry subseries is divided into two sub-subseries, Published Works and Single Titles. Although Waldman's poetry can be found throughout the Writing series--and indeed throughout the entire collection--the bulk of it resides here. Published Works incorporates Waldman's stand-alone or collected works, most but not necessarily all of which have been published. The Published Works sub-subseries begins with an Alphabetical File containing Waldman's shorter works intended for publication. These files are arranged alphabetically by title.

A Collaborations section of collaborations between Waldman and others, and a Translations section, with a small number of works by others which Waldman translated or helped translate into English are also included in the Published Works subseries. The Collaborations section is arranged alphabetically by collaborator. The translation section contains only three works, which are arranged alphabetically according to the original author.

The Published Work subseries also contains three linear feet of separate material for Iovis I, II, and III and Kill or Cure. This material consists generally of original manuscripts (handwritten drafts and typescripts) of single poems, drafts of the whole work, proofs, and a small amount of related correspondence. The Iovis I and Iovis II files strongly reflect Waldman's work process for the creation of these long, fragmentary epic poems. Namely, the Notes Drafts, and Research Material files, which have been left almost as-is, consist of seemingly randomly arranged clippings, correspondence, previously written material, and many different current drafts, merged together. The researcher may find this portion of the collection difficult to use, owing to its haphazard arrangement. Items which seemed of special significance have been flagged or pulled and foldered separately, the "Questions for men for Iovis" being one example. In some cases, the original has been removed and placed elsewhere within the collection. Details are noted in the contents list. Among these items are poems by Waldman's son, Ambrose, and letters written by Anne Waldman's grandfather to his future wife (due to extremely their fragile condition, the originals have been removed and placed in separate storage). The other portions of the Iovis material present a clearer arrangement, consisting as they do of draft and proof copies of the entire work. The Iovis III portion to date is quite small, consisting only of a version of Waldman's journal entries from a trip to Vietnam in 2000.

The material used in Kill or Cure has a clearer organization, although it should be noted that much of the content and order within the "Drafts/Collected Poems" portion remains unclear. It was impossible to ascertain whether some of the pieces included in the original folders labeled "Kill or Cure" were originally intended for the book and not used, or if they became misfiled. Too, some material may be missing, removed by the author from its original location in order to be used for other purposes, such as the creation of Iovis II . In fact, there is considerable overlap between some of the material in Iovis and Kill or Cure, the latter being published in between Iovis I and Iovis II .

Single Titles consists of the many loose poems that were originally scattered throughout the collection and which could not be easily placed within the context of a larger work. They are arranged alphabetically by title or first line. There are several folders of poem fragments as well, found at the end of this grouping. In the case of some of these poems, it has been difficult to ascertain whether they are in fact fragments or are rather complete, untitled poems. In general, when the title of a poem has undergone changes, all of the drafts of that poem have been grouped under what appears to be the latest version of the title. There may, however, be some exceptions to this arrangement.

Contributions to Other Works is a small subseries consisting of pieces which Waldman wrote for publication in larger works by other authors. Both poetry and prose works are represented here.

The Journals and Notebooks series (5 linear feet) consists of more than 110 journals, notebooks, appointment books, and address books kept by Anne Waldman. (For the sake of convenience, all of these items are referred to here as "journals.") A small number of journals kept by others is also represented. The journals offer a diverse array of content, from random jottings and to-do lists, to literary notes and drafts, to intensely personal diaries. In some cases distinct literary pieces have been recorded, and sometimes the line between journal and handmade book is somewhat blurred. There are collaborative works, such as those with Bill Berkson and Reed Bye. Other pieces were clearly written for friends such as Joe Brainard, Jim Carroll, and others.

The Journals and Notebooks series is broken into two subseries, Anne Waldman and Others, representing journals kept by Waldman and journals kept by others. The Anne Waldman subseries is arranged chronologically by decade, from the 1960s through the 1990s. There are many undated journals as well. The Others subseries contains journals by Lewis Warsh (including one that was co-written with Waldman) and journals very likely by Reed Bye. Of note within one of the journals from the 1970s in the Anne Waldman subseries is a drawing of Anne Waldman made by Bob Dylan.

The Editing and Publishing series (approximately 12.5 linear feet) is comprised of Anne Waldman's work in editing and publishing, often as a joint venture with those in her circle. The most important subseries, Small Press and Little Magazine, represents her work with The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, Angel Hair, Full Court Press, and Rocky Ledge. For the most part, all of the Small Press and Little Magazine files consist of a mixture of the literary--manuscript contributions, drafts, mockups, proofs--and the administrative--reports, correspondence, sales and expense records, and so forth.

Perhaps the most significant portion of Small Press and Little Magazine, the Poetry Project grouping is divided into General, Adventures in Poetry, The World, and St. Mark's Church. "General" consists of correspondence; administrative material such as reports, notes, and budgets; poster, flyers, and other performance-related material, including speeches and introductions to Poetry Project events. Correspondence is related to the running of the Poetry Project, the newsletter in particular. Much of this correspondence appears to have been managed and kept by Frances Waldman, who edited the Poetry Project Newsletter from 1976 to 1978. There are also loose poems, which were printed and distributed singly, and many issues of the Poetry Project Newsletter (although not a complete run), along with original manuscript submissions for the newsletter.

Adventures in Poetry was a mimeographed literary magazine edited and published at St. Mark's Church by Larry Fagin using Poetry Project resources. A small number of submissions and publications appear here.

The most important division within the Poetry Project grouping are the files relating to The World, the magazine of the Poetry Project, which Waldman directed from 1968 through the late 1970s. Included are what can loosely be labeled "Administrative Material" as well as Submissions. Two files of Administrative Material are topical in nature, including an Author-title Index from 1979. In addition, there are the usual minutes, mailing lists, and the like. Submissions are for the most part arranged alphabetically by author. There are also two folders with material specific to individual issues of The World . Items of unknown authorship are placed at the end of these files. The researcher may find the aforementioned Author-title Index of some assistance in identifying these submissions.

"St. Mark's Church" refers to items which are church-specific; that is, related to St. Mark's as a religious institution or physical entity rather than to the Poetry Project: Such concerns as building preservation and restoration, youth projects, and church services are covered. Much of this material appears to have been maintained by Frances Waldman, including but not limited to files which are labeled as hers.

The Angel Hair files consist of material from Angel Hair Books and Angel Hair magazine, both of which Waldman co-founded and co-edited with Lewis Warsh. Press and magazine materials are commingled. Angel Hair is divided into Catalogues, Administrative Material, Proofs, and Submissions.

Full Court Press, which Waldman started with Ron Padgett and Joan Simon, was dedicated to publishing quality editions of out-of-print works. The volume of material in this collection is quite slim, consisting of only one folder.

Rocky Ledge refers to the mimeographed magazine, Rocky Ledge, which Waldman started with Reed Bye in Boulder. It was published in eight issues from 1978 to 1981. Some books were also published through Rocky Ledge Cottage Editions. There is a folder of general Administrative Material and another slim folder of manuscripts published by Rocky Ledge Cottage Editions. In keeping with the original organization of the material, the rest of the files are arranged by the individual issue of Rocky Ledge , with administrative materials mixed in with each issue of the magazine. Types of material found in the Rocky Ledge files include draft or mockup versions of the magazine; manuscript submissions; correspondence; cover art, both originals and facsimiles; receipts; and editors' notes. In some cases, the original manuscript submissions appear to have been used in the creation of the draft versions of the magazine. A separate division deals with submissions that were either not used in Rocky Ledge, may not have been intended for use in Rocky Ledge in the first place, or are unidentified.

Also included is a small amount of material labeled "Cherry Valley." Waldman summered in this small New York town in the late 1970s, Waldman's family and Allen Ginsberg maintained houses there for a time, and some work produced by Waldman and her circle was published by "Cherry Valley Editions." However, the exact nature and extent of literary activity from this period and location is unclear, and extant files in this collection are unrevealing.

The rest of the Editing and Publishing is divided along the lines of the individual book titles which Waldman edited or co-edited: The Beat Book, Nice to See You, Out of This World, Talking Poetics, and Disembodied Poetics.

The Beat Book files consist of some correspondence and, primarily, a draft version and a proof version of the work. Nice to See You, which is a tribute to poet Ted Berrigan, consists mainly of submissions by friends of Berrigan's. There are also files of background material, notes, a small number of photographs, correspondence, a draft, proofs, and publicity and reviews. Out of This World is an anthology of work from The Poetry Project. The Out of This World files consists of correspondence (dealing mainly with publishing permissions), early versions of the preface and introduction, drafts, and proofs.

Both Talking Poetics and Disembodied Poetics are anthologies of lectures delivered at Naropa University by Writing and Poetics Department faculty and visiting poets. These files are comprised mainly of transcripts of these lectures; manuscript reworkings and revisions by the authors; correspondence between authors, editors, and publishers; and various drafts of the whole work. In some cases, the name referenced in the correspondence file is the subject of the correspondence rather than its author. Administrative material is also included.

In the Talking Poetics files, the Drafts and Proofs section is divided into Early Work and Complete Drafts. Much of the Early Work section is fragmentary in nature, in particular, the Early Drafts material. Although at some time all of the individual pieces of Early Drafts were collated and paginated, much is missing or has been placed elsewhere. The existing pieces are now arranged alphabetically by author. Particularly noteworthy in this section is a handwritten John Cage score, a part of his work Lecture IV. Complete Drafts are arranged by page number.

The Disembodied Poetics files are arranged in a similar fashion, with individual pieces placed in the Early Contributions and Ideas and Early Drafts portions and later, more complete drafts arranged in or nearly in book order. It should be noted that the designations of the drafts as "A," "B," and "C" were assigned during processing and do not necessarily reflect chronological order. The order within each draft follows the table of contents for that draft, none of the drafts being paginated as a whole.

The subseries, General Publishing, consists of miscellaneous contracts, proposals, copyright application material, and financial material covering royalties, honoraria, book sales, and so on. The Unpublished material subseries consists mainly of miscellaneous pieces of writing that could be part of books that are published or unpublished or drafts of works with an unknown title.

The Naropa series (8 linear feet) consists of material related to Waldman's involvement with the Naropa Institute, now Naropa University, in Boulder, Colorado. It is comprised of the following subseries: Course Material, Administrative Material, Conferences and Panels, Publications, Printed Material, Other Teaching Activities, and Personal.

Course Material is divided into the following sub-subseries: Anne Waldman, Others, and Summer Writing Program. Anne Waldman course material is arranged chronologically and topically and contains many sourcebooks or bound copies of readings for her classes. Course material of others is arranged primarily chronologically, as is, for the most part, material from the Summer Writing Program. The Summer Faculty and Visiting Poets folder under Course Material includes contracts, correspondence and resumes from guest lecturers such as Amiri, Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Diane Di Prima, Tom Clark, Robert Creeley, Kenward Elmslie, Joy Harjo and Harry Smith and is organized alphabetically. Administrative Material is divided into General, Writing and Poetics Department, and Summer Writing Program. Within all levels of the Administrative Series can be found correspondence which includes emails, memos, minutes and reports, planning material, notes, etc. "Early Planning Material" within the Writing and Poetics Department files includes documents penned by Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg which formulate aspects of the founding of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Also included in the Writing and Poetics files are departmental newsletters. Student and instructor evaluations also appear. Evaluation files, barring those of Anne Waldman, are closed due to privacy legislation and concerns.

Conferences and Panels consists of notes for talks given at Naropa along with transcripts and schedules. Speeches and Interviews covers those speeches and interview given at Naropa, although there may be some overlap with material in the Writing series. Speeches are arranged chronologically. "A Declaration of Interdependence," although grouped with Speeches, is not a speech per se, but rather a protest document mirroring in structure the Declaration of Independence. It was penned by multiple authors, including many Naropa faculty members as well as other poets and activists. Interviews are listed alphabetically by interviewee.

Publications consist of Campus Periodicals (student newsletters and literary magazines); Class Publications, including those of the Summer Writing Program; and a small number of works by faculty members. Printed Material consists of Catalogs and Brochures; Posters, Flyers, and Programs; and Clippings. Arrangement at the folder level is chronological. Additional class publications can be found within the Course Material subseries.

In addition to her role at Naropa, Waldman has taught at several other institutions. These activities are reflected in the Other Teaching Activities subseries, which includes work at the Schule für Dichtung in Vienna and the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, among other institutions. Because the bulk of Waldman's teaching activities is tied up with Naropa, these files are included within the Naropa series. Material for each institution is arranged chronologically.

The final subseries of the Naropa series is Personal, which includes ephemera, correspondence, topical files, contracts, and notes. Correspondence is both incoming and outgoing and consists of both Naropa-related 'official' correspondence that is addressed solely to Waldman and correspondence that is personal in nature but which refers to Naropa (here, there will naturally be some overlap with Waldman's correspondence in the Correspondence and Name file series). Material within folders is arranged chronologically.

The Other Activities series is comprised of 1 linear foot of material, and documents Waldman's activities outside of writing and publishing. The series includes material related to conferences and festivals that Waldman attended or participated in, as well as material related to Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, various video and audio recording projects, and attempts to sell Waldman's archive, or portions of it. The series also includes a significant amount of material documenting Waldman's involvement in social protest issues.

The Personal series is a topical file consisting of 1.5 linear feet of material not primarily related to Waldman's writing or professional activities. Material documenting Waldman's interest in Buddhism and her 1967 wedding to Lewis Warsh can be found in the series. Of particular note is a collection of memorabilia, including material from Waldman's travels, and various playbills, museum programs and ticket stubs. Legal and financial records, as well as various and unidentified notes, jottings and telephone messages, are also included in this series.

The Early Years series contains 2 linear feet of material documenting Waldman's school years, as well as her early interests in writing, acting and drama. The series includes material from Waldman's elementary school, middle school, high school and college years. Early writings can be found in each of the Pre-High School, Friends Seminary and Bennington College subseries, as well as the Early and Unidentified Writings subseries. Highlights include childhood and family newsletters titled "Our Life and Times" and "The Penguin News," school publications in which Waldman was first published, production material from Waldman's high school newspaper (of which she was editor), and manuscripts and typescripts of early poems. The Friends Seminary and Bennington College subseries contain class notes and papers, a high school report card, college grade reports and other school-related material. The Bennington College subseries also includes correspondence and notes from Howard Nemerov and other professors.

The Acting and Theater subseries includes material from various productions, theater companies and organizations with which Waldman was involved in the 1950s and 1960s. The Correspondence subseries consists primarily of correspondence from Waldman's middle school and high school friends, but also includes a folder of notes that appear to be notes passed in class. This folder also includes school love poems that appear to have been written for Waldman. The Early and Unidentified Writing subseries consists primarily of unidentified or undated material that could not filed with the other subseries.

The Family series (approximately 4 linear feet and 1 oversize box) includes material related to Waldman's mother, father, brother, son and other relatives.

The bulk of the series is comprised of material created by, or related to Waldman's mother, Frances Waldman. The Frances Waldman subseries includes 1.5 linear feet of correspondence between Waldman and her mother, spanning the years 1958-1981. Several folders of Frances Waldman's correspondence with other people, including many New York poets and writers, can also be found in the subseries.

The subseries also includes several folders of Frances Waldman's manuscripts, translations and miscellaneous material. Although the majority of the material related to other family members is correspondence, manuscripts and other material can also be found in the series. Of special note are the manuscripts found with the Ambrose Bye material, which include some poems written with or transcribed by Anne Waldman.

The Handmade Books series (3 linear feet) is comprised of one-of-a-kind books made by Waldman and her friends. Often they were presented as gifts on special occasions. They are divided into three subseries: Anne Waldman, representing books by Waldman; Collaborations, representing collaborations between Waldman and others; and Others, that is, works by others.

Included in Others are books printed at Naropa University either through a print workshop or class, or through the school's Kavyayantra Press. Within the Waldman subseries, books are listed alphabetically by title, with untitled books at the back. Collaborations, all of which have Waldman as a coauthor, are arranged alphabetically by the collaborator's last name, as are works in the Others subseries.

Many of the handmade books bear inscriptions indicating maker, recipient, date, and other information, which has not been included in the contents listing. Included in the Handmade Books series are some limited edition volumes, such as those produced by Waldman's Erudite Fangs Press.

The Printed Material series (4 linear feet, 1 oversize box, and 1 portfolio) encompasses the subseries Broadsides; Posters, Flyers, and Programs; and Clippings. Broadsides are broken down into those by Anne Waldman, Collaborations (between Waldman and others), and Others--that is, works by others. Within these divisions, work is arranged alphabetically, first by author, then by title. Also included in Broadsides are postcards and bookmarks printed by various small presses. Oversize broadsides are housed separately.

Material in the Posters, Flyers, and Programs subseries is for the most part grouped chronologically. Separate, topical divisions have been made for undated material. Small press book catalogs and newsletters are included as separate divisions. Oversize posters are housed separately. The section labeled "Newsletters" consists of should really be viewed as a set of clippings, consisting as it does of single issues of various newsletters and some journals, most of which appear to have been saved for particular articles.

Clippings are arranged in rough chronological order by decade, where date is known. The vast majority of the clippings pertain to Waldman and her circle, although some clippings reflect topical interests. Some of these appear to have been saved by Waldman's mother, Frances LeFevre Waldman. In some cases, whole publications have been saved, either due to their content or to their rare or unusual nature.

Art (1 linear foot, 10 oversize boxes, and 1 portfolio) is made up of artworks by Waldman and her family and friends, as well as various pieces she has collected over the years. Work in many different media exists, including prints, paintings, sketches, drawings, and collages. Much of Waldman's work consists of prints done while a student at Bennington College. There are also exquisite corpses (collaboratively created pictures and writings, done in-the-round) by Anne Waldman, Reed Bye, and Ambrose Bye. According to Waldman, this was a frequent after-dinner pastime when Ambrose was young, and friends and guests, such as Bobbie Louise Hawkins, were invited to participate.

Cover Art includes "Collaborations," which consist of collaborative book-length works and not just cover art per se. Additional cover art may be found in the among the Rocky Ledge files within the Editing and Publishing series. Noteworthy among the artists represented are George Schneeman and Joe Brainard.

The Photographs, Slides and Negatives series consists of approximately 2.5 linear feet of photographic materials documenting a variety of subjects, including Waldman's childhood and school years, her large circle of friends and colleagues, and her publishing and performance activities.

The Personal subseries contains personal and informal photographs of Waldman and others. Photographs in the "Family and childhood" folder include photographs of Waldman as a child, as well as other family members. The high school and college photographs include several photographs of Waldman as a young actress. The bulk of the Personal subseries consists of the "Friends and colleagues" photographs. These photographs include images of many prominent late twentieth century poets, Waldman's husbands and significant others, and other friends and colleagues. Waldman herself is pictured in some of the friends and colleagues photographs.

One of the strengths of the Professional subseries is the large amount of photographs of Waldman performing. The performance photographs, which date from the late 1960s to mid 1990s, sometimes include images of other poets and performers. Also included are several folders of portraits and publicity photographs, photographs created for various book and publishing projects, photographs of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, and photographs documenting Waldman's activities at Naropa University and the St. Marks Poetry Project. The St. Mark's photographs include images of New York School and other poets performing at the church. The Professional subseries also includes several photographs taken by photographer, poet, and filmmaker Gerard Malanga. Although Malanga photographs can be found within several of the groupings in the Professional subseries, the majority can be found within the portraits grouping. A Malanga portrait of Waldman and her mother, Frances, has been filed with the family photographs.

The Outsize subseries consists of photographs too large to be housed with the rest of the photograph series. The highlights of the outsize photographs include two photographs taken by Allen Ginsberg which include handwritten captions by Ginsberg.

The Albums and Scrapbooks subseries complements the friends and colleagues photographs found in the Personal subseries. In addition to photographs documenting Waldman's travels in Greece and Egypt in the early sixties, the albums contain numerous photographs of Waldman and her circle in the late sixties and early seventies. Photographs of Lewis Warsh, Michael Brownstein, Joe Brainard, Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan, Tom Clark, Bill Berkson, and others can all be found in the albums. The albums have been arranged chronologically.

The Slides and Negatives subseries consists primarily of miscellaneous and unidentified slides and negatives. The subseries does contain a few slides of Waldman performing.

The researcher should note that a small number of photographs sent to Waldman by specific correspondents can be found within the Correspondence and Name File series.

The Audiovisual Series has been divided into four subseries: Sound Recordings, Video Tapes, DVDs, and Digital Files. The series provides a unique perspective on Waldman's activities, and thus complements and expands the manuscript and photographic holdings. Including recordings of readings, lectures, and interviews given by Waldman and others, the series strongly represents the sounds and voices of late 20th century American poetry.

The Sound Recordings subseries has been organized according to format, including LPs and 45s, Compact Discs, Reels, and Audio Cassettes. In order to facilitate access, each sound recording has been numbered. Recordings are numbered sequentially within each subseries. Titles indicated in quotation marks in the finding aid are quoted directly from the labels of the recordings. In a few cases, particularly within the Commercial Recordings grouping, quotation marks are also used to indicate the title of a poem or work.

The LPs and 45s, Compact Discs, and Reels represent a relatively small part of the subseries. The LPs and 45s include the 1977 LP "John Giorno and Anne Waldman," as well as Waldman's "Uh-Oh Plutonium" 45, and a "voice-o-graph" recording of Waldman and Michael Brownstein. The Compact Discs subseries consists of commercial recordings of Waldman, including a live 1991 performance in Amsterdam which includes an accompanying booklet of poems.

Reels include recordings related to a variety of subjects. Included are Waldman performances at radio stations and elsewhere, television shows related to poetry, a commercial recording of Fast Speaking Woman , and a recording of Waldman while acting. To facilitate access, the recordings in this group have been transferred onto recordable compact discs. The numbering and labeling of the compact discs corresponds to the numbering of the reels.

The largest part of the subseries is comprised of Cassettes, which include readings and lectures by Waldman and other poets, interviews, radio broadcasts featuring Waldman, commercial recordings, Waldman's recording projects, and other miscellaneous recordings. Spanning the years 1971-2002, the readings include recordings of Waldman reading with Ted Berrigan, Allen Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, Gary Snyder and others. In addition, there are several recordings of readings not by Anne Waldman, including performances by Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, Philip Whalen and others. Lectures by Waldman at Naropa Institute and in other settings, and lectures by William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, Carl Rakosi, and Peter Orlovsky are included.

Interviews and conversations represent the strongest part of the series. In addition to an interview of Waldman conducted by Larry Fagin, tapes of interviews of Joe Brainard, Edwin Denby, Diane di Prima, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, and Philip Whalen are included, many conducted by Waldman. There are two recordings of "conversations," one with Waldman, Clark Coolidge, Lewis MacAdams, and others, and one with Waldman, Tom Clark, Lewis Warsh, Lewis MacAdams, and Philip Whalen. Of note is a cassette recording of Allen Ginsberg orally composing the introduction to Talking Poetics from Naropa Institute: Annals of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. To facilitate access, the cassette recordings have been transferred onto recordable compact discs. The numbering and labeling of the compact discs corresponds to the numbering of the cassette tapes.

Video recordings consists of 42 VHS videocassettes, one 8mm film reel and ten DVDs. The readings, performances and lectures grouping includes performances from 1990 to 1998 and is the primary strength of the subseries. In addition to Waldman's performances, the tapes include readings by Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Ed Sanders and others. Most of the tapes in the programs and television shows grouping were produced commercially or for television shows. The highlight of the grouping is a tape which includes seven episodes of "Word One," a Boulder, Colorado cable access television show hosted by Waldman, which includes performances by Allen Ginsberg, Kenward Elmslie and other poets. The programs and television shows grouping also includes a tape of "poetry videos" from the Manhattan Poetry Video Project, including music videos of Waldman's "Uh-Oh Plutonium," Allen Ginsberg's "Father Death Blues," and Bob Holman's "Rapp It Up." The personal and miscellaneous grouping includes a videotape copy of a home movie of Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Ted Berrigan and others. DVD copies of the first 27 videotapes and the film reel in the subseries (WALDVID-1 to WALDVID-27) are available for viewing in the reading room of the Special Collections Library, with advance notice for retrieval and setup. The ten original DVDs in the subseries are labeled with the prefix WALDDVD- and consist mainly of Anne Waldman poetry readings, and collaborative events such as Transatlantic Howl! A Dedication to Allen Ginsberg, a multivenue event featuring poetry readings and poetic theatre pieces celebrating Ginsberg's poem Howl.

The Digital Files subseries includes backups of email correspondence, files on Waldman's poems and books, such as parts I and II of the Iovis Trilogy and the anthology Civil Disobediences, and interviews. Most of these materials are stored on floppy disks and have not been transferred to viewable digital media.

Biographical / Historical:

Internationally recognized and acclaimed poet Anne Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community, a culture she has helped create and nurture for over four decades as writer, editor, teacher, performer, magpie scholar, infra-structure curator, and cultural/political activist. Her poetry is recognized in the lineage of Whitman and Ginsberg, and in the Beat, New York School, and Black Mountain trajectories of the New American Poetry. Yet she remains a highly original “open field investigator” of consciousness, committed to the possibilities of radical shifts of language and states of mind to create new modal structures and montages of attention. Her work is energetic, passionate, panoramic, fierce at times. She is the author of more than 40 books, including the mini-classic Fast Speaking Woman, a collection of essays entitled Vow to Poetry and several selected poems editions including Helping the Dreamer, Kill or Cure and In the Room of Never Grieve. She has concentrated on the long poem as a cultural intervention with such projects as Marriage: A Sentence, Structure of The World Compared to a Bubble, and Manatee/Humanity, which is a book-length rhizomic meditation on evolution and endangered species, and the monumental anti-war feminist epic The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment, a 25 year project.

She was one of the founders and directors of The Poetry Project at St. Marks’s Church In-the-Bowery, working there for twelve years. She also co-founded with Allen Ginsberg the celebrated Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, the first Buddhist inspired University in the western hemisphere, in 1974. Ginsberg has called Waldman his “spiritual wife.” She is a Distinguished Professor of Poetics at Naropa and continues to work to preserve the school’s substantial literary/oral archive. She has edited and co-edited many collections based on the holdings of the Kerouac School including Civil Disobediences andBeats at Naropa. She is also the editor of Nice to See You, an homage to poet Ted Berrigan, The Beat Book, and co-editor of The Angel Hair Anthology.

She has been a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, a fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, and has held the Emily Harvey residency in Venice. She has worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and at the Women’s Christian College in Tokyo. She has presented her work at conferences and festivals around the world, most recently in Wuhan, Beijing, Berlin, Nicaragua, Prague, Kerala, Mumbai, Calcutta, Marrakech, and Madrid. Her work has been translated into numerous languages.

Waldman works with the anti-nuclear Guardianship Project in Boulder and was arrested in the 1970s with Allen Ginsberg and activist Daniel Ellsberg at Rocky Flats, which led to a commitment to the accountability for nuclear waste to future generations, a vow that according to Waldman is “a nearly quarter of a million year project.”

“Waldman’s work is the antithesis of stasis. . . . She is a flame,” as one reviewer has noted.

She has also collaborated extensively with a number of artists, musicians, and dancers, including George Schneeman, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Tuttle, Donna Dennis, and Pat Steir, and the theatre director Judith Malina. Her play “Red Noir” was produced by the Living Theatre and ran for nearly three months in New York City in 2010. She has also been working most recently with other media including audio, film and video, with her husband, writer and video/film director Ed Bowes, and with her son, musician and composer Ambrose Bye. Publishers Weekly recently referred to Waldman as “a counter-cultural giant.”

“Cyborg on the Zattere,” with music by composer Steven Taylor and 12 performers, including cellist Ha-Yang Kim and reed instrumentalist Marty Erlich and a Renaissance trio, premiered at the Douglas Dunn Salon in Spring of 2011. This “Poundatorio” takes on the “knot” of Ezra Pound, his poetics and politics. It includes settings for parts of the Pisan Cantos.

She was active in Occupy Art, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street in NYC, and has recently been involved in projects around the theme of Symbiosis, which studies the interaction between two or more different biological species. “The living together of unlike organisms,” a challenge for our times. How to include the cyborg? How to insure / take better care of the “human” in relation. Fight the pipelines and induced hydraulic fracturing. More arts in education!

Waldman is a recipient of 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, and has recently been appointed a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. The Huffington Post named her one of the top advocates for American poetry.

Waldman divides her time between New York City and Boulder, Colorado.

("About," annewaldman.org. Retrieved 2015-08-31)

Acquisition Information:

Acquired from Anne Waldman, beginning in 1998. Selected Naropa material donated by Naropa University in 2012.

Processing information:

Finding aid prepared by Rebecca Bizonet, Daniel Santamaria (2001-2002), Rosemary Pal (2013-2014), Beth Myerowitz (2015)..

Arrangement:

The Anne Waldman papers are divided into sixteen series: Biographical; Correspondence and Name File; Writing; Journals and Notebooks; Editing and Publishing; Naropa; Other Activities; Personal; Early Years; Family; Handmade Books; Printed Material; Art; Photographs, Slides, and Negatives; Audiovisual; and Oversize. Researchers should note that books and serial publications from Waldman's library have been separated from the collection and cataloged individually.

• Biographical -- Box 1
• Correspondence
  • Name File -- Boxes 2-21
  • Miscellaneous Correspondence -- Boxes 21-24
  • Unidentified and Outgoing Correspondence -- Box 25
  • Email -- Box 26
• Writing
  • Early Work and Fiction -- Box 28
  • Essays, Speeches, and Interviews -- Boxes 28-29
  • Poetry -- Boxes 29-38
• Journals and Notebooks -- Boxes 39-43
• Editing and Publishing
  • Small Press and Little Magazine -- Boxes 44-46
  • Books -- Boxes 46-56
• Naropa -- Boxes 56-63
• Other Activities -- Boxes 64-65
• Personal -- Boxes 65-67, oversize box 96
• Early Years -- Boxes 67-69, oversize box 97
• Family -- Boxes 69-72, oversize box 95
• Handmade Books -- Boxes 73-76
• Printed Material
  • Broadsides -- Box 77, oversize boxes x
  • Posters, Flyers, and Programs -- Boxes 77-79, portfolio 1, oversize box 98
  • Clippings -- Box 79-80
• Art -- Boxes 81-82, portfolio 2, oversize boxes 99-108
• Photographs, Slides, and Negatives -- Boxes 83, 84, 98
• Audiovisual
  • Sound Recordings -- Boxes 85-90
  • Videotapes and Digital Files -- Box 91-92
• Oversize - - Boxes 93-108

Related

Separated Material:

Published books and serials have been cataloged separately.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

American poetry -- 20th century.
Artists -- United States.
Authors and publishers.
Beat generation -- United States.
Bohemianism -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Buddhism and education -- United States.
Experimental poetry, American.
Oral interpretation of poetry.
Performance art -- United States.
Poetics.
Poetry -- Study and teaching.
Poetry -- United States.
Poetry.
Poets, American.
Politics and literature.
Social change in literature.
Spiritual life--Buddhism--United States.
Women authors, American.
Women poets, American.
Women publishers--United States.

Formats:

Artists' books.
Audiotapes.
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Drafts (documents)
Drawings.
Manuscripts for publication.
Manuscripts.
Paintings.
Photographs.
Poems.
Posters.
Slides (photographs).
Student projects.
Videotapes.

Names:

Abbott, Keith, 1944-
Abrams, Sam
Alcalay, Ammiel
Anderson, Laurie, 1947-
Andrews, Bruce, 1948-
Antler, 1946-
Ashbery, John, 1927-
Ball, Gordon
Banks, Russell, 1940-
Baraka, Amina
Baraka, Imamu Amiri, 1934-
Baxter, Glen
Beltrametti, Franco
Berkson, Bill
Bernstein, Charles, 1950-
Berrigan, Ted
Berssenbrugge, Mei-Mei, 1947-
Bly, Robert
Bockris, Victor, 1949-
Boudin, Jean
Brainard, Joe, 1942-1994
Brand, Stewart
Brautigan, Richard
Bremser, Bonnie, 1939-
Brook, Donna, 1944-
Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917-2000
Brownstein, Michael, 1943-
Bukowski, Charles
Burckhardt, Rudy
Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997
Bye, Ambrose
Bye, Reed
Cage, John
Carroll, Jim
Chr?ibkova´, Marie, 1969-
Clark, Tom, 1941-
Clay, Steven, 1951-
Codrescu, Andrei, 1946-
Cohen, Ira
Collom, Jack, 1931-
Coolidge, Clark, 1939-
Cope, David,, 1948-
Corso, Gregory
Creeley, Robert, 1926-2005
Denby, Edwin, 1903-1983
Di Prima, Diane
Dorn, Edward
Duncan, Robert Edward, 1919-1988
Dunn, Douglas
Dworkin, Andrea
Dylan, Bob, 1941-
Eigner, Larry, 1927-
Elmslie, Kenward
Eshleman, Clayton
Fagin, Larry
Faithfull, Marianne
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
Field, Thalia,, 1966-
Ford, Charles Henri
Foss, Phillip
Foye, Raymond, 1957-
Galassi, Jonathan
Gallup, Dick, 1941-
Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997
Giorno, John
Glassgold, Peter, 1939-
Goldberg, Natalie
Greenwald, Ted
Grooms, Red
Guest, Barbara
Gustafson, Jim
Guston, Philip, 1913-1980
Hall, Donald, 1928-
Hawkins, Bobbie Louise, 1930-
Hejinian, Lyn
Heller, Michael, 1937-
Hershon, Robert
Hiler, Jerome.
Hollo, Anselm
Holman, Bob, 1948-
Hornick, Lita R., 1927-
Horowitz, Michael, 1938-
Hoyem, Andrew
Jacquette, Yvonne, 1934-
Johns, Jasper, 1930-
Johnston, Alastair, 1950-
Katz, Alex, 1927-
Kelly, Robert, 1935-
Kerouac, Jan, 1952-
Kesey, Ken
Kinnel, Galway.
Koch, Kenneth, 1925-2002
Kornblum, Allan, 1949-
Kostelanetz, Richard
Kyger, Joanne
Lacy, Steve
LeFevre, Frances
Lenhart, Gary
Lesniak, Rose, 1955-
LeSueur, Joe
Levertov, Denise, 1923-1997
Levine, Les, 1935-
Lifshin, Lyn
Mac Low, Jackson
MacAdams, Lewis, 1944-
Malanga, Gerard
Mapplethorpe, Robert
Mayer, Bernadette
McClure, Michael
McGrath, Thomas, 1916-1990
McNaughton, Duncan
Meltzer, Richard
Merwin, W. S., (William Stanley), 1927-
Mikolowski, Ann
Mikolowski, Ken
Moore, Honor, 1945-
Morice, Dave, 1946-
Myles, Eileen
Nations, Opal L.
Nemerov, Howard
Noel, Susan
North, Charles, 1941-
Notley, Alice, 1945-
Oliver, Akilah
Oliver, Douglas
Oppenheimer, Joel, 1930-1988
Orlovsky, Peter, 1933-2010
Osman, Jena
Padgett, Ron, 1942-
Patchen, Mirian.
Perloff, Marjorie
Rakosi, Carl, 1903-2004
Reed, Ishmael, 1938-
Reed, Lou
Ricard, Rene, 1946-
Richey, Joseph
Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002
Rockwell, Martha.
Rosenquist, James, 1933-
Rosenthal, Bob, 1950-
Rothenberg, Jerome, 1931-
Sakaki, Nanao
Sanders, Ed
Saroyan, Aram
Scalapino, Leslie
Schelling, Andrew
Schiff, Harris
Schjeldahl, Peter
Schneeman, George
Schuyler, James
Shepard, Sam, 1943-
Sike´liano`s, Eleni
Silliman, Ronald, 1946-
Smedman, Lorna
Smith, Pat.
Smith, Patti
Snyder, Gary, 1930-
Swenson, Cole, 1955-
Swenson, May
Talese, Gay
Tanner, Wesley B.
Tarn, Nathaniel
Taylor, Steven.
Thomas, Lorenzo, 1944-2005
Torregian, Sotère
Trungpa, Cho¨gyam, 1939-1987
Tysh, Christine.
Tysh, George, 1942-
Veitch, Tom
Vogelsang, Arthur
Wakoski, Diane
Wang, Ping, 1957-
Warsh, Lewis
Washington, Jerome, 1939-
Whalen, Philip
Wieners, John, 1934-2002
Wilentz, Ted
Wilkie, Britton
Wright, Rebecca, 1942-
Yates, Katie
Zweig, Ellen, 1947-

Places:

Boulder (Colo.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
New York (N.Y.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
United States.--Intellectual life--20th century.