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Kyger (Joanne) Correspondence
MSS 0008  
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Description
The correspondence of Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), an important member of the 'post-beat' West Coast poetry community, mostly dating from 1957 to 1972. Included are letters, cards, drawings, and poems from Joe Brainard, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Spicer, Lewis Warsh, and Philip Whalen. Also included are eight folders of correspondence between Kyger and Gary Snyder, to whom Kyger was married from 1960 to 1964.
Background
Joanne Elizabeth Kyger was a West Coast poet who emerged as the Beat movement was beginning to wane in the 1960s. The daughter of Jacob and Anne Kyger, she was born November 19, 1934. Her father's career as a navy officer led to a peripatetic early life: by the time she was fourteen she had lived in Vallejo, Ca. (where she was born), China, Washington, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Illinois. Her father retired in 1949, and the family settled permanently in Santa Barbara, California.
Extent
3.4 Linear feet (9 archives boxes)