Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Marcus, Morton and Marcus, Morton
- Abstract:
- This collection includes biographical material, correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, teaching materials, poetry and film criticism.
- Extent:
- 45.4 Linear Feet 40 document boxes; 1 oversize flat; 1 oversize folder
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
Morton Marcus Poetry archive. MS 198. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, teaching materials, poetry and film criticism.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Morton Marcus (September 10, 1936-October 28, 2009), poet, fillm critic, lecturer.
Morton Marcus was the l999 Santa Cruz County Artist of The Year and received the Gail Rich Award in 2007 for his cultural contributions to Santa Cruz County. He published ten volumes of poetry and one novel, including The Santa Cruz Mountain Poems, Pages From A Scrapbook of Immigrants, and When People Could Fly.
Morton had more than 450 poems published in literary journals, and his work has been selected to appear in over 85 anthologies in the United States, Europe and Australia. In 2002 he published his eighth and ninth books of poetry: Moments Without Names: New & Selected Prose Poems (White Pine Press) and Shouting Down The Silence: Verse Poems 1988-2001 (Creative Arts Books). In 2007, he published a new volume of prose poems, Pursuing The Dream Bone.
His last book, Striking Through The Masks: A Literary Memoir (Capitola Book Company) tells the story of Marcus' growth from embattled youth to uneasy adulthood, conjuring up the last half of the twentieth century and the opening decade of the new millennium, while recounting his own struggle to find self-awareness and wisdom.
Morton's trilogy of interviews on the craft of poetry appeared in the March/April 2001 issue of The Bloomsbury Review, the 2002 issue of Red Wheelbarrow and in the 25th anniversary issue of Caesura (2004).
Morton read his poetry and conducted poetry workshops in dozens of universities throughout the country, among them Columbia University, Notre Dame, The University of Oregon, and several University of California campuses. He was also poet-in-residence at several State University of New York campuses, The University of Arkansas' Graduate Writing Program, and Providence College.
Morton taught English and Film at Cabrillo College for thirty years, until his retirement in l998. His sixteen-part television history of film, Movie Milestones, has been shown on many cable television stations, and was for years the main visual source of film history at the AFTRS, the Australian national film school. He was a longtime co-host of KUSP radio's The Poetry Show and co-host of the film review television show Cinema Scene shown in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also lead a film discussion group at Santa Cruz's Nickelodeon theater on the first and third Saturday of every month. He curated film series at various museums and took part in several panels on literature and film at the John Steinbeck Center.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Donna Mekis and Morton Marcus, 2009-2010. Subsequent gifts from Mekis in 2015 and 2015.
- Arrangement:
-
Arranged in seven series
Series 1: Biographical material
Series 2: Correspondence
Series 3: Writings
Series 4: Printed appearences
Series 5: Teaching materials
Series 6: Publicity, marketing
Series 7: Artwork & Realia
- Physical location:
- Collection stored off-site at NRLF: Advance notice is required for access.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is available for research.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
- Preferred citation:
-
Morton Marcus Poetry archive. MS 198. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
- Location of this collection:
-
Special Collections and Archives, University Library1156 High StreetSanta Cruz, CA 95064, US
- Contact:
- (831) 459-2547