David Gansz Papers
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2009
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Descriptive Summary
Languages:
English
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: David Gansz Papers
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0678
Physical Description:
2.8 Linear feet
(7 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Date (inclusive): 1979-2004
Abstract: Papers of David Gansz, poet, librarian, educator, and author. Mentored by Robert Kelly at Bard College, Gansz became influenced
by the Black Mountain School, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Deep Image School. The collection contains correspondence
with prominent poets and scholars; manuscript and typescript drafts of his published book of collected poetry,
Millennial Scriptions: The Ashen Book of Logres (2000), and biographical materials including photographs, newsclippings, and reading announcements.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2007, 2012.
Preferred Citation
David Gansz Papers, MSS 678. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publishing Rights
Publishing rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers of David Gansz consist primarily of the drafts for the manuscript
Millennial Scriptions: The Ashen Book of Logres (2000). The collection also contains correspondence with poets, scholars, and colleagues and biographical materials including
newspaper clippings, book reviews, and photographs. The papers are arranged in three series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2)
MILLENNIAL SCRIPTIONS: THE ASHEN BOOK OF LOGRES, and 3) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS.
SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE
The CORRESPONDENCE series, arranged alphabetically, is comprised of correspondence both to and from prominent poets and scholars.
Among the major and well-known poets included are Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Diane DiPrima, Leland Hickman, Robert Kelly, Jackson
Mac Low, Gil Ott, Jerome Rothenberg, Leslie Scalapino, John Taggart, and Anne Waldman.
SERIES 2:
MILLENNIAL SCRIPTIONS: THE ASHEN BOOKS OF LOGRES (2000)
Published in 2000, the
MILLENNIAL SCRIPTIONS series contains the drafts for the published manuscript from 1980-2000. The arrangement constitutes all of the initial drafts
in chronological order as they were written in ten separate chapter units. Also included in this series is a CD,
Animadversions, created by Bill and John Storch, with a reading by David Gansz.
SERIES 3: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
Arranged alphabetically, the BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS series contains personal history documents including biographies, newspaper
articles, book reviews, and the Naropa Institute Allen Ginsberg Library Dedication ceremony audio recording. The series also
contains several photographs of David Ganz and others, including one of Robert Kelly taken by Gerard Malanga.
Biography
David Christopher Douglass Gansz was born May 3, 1960, in Morristown, New Jersey. He was raised in Philadelphia, where he
attended the William Penn Charter School, learning to play guitar, sing, and sight-read music. The family then moved to Greensboro,
North Carolina, when his father became Professor and Head of the Music Department at Guilford College. He returned north,
however, graduating from Westtown Friends Boarding School, just outside Philadelphia, in 1978, writing his senior paper on
the Surrealists.
Entering Bard College, he studied history with his advisor and mentor Leon Botstein. From 1980-1981, he was in residence at
Trinity College, Oxford University. He was awarded the University Diploma in Theology with Merit from the University of Kent
at Canterbury in 1981.
Gansz then returned to Bard College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History in 1982, writing his senior
thesis on "Art Under Akhenaten and Nefertiti." He remained at Bard's Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, where he studied
poetry with Robert Kelly, Gerrit Lansing, Jackson Mac Low, and prose with John Hawkes and William Gaddis. He earned his Master
of Fine Arts degree in Writing from Bard in 1986, his thesis being the book of poems entitled
Animadversions (the first book of
Millennial Scriptions).
From 1986-1993, he was Senior Contributing Editor of
Notus: New Writing magazine. During these years he was in touch with many of the poets and writers associated with the Beats, the Black Mountain
School, the Deep Image School, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E School, as well as contemporaries in
the United Kingdom, and he corresponded with many of them regarding both their writings and his. Exchanges of particular note
are those with friends and fellow poets including Robert Kelly, his mentor at Bard College.
Gansz was awarded an Individual Artist's Fellowship by the The Dutchess County Arts Council in Poughkeepsie, New York, for
his book
Sin Tactics (the second book of
Millennial Scriptions) in 1987. He was an editor of scholarly book manuscripts at the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, and worked in the University's music, fine arts, undergraduate, and graduate libraries. In 1993 he earned a MLS
from the University of Michigan. From 1993-1995 he served as an assistant professor and first director of the new Allen Ginsberg
Library at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
In 2000 Gansz published his poetic magnum opus,
Millennial Scriptions: The Ashen Book of Logres, gathering all early composed poetry with recently published materials. From 2001-2005 he was assistant professor of English
and director of the library at Wilmington College, a Quaker school in Wilmington, Ohio. During this time he was also editor
of
Educating for Peace and Social Justice (Wilmington College, 2002). In addition, he was founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Stone House Press (Devon, Pennsylvania),
which published his articles "Quaker Education: What Is It?" and "The Sacred Mission of Quaker Education," both in 2004. Since
2005, he has served as Associate Vice President for Academic Information and Technology at Edison State Community College,
Piqua, Ohio.
Restrictions
Materials contained in Box 7, Folder 4 require a listening copy to be produced and are restricted for use.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American poetry -- 20th century
Bernstein, Charles, 1950- -- Correspondence
Corman, Cid -- Correspondence
Creeley, Robert, 1926-2005 -- Correspondence
Economou, George -- Correspondence
Kelly, Robert, 1935- -- Correspondence
Gansz, David C. D. -- Archives
Box 1, Folder 7
Bernstein, Charles
1986-1998
Box 1, Folder 8
Berssenbrugge, Mei-Mei
1986
Box 1, Folder 12
Butterick, George
1986-1987
Box 1, Folder 14
Campbell, Bruce
1988-1992
Box 1, Folder 15
Cedrins, Peteris
1991-1993
Box 1, Folder 20
Creeley, Robert
1989-1994
Box 1, Folder 23
Donahue, Joseph
1996-1998
Box 1, Folder 26
Economou, George
1989-1997
Box 2, Folder 5
Fixel, Lawrence
1988-1995
Box 2, Folder 13
Grazide, Richard
1987-1996
Box 2, Folder 14
Hartigan, Grace
1985-1991
Box 3, Folder 1
Hickman, Leland
1987-1991
Box 3, Folder 1
Higgins, Richard
1987-1990
Box 3, Folder 6
Hutchinson, Alexander
1993-2000
Box 3, Folder 7
Irby, Kenneth, 1991-2001. Includes cassette tape
Box 3, Folder 8
Jordan, Barbara
1988-2001
Box 4, Folder 3
Lansing, Gerrit
1986-2000
Box 4, Folder 4
Loydell, Rupert
1990-1998
Box 4, Folder 6
Marriott, David S.
1995-1997
Box 4, Folder 8
McCaffery, Steve
1989-1990
Box 4, Folder 9
McClelland, Bruce (St. Lazaire Press, editor)
1989
Box 4, Folder 10
McPherson, Bruce
1995-1998
Box 4, Folder 12
Mikolowski, Ken
1988-1997
Box 4, Folder 15
Moore, Rt. Rev. Paul, Jr.
1985
Box 4, Folder 16
Morrow, Bradford
1988-1992
Box 4, Folder 17
Munsterberg, Hugo
1979-1986
Box 4, Folder 21
Palmer, Michael
1989-1995
Box 4, Folder 24
Prevallet, Kristin
1995-1998
Box 4, Folder 25
Provensen, Alice
1987-1991
Box 4, Folder 27
Raine, Kathleen
1989-1997
Box 5, Folder 1
Ricks, Christopher
1986-1990
Box 5, Folder 2
Ripley, Merrill
1990-1996
Box 5, Folder 3
Roditi, Edouard
1988-1989
Box 5, Folder 4
Rothenberg, Jerome
1996-1997
Box 5, Folder 7
Schelling, Andrew
1996-1998
Box 5, Folder 9
Shattuck, Cathleen
1991-1999
Box 5, Folder 15
Springtown Press
1988-1990
Box 5, Folder 20
Tillery, Patrick
1995-1996
Box 5, Folder 24
Utermohlen, Pat
1981, 2002
MILLENNIAL SCRIPTIONS: THE ASHEN BOOK OF LOGRES
Box 6, Folder 1
Book One: "Animadversions" - Typescript drafts
September 27, 1981-August, 1985
Box 6, Folder 2
Book Two: "Sin Tactics" - Typescript draft with handwritten edits
October, 1986-July, 1987
Box 6, Folder 3
Prelude: "From Truth to the Tribe" - Typescript drafts with handwritten edits and galley copies
August, 1987
Box 6, Folder 4
Book Three: "The Sentencing" - Typescript draft with handwritten edits and galley copies
November, 1988
Box 6, Folder 5
Book Four: "Per Missions" - Typescript draft with handwritten edits and page proofs
July, 1989-October, 1990
Box 6, Folder 6
Book Five: "Affirmations" - Typescripts draft with handwritten edits and page proofs
May 27, 1991-August, 1992
Box 6, Folder 7
Book Six: "The Enduring" - Typescript draft with handwritten edits
February, 1993-February, 1994
Box 6, Folder 8
Book Seven: "Re-Collection" - Handwritten and typescript drafts with handwritten edits
June, 1994-May, 1996
Box 6, Folder 9
Book Eight: "Lett(er)ings" - Handwritten and typescript drafts with handwritten edits
May-December, 1996
Box 6, Folder 10
Book Nine: "Co-Relation" - Handwritten and typescript drafts with handwritten edits
January-July, 1997
Box 6, Folder 11
Book Ten: "The Engrafting" - Handwritten and typescript draft with handwritten edits
September, 1998-May, 1999
Box 7, Folder 1
Page proofs - Annotated
2000
Box 7, Folder 2, Oversize FB-470-03
Box 7, Folder 3
CD -
Animadversions, Bill & John Storch, with David Gansz text and reading
ca. 1995
Box 7, Folder 4
Allen Ginsberg Library Dedication Ceremony, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Audio cassette tape
July 18, 1994
Conditions Governing Access
Restrictions Apply
Box 7, Folder 5
Miscellaneous book reviews, articles about David Gansz, reading announcements, and letters
1980-2003
Box 7, Folder 6
Photographs of David Gansz
Box 7, Folder 7
Photographs of others, including Robert Kelly
