Kirby Doyle Papers
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2015
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Descriptive Summary
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Kirby Doyle Papers
Creator:
Doyle, Kirby
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0757
Physical Description:
0.8 Linear feet
(3 archives boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1960 - 2003
Abstract: Papers of American poet and novelist Kirby Doyle, who was associated with the San Francisco Renaissance poets and the Beat
Generation. Doyle's papers include biographical information, correspondence, photographs, and published and unpublished writings.
Languages:
English
.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 1995, 2013, 2021.
Preferred Citation
Kirby Doyle Papers, MSS 757. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Biography
Poet and novelist Kirby Doyle was born on November 27, 1932 in San Francisco. At the age of 16, he left school and, with
a bogus birth certificate, joined the U.S. Army where, he later claimed, he "learned poetics operating electrical power generators."
After a brief stint working as a laborer in Europe, he returned to live in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, where he
eventually enrolled at San Francisco State College (now University) to study art. A course with Kenneth Rexroth inspired him
to try writing poetry, some of which was published in the college's literary magazine. At both the college's Poetry Center
and his wife DiDi's new bookstore The Golden Bough, he met other poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, including Michael
McClure, Lew Welch (his 'best bro,' according to McClure), and John Wieners, each of whom helped him publish poems, and, along
with Blake and the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho, became major influences; Wieners introduced him to the work of Charles
Olson, whose work inspired Doyle's "After Olson" (1984). Doyle's life in "the Fill" during the 1950s and 60s was an almost
stereotypical example of the Beat generation lifestyle. "We were all thieves and outlaws," wrote McClure, "but gentle souls."
On his immersion in contemporary poetry, Doyle later wrote that "the doors of plausibility swung wide open, for the first
time in my life." The thirty-six Sappho-influenced lyric poems that became
Sapphobones were written during the years 1957-59, but not published until 1966 (by Diana di Prima's Poets Press); they are marked by
sexual passion but also a tone of anger and perhaps misogyny. His work and reputation were given a boost by his appearance
in the special San Francisco Renaissance (Spring 1958) issue of
Chicago Review and the inclusion of one of his poems two years later in Donald Allen's highly influential anthology
The New American Poetry, 1945-1960.
He considered his first novel,
Happiness Bastard, written in New York City in 1959-60 but not published until 1968, to be a poetic novel and "a Romantic fallacy"; it reflected
the drug abuse and poverty with which he was very familiar by this time and that only worsened after his return to San Francisco
in the early 1960s. The composition, typed on a continuous roll of teletype paper (now at the Houghton Library at Harvard),
is reminiscent of Jack Kerouac's manuscript for
On the Road. McClure has described it as "the most grotesque and hilarious novel I'd ever seen." A short sequel,
Angel Faint, also appeared in 1968. A collection of poems entitled
Crepescule [sic] for th' Coast, with a more ironic tone than
Sapphobones, was written in the early 1960s but not published until they appeared in his
Collected Poems (1983).
From 1968 until 1980, Doyle lived alone, mostly in communes and remote wilderness areas of northern California such as Mt.
Tamalpais and Olema. He wrote little if any new poetry or fiction during those years. Peter Coyote, who lived "on and off
for years" with Doyle, called him "Radio Doyle, because his 'transmissions' of insights, jeremiads...and epiphanies were like
broadcasts from another realm." In the late 1970s, back in San Francisco, Doyle had a relationship with the poet and photographer
Tisa Walden, who inspired the "Poems for Lithe Tisa" in the
Collected Poems. His addiction to drugs and alcohol led her to end the relationship; she also recognized that the addictive behavior was
"clearly an attempt to 'self-medicate' a severe mental illness."
Doyle published no books of poetry longer than 40 pages after the
Collected appeared in 1983. He was working, on and off, on a quite large poem sequence "Pre American Ode" (the extant manuscripts for
which are in this archive) in which "Pre," inspired by a photograph of a Victorian girl, becomes the "prime matter that existed
before man...a genius in nature" in Raymond Foye's words. The text interweaves references to world history, classical poetry,
Norse law and horticulture among many other subjects. Also left unfinished is the manuscript for another novel,
White Flesh.
Doyle continued to give occasional readings and edit little magazines, but interrelated addictions, poverty, and poor health
lead to a continual decline over the last two decades of his life. He died on April 5, 2003 in Laguna Honda Hospital in San
Francisco. He was one of the few writers of the San Francisco Renaissance who were both born and died in the city.
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers of American poet and novelist Kirby Doyle, who was associated with the San Francisco Renaissance poets and the Beat
Generation. Doyle's papers include biographical information, correspondence, photographs, and published and unpublished writings.
Four folders of letters Doyle wrote to Sheri Mignano Crawford in the mid-1980s were added in 2021.
Arranged in four series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS BY DOYLE and 4) PHOTOGRAPHS.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Doyle, Kirby -- Archives
BIOGRAPHICAL
Scope and Content of Series
Series 1) BIOGRAPHICAL: Biographies and news clippings regarding Doyle; a review of two of his published works; and flyers
for readings by Doyle and other poets in the San Francisco area. Arranged alphabetically.
Box 1, Folder 1
Clark, Tom. "From a Beat and Hip Survivor." Review of
The Collected Poems of Kirby Doyle (1983) and
After Olson (1984) for
San Francisco Chronicle Review
1984 October 28
Box 1, Folder 2
Coyote, Peter, Michael McClure and Jack Foley. Essays on Kirby Doyle in
Beat Scene 43
2003 Summer
Box 1, Folder 3
Ephemera
1993-2003 and undated
Box 1, Folder 4
Foye, Raymond. "Kirby Doyle: 'That Which Brings the Heart to Vocal.'"
Poetry Project 109
1984 November
Box 1, Folder 5
Obituary.
North Beach Journal
2003 June
CORRESPONDENCE
Scope and Content of Series
Series 2) CORRESPONDENCE: Incoming correspondence primarily from Doyle's mother and from poets Roderick Iverson and Tisa Walden,
and one letter from Doyle to his mother. Four folders of letters written by Doyle to Sheri Mignano Crawford were added in
2021.
Box 1, Folder 6
Doyle, J. (Kirby Doyle's mother)
1992-1994
General
Incoming and outgoing correspondence.
Box 1, Folder 7
Iverson, Roderick
1993-1994
Box 1, Folder 9
Miscellaneous correspondence
1990-1994
Box 3, Folder 1-4
Doyle to Sheri Mignano Crawford
1983-1985
WRITINGS BY DOYLE
Scope and Content of Series
Series 3) WRITINGS BY DOYLE: Published and unpublished writings by Doyle, including "Coup in an Etude," a handwritten booklet
of poetry; "A Few Lines to my Uncle," an epistolary essay;
Hand o' Man, a collection of poetry drafts, both handwritten and typescript, with a letter from Doyle to publisher Raymond Foye;
Pre American Ode, Doyle's poetic opus, with a flyer depicting the photograph that inspired Doyle; poetry transcripts from
The Floating Bear; and a notebook with handwritten poetry and essay drafts. Arranged alphabetically.
Box 1, Folder 11
A Few Lines to My Uncle
undated
Box 1, Folder 12
The Floating Bear poetry typescripts
1960-1969
General
5 leaves. Includes: The sun strikes my house, What the voices said to me, Your word finder is yourself, Poem to a mountain
girl, Letter to Freddy Herko.
Box 1, Folder 13-15
Hand o' Man
ca. 1993
General
Handwritten and typescript drafts, and correspondence.
Pre American Ode, Book One
1982
Box 1, Folder 16-18
Odes First - Eleventh
General
Typescript drafts.
Box 2, Folder 1-2
Odes Twelfth - Seventeenth
General
Typescript and handwritten drafts, and ephemera.
Box 2, Folder 4
Poems - Miscellaneous drafts
2003 and undated
PHOTOGRAPHS
Scope and Content of Series
Series 4) PHOTOGRAPHS: Photographs of Kirby Doyle and other San Francisco poets, including Gregory Corso, John Mueller, John
Wieners, and Kaye McDonough. Photographers' names are given when known. Arranged alphabetically.
Box 2, Folder 5
Chris Felver, photographer
ca. 1980
Box 2, Folder 6
Raymond Foye, photographer
1984
Box 2, Folder 7
Kirby Doyle and Gregory Corso
undated
Box 2, Folder 8
Kirby Doyle and John Mueller
undated
Box 2, Folder 9
Kirby Doyle and John Wieners
1980
Box 2, Folder 10
Kirby Doyle and Kaye McDonough at City Lights book party
1984 May
