Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Armantrout (Rae) Papers
M1211
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Rae Armantrout papers
Creator:
Armantrout, Rae
Identifier/Call Number: M1211
Identifier/Call Number: 1449
Physical Description:
23 Linear Feet
(48 manuscript boxes, 3 half boxes)
Physical Description:
28.16 gigabyte(s)
(digital files, including 2 email accounts)
Date (inclusive): circa 1970-2022
Abstract: The collection documents Rae Armantrout's writing and teaching career from the 1970s through 2022.
Physical Location: Special Collections materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance.
The collection is open for research, with the exception of the born-digital materials, which are closed until processed. Note
that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Two files in the 2022 addendum are restricted
until 2032 and 2037.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers: MSS.2001-095, MSS.2001-140. This collection was purchased by Stanford University, Special Collections
in April and May 2001. Additional materials were acquired in 2022.
The collection is arranged in six series:
Series 1: Correspondence
Series 2: Notebooks
Series 3: Writing
Series 4: Teaching Materials
Series 5: Photographs
Series 6: Addendum - Accession 2022-125
Poet and essayist Rae Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California, in 1947 and grew up in San Diego. Graduating from the University
of California, Berkeley, in 1970, she studied under Denise Levertov. Armantrout also received a master's degree in creative
writing at San Francisco State University in 1975. Armantrout is the author of many books, including,
Versed (2009), for which she won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She also was a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry in 2008 and received
a National Book Critics Circle AwardA founding member of the West Coast "Language Poetry" movement, Armantrout worked closely
with a dynamic group of writers including Ron Silliman, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, Steve Benson, Barret Watten, Tom Mandel,
and Carla Harryman. Although Language poetry can be seen as advocating a poetics of nonreferentiality, Armantrout's work,
focusing as it often does on the local and the domestic, resists such definitions. Armantrout's work has been the subject
of numerous essays (some of which are gathered in
A Wild Salience: The Writings of Rae Armantrout, a collection dedicated to her work), and an entry in the
Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 193). In addition to her literary output, Armantrout taught at the University of California, San Diego, for more than
two decades.
Fanny Howe Papers, M0648, M0768, M0848
Marjorie Perloff Papers, M1504
[Identification of item], Rae Armantrout papers (M1211). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries,
Stanford, Calif.
The collection contains correspondence, notebooks, typescripts, teaching materials, and photographs. Much of the correspondence,
from the late 1970s to 2022, consists of substantive letters and emails from other poets and writers, including Lydia Davis,
Fanny Howe, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, and Ron Silliman. The notebooks in the collection record random thoughts from which
Armantrout's poems often evolved. The collection also includes typescripts for Armantrout's books, including
Precedence (1985),
Necromance (1989),
Made to Seem (1995),
True (1996),
Versed (2009),
Just Saying (2013),
Itself (2015), and
Wobble (2018), as well as typescripts for other miscellaneous poems and essays. Teaching materials in the collection consist of
Armantrout's lecture notes, syllabi, and course readers for classes on poetry and personal narrative taught at the University
of California, San Diego from the mid-1980s to the 2010s. Additional materials in the addendum include some personal papers,
reviews, and drafts of speeches and talks given by Armantrout.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American poetry -- 20th century.
Women authors.
Davis, Lydia.
Armantrout, Rae
Howe, Fanny
Perelman, Bob
Hejinian, Lyn.
Silliman, Ronald