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Alex Smith Papers
MSS 0070
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Title: Alex Smith Papers
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0070
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, California, 92093-0175
Languages:
English
Physical Description:
11.8 Linear feet
(29 archives boxes and 1 flat box)
Date (inclusive): 1963 - 1987
Abstract: Papers of Alex Smith, poet, writer, teacher and bibliographer. The collection includes typescripts of hundreds of Smith's
poems, manuscripts of his short stories and long poems, and correspondence with a number of important literary figures including:
Steve Benson, Alan Bernheimer, George Butterick, Joan Hall, and Kit Robinson.
Creator:
Smith, Alexander, 1948
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers of Alex Smith, poet, writer, teacher and bibliographer. The collection includes typescripts of hundreds of Smith's
poems, journals, manuscripts of his short stories and long poems, and correspondence with a number of important literary figures
including: Steve Benson, Alan Bernheimer, George Butterick, Joan Hall, and Kit Robinson. The bulk of the collection dates
from the 1970s. Notably missing in this collection are the papers related to the scholarly work
Frank O'Hara: A Comprehensive Bibliography (1979) that Smith compiled while a graduate student at the University of Connecticut.
Arranged in seven series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) JOURNALS, 3) WRITINGS BY SMITH, 4) ACADEMIC MATERIALS, 5) MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS,
6) EPHEMERA, and 7) WRITINGS BY OTHERS.
Alexander Dick Smith, Jr. - poet, writer, teacher and bibliographer - was born on October 10, 1948, in Portland, Maine, to
Maryrose Ann Delano Smith and Alexander Dick Smith, Sr. His family moved to Groton, Connecticut, where Smith attended Robert
E. Fitch Sr. High School for the years 1960-1966.
After finishing high school, Smith went directly to Yale University in 1966. There, he met fellow poets Rodger Kamenetz, Alan
Bernheimer, and Kit Robinson, with whom he maintained close ties with his life, exchanging poetry, ideas and criticism with
them.
After graduating from Yale University and a cross-country bicycle trip to San Francisco, Smith returned to Groton, Conn.,
and accepted a position as substitute teacher in the local school system. He proved to be an excellent teacher, and he received
several offers for full-time teaching positions. However, he declined so that he could return to San Francisco where he felt
he could best pursue his love of writing. Kit Robinson, Alan Bernheimer, Lyn Hejinian, and Bill Graves were a few of many
poets Smith knew who were living and thriving in San Francisco and writing a style of poetry that Alex very much wanted to
understand and practice himself. He lived in San Francisco for half a year, during which time he edited the only issue published
of
Nadine, a poetry magazine with work from writers all over the country, including Merill Gilfillan, Alan Bernheimer, Steve Benson
and Rodger Kamenetz, as well as some of Smith's own work.
Smith decided his writing would benefit from more education; thus, in 1973, he enrolled as a graduate student in the English
Department at the University of Connecticut. At UConn, Smith studied Chaucer, modern and post-modern narrative, and Greek.
In addition to his studies, Smith was also occupied with a graduate assistant position. During the three summers between 1974
and 1976, he worked as a research and editorial assistant to George Butterick on
The Journal of the Charles Olson Archive. In 1976, Smith was awarded a monetary grant from the University of Connecticut's Computer Center, which allowed him to complete
Frank O'Hara: A Comprehensive Bibliography (1979) as well as increase his computer skills.
Throughout graduate school, Alex wrote and published poetry. In 1975, 1977 and 1978, he won first prize in the Wallace Stevens
Poetry Contest. Alex's writing style had undergone a change by the time he entered graduate school. His earlier writing was
heavily influenced by the New York School and was visual, iconographic, light, and humorous. As he grew older, his poems began
to grow darker. Influenced by Walt Whitman and Wallace Stevens, Smith began to write what he called narrative poems - descriptions
of real situations, with people interacting with each other, often very unhappily. Later, Smith began to use spelling and
diction that were reminiscent of a Shakespearean and Elizabethan age. He wrote extremely long poems, such as "The Four Seasons,"
which were often a rewriting of works by Shakespeare. Smith called these poems "Snets."
In Smith's letters to his friends, beginning around 1976, one can see a developing disdain for academia. He often speaks of
his apathetic students, with whom he became increasingly frustrated due to their seeming indifference. Smith himself was a
stellar student, maintaining straight A's in all of his courses, and he had a dwindling tolerance for bored and boring students.
Thus, rather than earn his PhD and remain in academia, Smith left the University in 1980 to pursue a career in computer programming.
In 1980, Smith was hired as a mail-room clerk for the New England Research Application Center (NERAC), a NASA sponsored agency
that specialized in computer assisted information retrieval for business and industry. He moved up rapidly within the company
and, by the end of 1981, was already a computer programmer. He stayed with NERAC until 1987, earning several more promotions.
Smith never put aside his love of writing poetry, often composing poems while at work. Many of his poems from the eighties
are scribbled on scraps of NERAC office paper.
In March or April of 1987, Smith moved with Tom Yankowski, Smith's companion for more than ten years, to the community of
Hillcrest in San Diego, California. By this time, Alex had suffered from AIDS, and he attempted simply to focus on maintaining
his health and continuing his writing. In July of 1987, Rodger Kamenetz, a classmate from Yale, helped Smith to publish his
only collected book of poems titled
Colonizing the Red Planet. Smith died of cancer in September of 1987.
Alex Smith Papers, MSS 70. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquired 1994 and 2013.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Benson, Steve, 1949- -- Correspondence
Bernheimer, Alan, 1948- -- Correspondence
Bertholf, Robert J. -- Correspondence
Boer, Charles, 1939- -- Correspondence
Butterick, George F. -- Correspondence
Button, John -- Correspondence
Kamenetz, Rodger, 1950- -- Correspondence
Robinson, Kit, 1949- -- Correspondence
Smith, Alexander, 1948 -- Archives
AIDS (Disease) -- United States
American poetry -- 20th century
Gay men -- United States
Gays' writings