Restrictions on Access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Preferred Citation
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biographical History
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Ben Pleasants papers
Creator:
Pleasants, Ben
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2303
Physical Description:
4 linear feet
(4 boxes, 2 half-size boxes, 1 record carton, 5 shoeboxes)
Physical Description:
10 audiovisual carriers
(10 unprocessed audiocassettes)
Date (inclusive): 1959-2013
Date (bulk): 1970-1985
Abstract: This collection documents the activities, writings, and political opinions of Ben Pleasants. Pleasants was a Los Angeles-based
writer, as well as a close friend of both Charles Bukowski and Steve Richmond, seminal figures in the Los Angeles "Meat School."
He published works on John Fante, Kenneth Rexroth, James Laughlin, Kate Braverman, Marge Piercy, Budd Schulberg, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, and others. This collection spans from 1959 to 2013, and chronicles Pleasants' time in California as a poet,
playwright, interviewer, and novelist.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections material
must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains processed audiovisual materials. All requests to access digital materials
must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant
permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish must be submitted
in writing to Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of California on
behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Ben Pleasants Papers (Collection 2303). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Paula Pleasants, 2016.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating
existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit
feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form
located on our website:
Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biographical History
Ben Pleasants was a Los Angeles-based writer. He was born on August 6, 1940 in Long Island, New York, and graduated from Hofstra
University in 1962 before moving to California with his first wife. He began graduate studies in English at the University
of California, Los Angeles in 1964.
While at UCLA, Pleasants became close friends with Steve Richmond and Charles Bukowski, seminal figures in the Los Angeles
"Meat School" of poetry. Pleasants then joined the mimeograph revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. He was published in The Wormwood
Review alongside contributors like Bertolt Brecht and Henry Miller, and was praised for his poetry collection, Airmail from
Oblivion (1975).
Pleasants began working at the Los Angeles Times in 1967. His reputation as a reviewer led to his work being published by
the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Los Angeles Free Press, and other Southern California periodicals. From 1978 to 1983,
he conducted a series of interviews with John Fante, later collected by Beat Scene and 3:AM Magazine. His lauding of Fante
helped spur a resurgence in the author's popularity, and cemented his semi-autobiographical novel Ask the Dust (1939) as a
seminal work of Los Angeles literature.
In 1984, Pleasants left the LA Times over his attempt to review The Fateful Triangle, Noam Chomsky's book on US involvement
in Middle East politics. Pleasants continued to write, publishing in periodicals such as the L.A. Free Press, L.A. Vanguard,
L.A. Reader, Los Angeles Magazine, and Malibu Magazine. He also worked as a teacher for the Los Angeles United School District
for thirty years.
Pleasants was also a noted playwright. His plays include Winter in Mongolia (1975), The Hemingway/Dos Passos Wars (1998),
and Contentious Minds: The Mary McCarthy/Lillian Hellman Affair (2001). Late in life, Pleasants also turned to novels, publishing
the sexually explicit tragicomedy Spearmint Leaves (2010) and The Victory of Defeat (2011), a thinly disguised account of
Bukowski's activites during World War II.
In 2004, Pleasants published the memoir Visceral Bukowski: A Walk Through the Sniper Landscape of American Letters. Although
critically praised, the book became controversial due to Pleasants' claims that Charles Bukowski harbored Nazi sympathies.
Pleasants died of a heart attack on April 30, 2013 at age 72.
Scope and Content
This collection documents the writings, publishing attempts, and political opinions of Ben Pleasants, as well as his relationship
with Steve Richmond and Charles Bukowski, seminal figures in the "Meat School" of the Los Angeles poetry scene.
The collection spans from 1960 to 2010, with the bulk of materials coming from 1970 to 1985, and is organized by subject or
name, having no original order. In addition to manuscripts and correspondence, the collection contains a large number of publications
featuring Pleasants' writing and interviews conducted by Pleasants.
Some of the significant organizations and topics represented in these files are: Charles Bukowski and the Meat School, the
broader Los Angeles literary and drama scene, mimeograph publishing, John Fante and the Hollywood Ten, Nazi sympathies in
America, and Stalin's atrocities as leader of the USSR. The collection documents Pleasants' provocative nature, anarchist
sympathies, dismissal of PC culture, and free speech advocacy.
Materials are largely textual, comprising publications and personal and professional correspondence, as well as a large number
of audio cassettes. Among other formats are photographs, CDs and DVDs.
Organization and Arrangement
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Manuscripts (1961-2012)
- Series 2: Interviews (1975-2013)
- Series 3: Publications and Promotional Materials (1966-2013)
- Series 4: Correspondence (1959-2010)
- Series 5: Photos and Media (1961-2010)
- Series 6: Biographical Materials (1966-2013)
No original order existed for this collection. Materials have been organized alphabetically by name or subject.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Pleasants, Ben -- Archives