David Bromige Correspondence
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2018
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Languages:
English
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: David Bromige Correspondence
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0006
Physical Description:
0.25 Linear feet
(1 archives box)
Date (inclusive): 1962-1972
Abstract: The correspondence of poet, playwright, and educator David Bromige (1933-2009).
Scope and Content of Collection
The David Bromige Correspondence includes exchanges with such noted American writers as Ted Berrigan, Robert Bly, Richard
Brautigan, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Clayton Eshleman, Denise Levertov, George Oppen, and Gary Snyder. The collection
is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. The materials cover the period from approximately 1962 to 1972 and include copies
of written materials and often detailed exchanges concerning publishing and readings.
David Mansfield Bromige, who resided in the Bay Area, is often associated with the Black Mountain School via the Vancouver
nexus of poets centered around the magazine
Tish.
He was born to Harold and Ada Bromige on 22 October 1933 in London, England, where his father was a director of documentary
films. Until he settled in the Bay Area in the early '70s, Bromige led a peripatetic life: he travelled, held various jobs,
and received an education in Europe, Canada, and the United States.
After attending prep school at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Boys in London, Bromige worked from 1950 to 1953 as a cowman
on dairy farms in England, Sweden, and Canada. During the '50s he also supported himself as an attendant in mental hospitals
in Canada and as an elementary school teacher in England and Vancouver, British Columbia. In the early 1960s he served as
a freelance critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Vancouver.
It was during his years in Vancouver that Bromige began gaining a reputation for his writing. In 1961 he won the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation's Playwriting Prize for "The Cobalt Poet," and in 1962 he won the KVOS TV Playwriting Prize for "Save
What You Can." In 1961 Bromige divorced his wife of four years, actress Ann Livingston, and married Joan Peacock, with whom
he had a son, Christopher.
Bromige received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1962. That same year he began working toward his Master's
Degree at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later he received his degree from Berkeley and returned to the
University of British Columbia, where he worked as an instructor in English for a short time. Bromige then returned to Berkeley
where he continued his studies and taught from 1964 to 1970. In 1965 he published his first book,
The Gathering, and he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the poetry of Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan - Duncan having been particularly influential
to Bromige's own work. In 1970 Bromige married the writer Sherril Jaffe, and he began teaching English at Sonoma State University
in Rohnert Park, California - a position he held until his retirement in 1993.
Much of Bromige's influence on contemporary poetry has been the result of his association with various journals. He was poetry
editor of the
Northwest Review (1963-64), and editor of
Raven (1960-62),
R.C. Lion (1966-67), and
Open Reading (1972-76).
Starting with his earliest work, Bromige's poetry has been centered on the page, not in the "real" world. He describes his
writing as an exploration process, saying, "I am interested in poetry as speech arising from dumb desire and passion and arousing
further word clusters until constellations emerge I had previously no knowledge were within me."
Bromige's publications include:
The Gathering (Sumbooks, 1965),
Please, Like Me (Black Sparrow Press, 1968),
The Ends of the Earth (Black Sparrow Press, 1968),
The Quivering Roadway (Archangel Press, 1969),
In His Image (Twybyl Press, 1970),
Threads (Black Sparrow Press, 1970),
The Fact So of Itself (1971),
They Are Eyes (Panjandrum Press, 1972),
Birds of the West (Coach House Press, 1973),
Ten Years in the Making: Selected Poems, Songs, and Stories, 1961-1970 (Vancouver Community Press, 1973),
Tight Corners and What's Around Them (Black Sparrow Press, 1974),
Spells and Blessings (Talon Press, 1974),
Out of My Hands (Black Sparrow Press, 1974),
Credences of Winter, (Black Sparrow Press, 1976),
My Poetry (The Figures, 1980),
Red Hats (Tonsure Press, 1986), and
Desire: Selected Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 1988). Bromige died in Sebastopol, California in 2009.
David Bromige Correspondence, MSS 6. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquired 1978.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American poetry -- 20th century
Bly, Robert -- Correspondence
Bromige, David -- Archives
Berrigan, Ted -- Correspondence
Brautigan, Richard -- Correspondence
Corman, Cid -- Correspondence
Creeley, Robert, 1926-2005 -- Correspondence
Duncan, Robert, 1919-1988 -- Correspondence
Eshleman, Clayton -- Correspondence
Levertov, Denise, 1923-1997 -- Correspondence
Oppen, George -- Correspondence
Snyder, Gary, 1930- -- Correspondence
Wakoski, Diane -- Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE
Box 1, Folder 1
Box 1, Folder 5
Box 1, Folder 6
Box 1, Folder 8
Box 1, Folder 10