Papers of Edward Dorn M1460

Dept. of Special Collections & University Archives

Stanford University Libraries

557 Escondido Mall

Stanford, California, 94305-6064

Repository Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu

2009

Title: Papers of Edward Dorn

Identifier/Call Number: M1460

Contributing Institution: Dept. of Special Collections & University Archives

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 4.5 Linear feet (7 boxes, 1 flat box)

Date (inclusive): circa 1930-2002

Abstract: The collection is primarily letters and documents written by Ed Dorn to Tom Clark. Also included are manuscripts and typescripts of works by Dorn. Reviews of Dorn's work, articles about him, along with audiocassettes and videotapes complete the collection.

Creator: Dorn, Edward

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased by Stanford University, Special Collections in 2006.

Access to Collection

The materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.

Publication Rights

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.

Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], Edward Dorn Papers (M1460). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Biography

Edward Merton Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois. He grew up in rural poverty during the Great Depression. He attended a one-room schoolhouse for his first eight grades. He later studied at the University of Illinois and at Black Mountain College (1950-1955). At Black Mountain he came into contact with Charles Olson, who greatly influenced his literary worldview and his sense of himself as poet. Dorn's final examiner at Black Mountain was Robert Creeley, with whom, along with the poet Robert Duncan, Dorn became included as one of a trio of younger poets later associated with Black Mountain and with Charles Olson.[1]

In 1951, Dorn left Black Mountain and traveled to the Pacific Northwest, where he did manual labor and met his first wife, Helene; they returned to the school in late 1954. After graduation and two years of travel, Dorn's family settled in Washington state, the setting for his autobiographical novel By the Sound (originally published as Rites of Passage), which describes the grinding poverty of life in "the basement stratum of society." In 1961 he accepted his first teaching job at Idaho State University, where he published the magazine Wild Dog. His first book of poetry, The Newly Fallen, was published by LeRoi Jones's Totem Press in 1961.

In 1965, with the photographer Leroy Lucas, Dorn spent the summer visiting Indian reservations for a book commissioned by William Morrow & Co. Press, The Shoshoneans. That fall, British poet and scholar Donald Davie invited him to join the faculty at the Literature Department he was creating at the new University of Essex. He spent most of the next five years in England, where he published several collections of poems and wrote Book 1 of Gunslinger. He also started working with Gordon Brotherston on translations from Latin American texts, solidified his close friendship with British poet J.H. Prynne, and met his second wife, Jennifer Dunbar Dorn.

On returning to the United States, Dorn spent the '70s as an academic migrant, teaching at over half a dozen universities across the country. In San Francisco, he collaborated with the printer and artist team Holbrook Teter and Michael Myers on a number of projects, including the newspaper Bean News, the comic book format of Recollections of Gran Apachería, and the typsetting of the complete Gunslinger in 1974. In 1977 Dorn accepted a professorship at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he taught for the rest of his life, directing the Creative Writing Program and editing the literary newspaper Rolling Stock (motto: “If It Moves Print It”) with Jennifer Dunbar Dorn. During the '90s, after a teaching exchange visit to Paul Valery University in Montpellier inspired an interest in the Cathars of Southern France, he started working on Languedoc Variorum: A Defense of Heresy and Heretics. He was also writing another long narrative poem Westward Haut. During the last two and a half years of his life, he wrote the poems for the posthumously published Chemo Sabe, reporting on his cancer treatments.

Dorn's main work, his magnum opus, is Gunslinger. Gunslinger is a long poem in five sections. Part 1 was first published in 1968, and the final complete text appeared in 1974. Other important publications include The Collected Poems: 1956-1974 (1975), Recollections of Gran Apacheria (1975), Abhorrences (1989), High West Rendezvous: A Sampler (1997), and [Way More West: New and Selected Poems] (2008).

Popular horror novelist Stephen King admired Dorn, describing his poetry as "talismans of perfect writing" and even naming the first novel of The Dark Tower series, "The Gunslinger," in honor of Dorn's poem.[2] King also opened both the prologue and epilogue of "The Stand" with Dorn's line, "We need help, the Poet reckoned."[3]

Dorn died of pancreatic cancer on December 10, 1999 in Denver, Colorado. His papers are collected at the University of Connecticut as well as at Indiana University at Bloomington.

(Source: Wikipedia, 3/26/2012)

Processing Information note

Processed by Special Collections staff.

Scope and Contents

Manuscripts of fiction and poetry, correspondence, publications, photographs, and prints.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Clark, Tom, 1941-

Dorn, Edward

Box 1, Folder 1

Edward Dorn to Helene Buck, 29 December 1953, postcard signed

Material Specific Details note: The poet laments the pain of separation from his lover and future wife.

Box 1, Folder 2

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 26 October 1980, postcard signed; Tom Clark review of Captain Jack's Chaps

Material Specific Details note: On his new book Captain Jack's Chaps, or Houston/MLA

Box 1, Folder 3

Captain Jack's Chaps, or Houston/MLA 1983; Exquisite Corpse Vol. 1 No. 12, December 1983

Material Specific Details note: Presentation copy of Captain Jack's Chaps, or Houston/MLA to Tom Clark with holograph inscription re. narrative contents, 21 October, 1983. Exquisite Corpse contains Tandy Sturgeon's review of Captain Jack's Chaps.

Box 1, Folder 4

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 21 October 1983, postcard signed; Criss Cross 11/12, 1981

Material Specific Details note: Criss Cross contains selections from Yellow Lola

Box 1, Folder 5

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 25 July 1988, autographed letter signed

Material Specific Details note: Brief report on Cowboy Poetry Rendezvous--"absolutely the most inane Redneck fat affair on earth surely"--and return trip through Wyoming.

Box 1, Folder 6

Edward Dorn, 29 September 1989, typed letter; Edward Dorn, 29 September 1989 holograph postscript; Gunslinger, review copy, 1989; SPICE, 1966

Box 1, Folder 7

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 13 January 1991, 12 page autographed letter signed

Box 1, Folder 8

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 28 January 1995, postcard signed

Box 1, Folder 9

"REPULSION - Superbowl '95," 30 January 1995, typed manuscript signed

Box 1, Folder 10

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 19 August/30 September 1995, 5 page typed letter signed with 1 page holograph postscript and 2 page typescript as enclosure

Box 1, Folder 11

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 21 August 1995, postcard signed

Box 1, Folder 12

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 28 February 1997, postcard signed

Box 1, Folder 13

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 29 February 1997, 4 page autographed letter signed, annotated

Box 1, Folder 14

Edward Dorn - "answer to the inquisitors", March 1997, typescript annotated by Jenny Dorn and Tom Clark; Buffalo List-Serv traffic, 14 February 1997, 1 March 1997, 5 March 1997, annotated by Tom Clark; Jennifer Dorn to Joel Kuszai, 11 January 2000, typescript of c. 25 February 1997 with autographed letter to Tom Clark, annotated by Tom Clark; Jennifer Dorn to Joel Kuszai, 11 January 2000, typescript of c. 25 February 1997 with holograph annotations to Tom Clark, annotated by Tom Clark; Jennifer Dorn to Tom Clark, 11 January 2000, holograph annotation of Tom Mandel to Dale Smith, 21 March 1997, annotated by Tom Clark; "A War Story - Warrior's Struggle, Trial and Induction to Death. War vs. Cancer Staged as Battle against Consuming Imperial Authority," Tom Clark's master research file documenting Edward Dorn bio-chronology, 1997-1999

Box 1, Folder 15

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 1 July 1997, postcard signed

Box 1, Folder 16

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 3 October 1997, 2 page autographed letter signed, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 1, Folder 17

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 14 october 1997, postcard signed, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 1, Folder 18

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 8 February 1998, 2 page autographed letter signed, regarding White Thought & Sagetrieb, annotated by Tom Clark; White Thought (1997), by Tom Clark, signed; Sagetrieb, Vol. 15 No. 3 (Winter 1996), presentation copy for Tom and Angelica Clark, 7 February 1998

Box 1, Folder 19

"The Drugs are Over-Rated," November 1998, typescript annotated by Tom Clark

Box 1, Folder 20

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 18 December 1998, postcard signed

Box 1, Folder 21

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 13 January 1999, postcard signed

Box 1, Folder 22

"Chemo du Jour: The Impeachment on Decadron," c. 31 January 1999, 3 page typescript, first draft, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 1, Folder 23

"Chemo du Jour: The Impeachment on Decadron - from Chemo Sabe," 2 February 1999, 3 page typescript, second draft revised; "Trial by Fire & Sword," "Hero's Role in Ritual Sacrifice," "Distance," "Impeachment - the violence of holy war at the cell interface," short essays on Dorn by Tom Clark; Edward Dorn & Tom Clark phone note, December 1998/January 1999; Denver Quarterly, No. 34 Vol. 1, Spring 1999; Prosodia No. 9, Spring 2000, "Tribute to Edward Dorn"

Box 2, Folder 1

"The Decadron, Tagamit, Benadryl and Taxol Coctail [sic] party of 1 March 1999," 1 March 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark; Jennifer Dorn to Tom & Angelica Clark, 26 June 2000, typescript; "The Cocktail Party," 26 June 2000, 2 page typescript, revised

Box 2, Folder 2

"Prilosec," March 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark; "Denver Dawn: with ceiling fan," March 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark; "Infusion Day," March 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 3

"Open Letter to the Apache Nation," 28 April 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 4

"The Garden of the White Rose," c. May 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 5

"Iodine Fire," 12 July 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark; "Enhancement," c. July 1999, typescript annotated by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 6

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 7 August 1999, postcard signed

Box 2, Folder 7

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 25 August 1999, 6 page autographed letter signed, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 8

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 14 September 1999, postcard signed

Box 2, Folder 9

"A Review of Volume Ten of the Olson/Creeley Correspondence," October 1999, typescript; "Ideas to be developed for Preface to Tom Clark's reissued Olson Biography..." October 1999, typescript; "Notes on Olson," 14 October 1999, 2 page typescript annotated by Tom Clark; "Notes on Olson" - Tom Clark's research file on Man Corn; Jennifer Dorn to Tom and Angelica Clark, 15 February 2000, typed letter annotated by Tom Clark; Jennifer Dorn to Tom and Angelica Clark, 31 July 2000, autographed letter signed

Box 2, Folder 10

"Linear Acceleration," "Therapy Bombardiers," "Invasion of the 2nd Lumbar Region," 20 October 1999, 3 page typescript annotated by Tom Clark; "The Biggest Killing," essay by Tom Clark, 7 page holograph revised; Jennifer Dorn to Angelica Clark, 13 April 2000, 2 page typescript including "Linear Acceleration" by Edward Dorn

Box 2, Folder 11

Edward Dorn to Tom Clark, 28 October 1999, postcard signed, verso watercolor by Edward Dorn

Box 2, Folder 12

Abhorrences (Black Sparrow, 1990), #4/26 lettered and signed, review slip and press kit laid in, flagged with biographical notes; Black Sparrow New Titles: Spring/Summer 1990, catalogue signed by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 13

Way West (Black Sparrow, 1993), #122 signed and numbered, presentation copy to Tom Clark, laid in review slip & press kit, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 2, Folder 14

GAS, No. 2 (Spring 1991), errata slip laid in

Box 2, Folder 15

GAS, No. 4 (Winter 1991-92)

Box 2, Folder 16

GAS, No. 5 (1993)

Box 3, Folder 1

GAS, No. 6 (WInter 1994-95)

Box 3, Folder 2

GAS, No. 8 (Winter 1996/97)

Box 3, Folder 3

Edward Dorn typescripts & manuscripts, 1970s & 1980s

Box 3, Folder 4

Edward Dorn ephemera, including: "In Defense of Pure Poetry," "I am drinking the liquor of the flower" broadsides; "Recreation Wrecks the Nation," "Print the Invasion Money" bumperstickers; privately printed matchbooks; Bean News press credentials

Box 3, Folder 5

Photographs, including Edward & Jennifer Dorn and family

Box 3, Folder 6

Photo scans of 236 photographic images of Edward Dorn, his family, friends, and fellow poets, covering 7 decades

Box 3, Folder 7

Edward Dorn obituary file, containing: clips, galleys and printouts of obituaries from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Independent, St. Mark's Poetry Project Newsletter, The Guardian, List-Serv and others; program for Edward Dorn memorial reading, New York

Box 3, Folder 8

Edward Dorn typescripts and manuscripts, 1990s, annotated, including: Langue d'Oc Variorum; Subtexts; Westward Haut; Hi Plane; Nazdaqs; Tribe; class syllabi 1991-1998; Jennifer Dorn to Tom Clark, 9, 19, & 30 June 2000, typed letter signed; transcripts of Edward Dorn lectures & readings; photocopy of Albi & Chemo Sabe final workings

Box 3, Folder 9

Denver Post, May 19 1995, containing: "In Memoriam: Richard Brautigan," by Edward Dorn; "The Perfect American," by Jennifer Dunbar Dorn

Box 3, Folder 10

Broadsides: BROADCIDE, "ABHORRENCES: November 10, 1984"; From ABHORRENCES (Woodland Pattern Book Center, 1984); ABHORRENCES Poster (1985), xerox and ink collage by Edward Dorn; "Mordechai Vanunu" (Chax Press, October 1990), presentation copy for Tom and Angelica Clark; "from ABHORRENCES: Welcome Home" (Friends of the Library and the Black Mountain Collection of North Caroline Wesleyan College, 8 April 1987)

Box 3, Folder 11

The Denver Landing (Uprising Press, 1993), presentation copy to Tom and Angelica Clark

Box 4, Folder 1

By The Sound (Black Sparrow, 1990), #42 signed and numbered, review slip laid in; Black Sparrow New Titles: Spring/Summer 1991, catalogue signed by Tom Clark

Box 4, Folder 2

Internal Resistances: The Poetry of Edward Dorn, by Donald Wesling (University of California, 1985), annotated

Box 4, Folder 3

A Pageant of its Time: Edward Dorn's Slinger and the Sixties, by James K. Elmborg (Peter Lang, 1998), annotated by Tom Clark

Box 4, Folder 4

Chicago Review, 49:3/4 & 50:1 (Summer 2004), special issue - Edward Dorn: American Heretic

Box 4, Folder 5

Abhorrences: Vol. I (handmade books, 1984), signed by Tom Clark and Edward Dorn, 4 October 1984, with additional poem inscribed, "New Matches for the Fall"; Abhorrences, Vol. II (handmade books, 1985), signed by maker, including four additional Tom Clark ink drawings of "characters in Abhorrence"

Box 4, Folder 6

Twenty-four Love Songs (Frontier, 1969)

Box 5, Folder 1

The Sun Unwound (North Atlantic Books, 1999), presentation copy for Tom and Angelica Clark from Dorn's co-translator Gordon Brotherston, 14 December 1999

Box 5, Folder 2

High West Rendezvous (Etruscan Books/West House Books, 1996), presentation copy inscribed to Tom and Angelica Clark, 25 November 1996, typographical errors hand corrected by author, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 5, Folder 3

A Short Guide to the High Plains, by Tom Clark (Cadmus 1981), with introduction by Edward Dorn, #58/75 signed copies, with additional holograph poem

Box 5, Folder 4

The Poet, The People, The Spirit (Talonbooks, 1976), presentation copy

Box 5, Folder 5

High West Rendezvous (Etruscan Books, 1997), second edition revised, presentation copy inscribed to Tom and Angelica Clark, October 1997, annotated

Box 5, Folder 6

Chemo Sabe (Limberlost Press, 2000) presentation copy from Jennifer Dorn to Tom & Angelica Clark, 1 November 2001, with 4"x6" black and white photo of Edward Dorn laid in, and with "The Garden of the White Rose" broadside postcard

Box 5, Folder 7

Yellow Lola (Cadmus, 1981), trade edition, presentation copy for Tom Clark, 18 January 1981; Yellow Lola (Cadmus, 1981), clothbound deluxe edition, with Tom Clark drawing of Edward Dorn signed by Dorn, presentation copy to Tom Clark, 22 December 1980, with inscribed poem by Edward Dorn: "the last bumpersticker"; Kathryn Shevelow's Paideuma article on Hello La Jolla and Yellow Lola

Box 5, Folder 8

Recollections of Gran Apacheria (Turtle Island, 1974), presentation copy with additional holograph poem

Box 5, Folder 9

Cold Spring: A Diary, by Tom Clark (Skanky Possum, 2000), signed by Tom Clark

Box 5, Folder 10

Sniper logic VIII (Spring-Fall 2000), containing: Edward Dorn obituary by Jennifer Dorn; selections from Chemo Sabe; "Waying the West: An Interview with Ed Dorn"

Box 5, Folder 11

Sniper Logic IX (2000), edited by Jennifer Dorn

Box 5, Folder 12

Mike & Dale's Younger Poets, Issue 6 (Summer 1997), containing "An Interview with Edward Dorn" by Michael Price and Dale Smith

Box 5, Folder 13

Yugen 6 (1960), containing: "The 6th" and "The 7th" by Edward Dorn

Box 6, Folder 1

Ecology and Consciousness: Traditional Wisdom of the Environment (North Atlantic, 1978)

Box 6, Folder 2

Documents for New Poetry I. Roadtesting the Language: An Interview with Edward Dorn (Archive for New Poetry, 1978)

Box 6, Folder 3

From Gloucester Out (Matrix, 1964)

Box 6, Folder 4

North Atlantic Turbine (Fulcrum, 1967)

Box 6, Folder 5

Recollections of Gran Apacheria (Turtle Island, 1974), hardcover edition

Box 6, Folder 6

Square One, No. 1 (2003), edited by Jennifer Dorn

Box 6, Folder 7

Gunslinger Book III: The Winter Book (Frontier, 1972)

Box 6, Folder 8

Empire of Skin, by Tom Clark (Black Sparrow, 1997), preface by Edward Dorn, signed by Tom Clark

Box 6, Folder 9

Idaho Out (Fulcrum, 1965)

Box 6, Folder 10

The Wivenhoe Park Review, No. 1 (Winter 1965), edited by Tom Clark and Andrew Crozier, containing essay "The Outcasts of Foker Plat: news from the states" by Edward Dorn, annotated by Tom Clark

Box 6, Folder 11

The Shoshoneans (Morrow, 1965)

Box 6, Folder 12

Gunslinger 1 & 2 (Fulcrum, 1969, date hand-corrected to 1970)

Box 7, Audiocassettes 1

Edward Dorn reading in Taos, 13 June 1997

Box 7, Audiocassettes 2

Edward Dorn reading, Montana c. 1988

Box 7, Audiocassettes 3

Edward Dorn reading at the Diorama, London 1998

Box 7, Audiocassettes 4

Edward Dorn and Tom Clark reading, Essex 1966

Box 7, Audiocassettes 5

Ed Dorn Tribute, 17 February 2000

Box 7, Audiocassettes 6

Edward Dorn reading, Berkeley 1965

Box 7, Audiocassettes 7

Edward Dorn reading, Detroit, 1984

Box 7, Audiocassettes 8

Edward Dorn reading, Denver, CO, 14 September 1998

Box 7, Audiocassettes 9

Edward Dorn reading, 30 July 1994, Skagit Valley, Washington

Box 7, Audiocassettes 10

Edward Dorn reading, New Orleans, LA, 1987

Box 7, Videotape 11

Edward Dorn memorial tribute, San Francisco, 17 February 2000, video by Kush, featuring Gordon Brotherston, Joanne Kyger, Tom Raworth, Tom Clark and others; S.F. Poetry Center flyer; review of the memorial by Kurt Lipchutz in El Tempo/The Temple, Vol. 4 No. 2 (Spring 2000)

Flat Box 8, Folder 1

BROADCYDE (Bloody Twin, 1986), "ABHORRENCES November 10, 1984" with Tom Clark drawing of "Man in Abhorrence," signed by Tom Clark

Flat Box 8, Folder 2

Poetry Flash, No. 279 (November/December 1998)

Flat Box 8, Folder 3

Poetry Flash, No. 284 (February/March 2000)

Flat Box 8, Folder 4

American Poetry Review, Vol. 31 No. 1 (January/February 2002)

Flat Box 8, Folder 5

American Poetry Review, Vol. 21 No. 5 (September/October 1992)

Flat Box 8, Folder 6

The Cycle (Frontier, 1971)

Flat Box 8, Folder 7

Rolling Stock, No 19/20 (1991)