Joanne Kyger Correspondence
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2005
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: Joanne Kyger Correspondence
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0008
Physical Description:
3.4 Linear feet
(9 archives boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1957-1975
Abstract: 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.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Joanne Kyger Correspondence includes letters, cards, poems, and drawings from Joe Brainard, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan,
R.T. Fields, Lewis Warsh, and Philip Whalen. It also includes Kyger's business correspondence with Saint James Press, Coyote
Press, and Black Sparrow Press, providing a glimpse into the publishing atmosphere of the late 60s and 70s.
The correspondence with Robert Duncan dates from 1959, when Kyger, Ebbe Borregaard, and Harold Dull all studied poetry with
Duncan in Stinson Beach. With the letters is Kyger's "Poem in the Time of Sick Deer," five leaves of original typescript,
with extensive notes in Duncan's hand. Duncan retyped the poem, incorporating his changes and again adding more notes.
Of particular interest are the eight folders containing Kyger's correspondence with Gary Snyder. The Kyger/Snyder collection
is filed chronologically and is made of two sources: forty-eight original letters and seven folders of photocopies of letters
obtained from Simon Fraser University. The originals and copies are mixed together, with the bulk of the collection covering
the period from August 1958 to December 1959. This was the period directly preceding Kyger's marriage to Snyder. During this
period Kyger was living in Bolinas and preparing for her journey to Japan, where Snyder was studying Buddhism. The letters
are highly informative as to the dynamic of their relationship. Both Kyger and Snyder wrote often, at great length, and with
much emotion, and the result is a lively and provocative exchange. A few miscellaneous post-divorce cards and letters bring
the Kyger/Snyder correspondence up to February 1975.
The collection, as a whole, is reflective of Kyger's search for self-identity, and it documents her emergence as a respected
poet. The early letters reveal a sense of Kyger's position in relation to Snyder and the other more established male poets
of the star-system culture of Bolinas and San Francisco. The collection chronicles these relations and enables the reader
to appreciate the difficulties involved in Kyger's gradual construction of a world-view -- a world-view that would eventually
lead to her writing an intelligent 'post-beat' poetry of much textural density and beauty.
Biography
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.
Kyger attended the University of California at Santa Barbara from 1952 to 1956, where she took classes with Hugh Kenner and
Paul Wienphal, both of whom were important to the development of her poetry. She left the university one unit short of her
degree, and the following year moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Kyger soon got a job working at Brentano's Bookstore in
San Francisco's North Beach, and she usually spent her nights sharing poems with friends at poetry bars. In 1957 she met John
Wieners at The Place, one of the poetry bars, and through him met Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer; it was also during this time
that she first met Gary Snyder. Duncan and Spicer were the doyens of a group of poets who would gather on Sundays to read
and discuss each other's work. Kyger said of those meetings: "They (Duncan and Spicer) would read what they had written, and
everybody else would read what they had written. And you would be severely criticised. A lot of people would be so heavily
criticised that they wouldn't come back."
Later Kyger moved to the East West House, where such writers as Philip Whalen, Lew Welch, and Jack Kerouac were occasional
residents. In 1960 she moved to Japan, where she and Snyder were married on February 23. There were two ceremonies: one by
the American consul and another at the Daitoku ji monastery in Kyoto. Her life with Snyder in Kyoto and later in India is
the subject of
The Japan and India Journals, 1960-1964 (1981).
Following her divorce from Snyder in 1964 Kyger returned to the Bay Area. She has said about this time, "I just took off
on this big energy cruise. I had lots to say to everybody, and it wasn't like playing second fiddle anymore." The following
year Donald Allen published her first book,
The Tapestry and the Web (1965).
In 1966 Kyger married the painter Jack Boyce, and together they travelled through Spain, France, Italy, and England. Upon
their return Kyger and Boyce stayed briefly in New York, and then in 1967 returned to the San Francisco area where they spent
the next year. In 1968 the two traveled to Bodega Bay, then to Bolinas in 1969, where Kyger continued to live (she and Boyce
separated in 1970). In the 1970s Bolinas was known for being a center for wandering poets, as well as a home for Philip Whalen,
Robert Creeley, Donald Allen, Tom Clark, and others. Kyger lived with artist Donald Guravich from 1978 until her death in
2017; they were married in 2013. She maintained an active presence in the community, and was particularly concerned with environmental
issues. She continued to travel extensively, including several trips to Mexico, while continuing to publish her poetry. Kyger
died March 22, 2017 in Bolinas, California.
Selected Bibliography:
The Tapestry and the Web (1965),
Joanne (1970),
Places to Go (1970),
Desecheo Notebook (1971),
Trip Out and Fall Back (1974),
All This Every Day (1975),
The Wonderful Focus of You (1980),
Up My Coast (1981),
The Japan and India Journals 1960-64 (1981),
Mexico Blonde (1981),
Going On: Selected Poems 1958-80 (1983),
Again: Poems 1989–2000 (2001),
As Ever: Selected Poems (2002),
The Distressed Look (2004),
God Never Dies (2004),
About Now: Collected Poems (2007),
On Time: Poems 2005-2014 (2015), and
There You Are: Interviews, Journals, and Ephemera (2017).
Preferred Citation
Joanne Kyger Correspondence, MSS 8. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 1976.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American poetry -- 20th century
Women poets, American
Kyger, Joanne -- Archives
Loewinsohn, Ron -- Correspondence
Millward, Pamela -- Correspondence
Duncan, Robert, 1919-1988 -- Correspondence
Koller, James -- Correspondence
Persky, Stan, 1941- -- Correspondence
Berkson, Bill -- Correspondence
Whalen, Philip -- Correspondence
Wieners, John, 1934-2002 -- Correspondence
Adam, Helen, 1909-1993 -- Correspondence
Rumaker, Michael, 1932- -- Correspondence
Snyder, Gary, 1930- -- Correspondence
Waldman, Anne, 1945- -- Correspondence
Warsh, Lewis -- Correspondence
Creeley, Robert, 1926-2005 -- Correspondence
Clark, Tom, 1941- -- Correspondence
Brainard, Joe, 1942-1994 -- Correspondence
Borregaard, Ebbe -- Correspondence
Box 1, Folder 1
Abeyawardana, Soma. 2 ALs
Box 1, Folder 2
Academy of American Poets. 1 TLs
Box 1, Folder 6
Alexander, Paul. 14 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 1, Folder 7
Allen, Donald. 2 ALs, 5 TLs, 2 T
Box 1, Folder 10
Anselmi, Tom. 1 ALs, 2 MS
Box 1, Folder 15
Bailey, Peter. 2 ALs, 2 ALs, 1 MS, 1 book inscribed
Box 1, Folder 16
Baker, Richard. 4 ALs, 7 TLs. Organized the Berkeley Poetry Festival in 1965
Box 1, Folder 17
Barba, Sharon. 2 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 1, Folder 19
Bathurst, Bill. 1 ALs, 1 TLs, 1 MSc
Box 1, Folder 23
Beltrametti, Franco. 4 ALs
Box 1, Folder 25
Bensky, Laurence. 1 TLs, 1 D
Box 1, Folder 26
Benton, Bill. 1 ALs, 1 TLs, 1 MS
Box 1, Folder 28
Berkson, Bill. 9 ALs, 4 TLs, 4 MS
Box 1, Folder 29
Berrigan, Sandy. 2 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 1, Folder 30
Berrigan, Ted. 1 TLs, 1 D, 7 MS
Box 1, Folder 33
Blackall, Simon. 6 ALs, 16 TLs
Box 1, Folder 34
Black Sparrow Press (John Martin, ed.)
1969-1970
Box 1, Folder 35
Blume, David. 1 ALs, 2 TLs
Box 1, Folder 36
Bornstein, Steve. 1 ALs, 1 MS
Box 1, Folder 37
Borregard, Ebbe
1960-1973
Box 2, Folder 1
Brainard, Joe. 29 ALs, 1 MS
Box 2, Folder 3
Brautigan, Richard. 2 ALs, 7 TLs, 1 D
Box 2, Folder 5
Brodecky, Bill. 2 TLs, 6 ALs
Box 2, Folder 6
Brodey, Jim. 3 ALs, 3 TLs, 14 TSs
Box 2, Folder 7
Broughton, James
General note
1 ALs w/handmade book
Box 2, Folder 8
Brown, Rebecca
General note
1 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 2, Folder 9
Brown, William
General note
1 ALs, 12 TLs
Box 2, Folder 10
Brownstein, Michael
General note
1 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 2, Folder 15
Chappell, Anja
General note
1 ALs, 3 TLs
Box 2, Folder 18
Clark, Tom and Angelica
General note
7 ALs, 3 TLs, 15 MS, 2 MSc
Box 2, Folder 20
Coyote Press Material- Bill Brown, James Koller, and Joanne Kyger
General note
Chronicles Kyger's short tenure as New York representative for Coyote Books.
Box 2, Folder 21
Creeley, Robert
1966-1974
Box 3, Folder 2
Deemer, Bill
General note
1 ALs, 1 TLs, 2 MS
Box 3, Folder 11
Doss, John and Margot
General note
8 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 3, Folder 12
Doyle, Kirby
General note
1 ALs, 2 TLs, 1 MS
Box 3, Folder 13
Duncan, Robert
General note
3 ALs, 2 TS, 2 R
Box 3, Folder 15
Dull, Harold and Dora
General note
21 ALs, 13 TLs, 4 MS, 9 MSc, 1 bound MS with watercolor
Box 3, Folder 20
Ellingham, Lewis
General note
10 ALs, 7 TLs, 1 MS
Box 3, Folder 21
Elliot, Helen
General note
1 ALs, 2 TLs
Box 3, Folder 22
Elmslie, Kenward
General note
3 ALs, 4 TLs
Box 3, Folder 23
Eshleman, Clayton
1965-1973
Box 3, Folder 24
Everson, Landis
General note
1 mimeobooklet, poems
Box 3, Folder 25
Fagin, Larry
General note
6 ALs, 21 TLs, 3 MS
Box 3, Folder 28
Fields, R.T.
General note
50 ALs, 9 TLs, 2 MS, 1 MSc
Box 3, Folder 29
Fields, R.T.
General note
Poetry and lecture notes (1970s)
Box 4, Folder 1
Fitzgerald, Russell and Dora
Box 4, Folder 6
Gitin, David and Maria
General note
10 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 4, Folder 7
Ginsberg, Allen
General note
1 TLs (see P. Orlovsky), original ink drawing titled "Happy 1970s Joanne," signed and dated
Box 4, Folder 16
Hacker, Marilyn
General note
2 ALs, 3 TLs, 1 MS, 1 D, 1Rs
Box 4, Folder 19
Hatch, Jim and Anna
General note
10 ALs, 3 TLs
Box 4, Folder 25
Hickman, Leland
General note
2 ALs, 3 TLs, 2 MS
Box 4, Folder 27
Holst, Spencer (Willy)
General note
2 ALs, 3 TLs
Box 4, Folder 30
Howard, Rita and Brice
1969-1971
Box 4, Folder 31
Hoyem, Andrew
General note
10 ALs, 5 TLs, 7 printed cards
Box 4, Folder 40
Jordan, Larry and Lorna
General note
4 ALs, 5 TLs
Box 5, Folder 1
Kalba, Kas
General note
1 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 5, Folder 4
Keilty, Jim
General note
1 ALs, 1 MSc, 3 D
Box 5, Folder 11
Koller, James
General note
14 ALs, 5 TLs, 1 MS
Box 5, Folder 14
Kray, Elizabeth
General note
2 TLs, 1 TL, 1 D
Box 5, Folder 16
Lally, Michael
General note
1 ALs, 3 TLs
Box 5, Folder 18
Lance, Jeanne
General note
1 ALs, 2 TLs, misc. D, 1 MSc
Box 5, Folder 24
Little, Bill
General note
1 ALs, 2 TLs, 2 MS
Box 5, Folder 28
MacAdams, Lewis
General note
2 ALs, 1 TLs, 1 D
Box 5, Folder 32
Malanga, Gerard
General note
1 ALs, 5 TLs w/poems, 1 MS
Box 5, Folder 33
Mallmann, Jerome
General note
2 TLs, 1 D, 1 MS
Box 5, Folder 42
McNeil, William
General note
19 ALs, 1 TLs (several drawings included)
Box 6, Folder 2
Meltzer, David and Tina
General note
2 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 6, Folder 3
Millward, Pamela
1966-1969
Box 6, Folder 5
Montgomery, John
General note
4 ALs, 8 TLs, 3 MS
Box 6, Folder 12
Newman, Julia
General note
2 ALs, 10 TLs
Box 6, Folder 25
Peterson, Robert
General note
4 ALs, 18 TLs, 1 MSc; 8 R
Box 6, Folder 33
Ross, Bob
General note
2 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 6, Folder 34
Rumaker, Michael
General note
6 ALs, 8 TLs; 9 R
Box 6, Folder 37
San Francisco Museum Of Art
Box 7, Folder 1
Schaff, David
General note
3 ALs, 1 TLs, 2 MSc
Box 7, Folder 4
Shekeloff, Mertis Golden
General note
3 ALs, 26 TLs, 1 D
Box 7, Folder 14-21
Snyder, Gary
1958-1975
General
Includes drafts of poetry by Snyder. Some of the correspondence has been photocopied from originals located at Simon Fraser
University.
Box 8, Folder 1
Spicer, Jack
General note
1 MSs ("For Kids"), 1 TS of 15 False Propositions About, God, 1 TS of Five Variations on the Earth w/Tish D containing first
printing (not inc. in collected works)
Box 8, Folder 2
Stanley, George
General note
7 ALs, 6 TLs, 6 MS, 1 MSc; 11 R
Box 8, Folder 4
Stoffer, Bernie and Erica
1969
Box 8, Folder 5
Taggart, John
General note
2 ALs, 4 TLs
Box 8, Folder 11
Van Aver, Philip
General note
4 ALs, 1 TLs
Box 8, Folder 12
Verdery, Doug
General note
2 ALs, 9 TLs
Box 8, Folder 13
Vermont, Charlie
General note
2 TLs, 1 D, 1 MSca
Box 8, Folder 15
Wagstaff, Christopher
1969-1971
Box 8, Folder 17
Waldman, Anne
General note
25 ALs, 27 TLs, 10 MS
Box 9, Folder 27
Waldman, Anne and Lewis Warsh
1968-1969
Box 8, Folder 18
Walsh, Tom
General note
1 ALs, 1 TLs,
Box 8, Folder 20
Warsh, Lewis
General note
11 ALs, 12 TLs, 1 D, 16 MS, 1 MSc
Box 8, Folder 24
Welch, Lew
General note
1 ALs, 7 TLs
Box 9, Folder 1
Wieners, John
General note
6 ALs, 7 TLs
Box 9, Folder 19
Unidentified correspondence
General note
4 postcards, 1 posterboard (3 pps), 1 poster for Kyger/Creeley reading, 11 L, "Expressions at Midnight," and "Flower Poem
I" and "II" (dedicated to JEK)