Lou Rowan Papers
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2020
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Business Number: 858-534-2533
Fax Number: 858-534-5950
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Descriptive Summary
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Lou Rowan Papers
Creator:
Rowan, Lou
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0806
Physical Description:
6.4 Linear feet
(16 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Physical Description:
2.2 GB
of digital files
Date (inclusive): 1942-2018
Abstract: Papers of writer, poet and editor Lou Rowan. Rowan studied with Louis Zukofsky and was influenced by the New York, Black Mountain,
and Objectivist poets. Editor of the poetry journals
Friendly Local Press and
Golden Handcuffs Review, Rowan is also known for his poetry and fiction. The collection includes writings, correspondence, notebooks, biographical
information, photographs, and digital files.
Languages:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers of writer, poet and editor Lou Rowan. Rowan studied with Louis Zukofsky and was influenced by the New York, Black Mountain,
and Objectivist poets. Editor of the poetry journals
Friendly Local Press and
Golden Handcuffs Review, Rowan is also known for his poetry and fiction. The collection includes writings, correspondence, notebooks, biographical
information, photographs, and digital files.
Arranged in four series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, and 4) EDITING.
Biography
Born in Los Angeles in 1942, Louis Richard Rowan, Jr. was educated on the East Coast, earning a bachelor's degree in history
at Harvard University in 1964 and a master's degree in English at New York University in 1969. He also studied theology at
Union Theological Seminary in New York. Rowan held teaching and upper management positions at the Manhattan School and at
Friends Seminary from 1968 to 1980, after which he switched careers to investment banking at Bankers Trust Company in New
York and Frank Russell Company in Tacoma, Washington.
Rowan began his writing career as a student in the 1960s in New York, influenced by the New York School, Louis Zukofsky, and
the Black Mountain and Objectivist poets. After his careers in teaching and banking, Rowan began writing full-time in 2003
in the Pacific Northwest. He has published fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Much of his writing is experimental and crosses
genres. Rowan has edited the poetry journals
Friendly Local Press from 1968 to 1971 and 1986 to 1989 and
Golden Handcuffs Review since 2002.
Preferred Citation
Lou Rowan Papers. MSS 806. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2018
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Digital Content
The collection contains digital files described in the container list, as well as several thousand emails. Email may be searched
and requested for viewing via the Digital Collections website.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Rowan, Lou -- Archives
BIOGRAPHICAL
Scope and Content of Series
Series 1) BIOGRAPHICAL: Biographical information about Lou Rowan, including his transcripts, resumes, biographical statements,
and an address book.
Box 1, Folder 3
Biographical information
1942-2008
General note
Includes group photograph of The Polytechnic School, class of 1956.
Biographical information
2005-2006
General note
Biographical information about Lou and Ginger Rowan, including bibliographies, in Word and PDF.
Box 1, Folder 4
Resumes and biographies
1980-2014
Box 1, Folder 5
Transcripts - Harvard University and New York University
1964-1969
CORRESPONDENCE
Scope and Content of Series
Series 2) CORRESPONDENCE: Incoming and outgoing correspondence to poets, publishers, editors, and family members, and Rowan's
unsent correspondence to public figures. Arranged in two subseries: A) Paper Correspondence, A-Z, and B) Digital Correspondence
Paper Correspondence, A-Z
Box 1, Folder 6
Antin, David and Eleanor
1967-2009
Box 1, Folder 7
Baez, Joan (unsent letter by Rowan)
Box 1, Folder 9
Blackburn, Paul
1966-1967
Box 1, Folder 13
Center for Book Culture
2002
General note
Rowan was on the board of directors.
Box 1, Folder 15
Creeley, Robert (unsent letter by Rowan)
Box 1, Folder 18
Eshleman, Clayton
1966-1967
Box 1, Folder 20
Lamberton, Robert
1989-1997
Box 1, Folder 21
Letters from ministers
1962-1963
Box 1, Folder 22
Mailer, Norman (unsent letter by Rowan)
Box 1, Folder 23
Maitland, Ronald D., Rev.
1963-1964
Box 1, Folder 24
Manhattan School
1970-1971
General note
Includes photographs of Manhattan School staff.
Box 1, Folder 25
Mickle, Mary Elizabeth (Rowan) and Alan
1967-1970
Box 1, Folder 27
Plimpton, George
(The Paris Review)
1997
Box 1, Folder 28-29
Publishers and editors
1967-2005
Box 1, Folder 30
Ron [surname unidentified]
Box 1, Folder 32
Rowan, George D.
1968 and undated
Box 1, Folder 33
Rowan, Lansing Brann
1962 and undated
Box 1, Folder 34-35
Rowan, Louis, Sr. and Susan
1958-1967
Box 2, Folder 1-2
Rowan, Louis, Sr. and Susan
1968-1980
Box 2, Folder 4
Rowan, Stephanie Rauschenbusch
1964-1968
Box 2, Folder 5
Rowan, Virginia (Ginger) Holzheimer
Box 2, Folder 6
Saint Mark's School
1958-1959
Box 2, Folder 7
Sontag, Susan (unsent letter by Rowan)
Box 2, Folder 11
Miscellaneous correspondence - Incoming
Box 2, Folder 12
Miscellaneous correspondence - Outgoing
Box 2, Folder 13
Miscellaneous correspondence - Unsent
Compiled correspondence (PDF)
1996-2006
General note
Personal and business correspondence originally compiled chronologically by Rowan into a 62-page Word document. Many of the
correspondents are identified by first name only.
WRITINGS
Scope and Content of Series
Series 3) WRITINGS: Drafts, manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, notes, artwork, and reviews for Rowan's published and
unpublished writings. Arranged in six subseries: A) Notebooks and Journals, B) Poetry and Drama, C) Short Fiction, D) Essays,
E) Books, and F) Freelance Projects.
A) Notebooks and Journals: Rowan's notebooks and journals include drafts of writings, personal notes, and journal entries.
Several early drafts for Rowan's books can be found in his notebooks. A hunting log from 1954-1955 includes photographs of
the Rowan family. Arranged chronologically.
B) Poetry and Drama: Drafts and notes for poems and plays by Rowan, including English translations of poet Paul Eluard. Rowan
grouped his shorter poems by date, and as he often worked on poems years after writing the original version, drafts of a single
poem can appear in more than one folder. The subseries also includes several short plays written by Rowan. Arranged chronologically.
C) Short Fiction: Drafts and notes for short stories by Rowan, including epistolary writings and satires. Includes a folder
of drawings by Rowan. Arranged chronologically, with undated drafts arranged alphabetically at the end.
D) Essays: Drafts, notes and correspondence for Rowan's essays and reviews. The subseries includes essays on literature written
while Rowan was a graduate student at New York University, a translation of Jean-Paul Sartre, a talk for Benedictine College,
and sermons and field reports written while Rowan was a student in theology. Rowan also used the pseudonym Richard L. Lewis
while writing for
Golden Handcuffs Review. Arranged chronologically, with undated drafts arranged alphabetically at the end.
E) Books: Drafts, manuscripts, notes, correspondence, reviews and artwork for Rowan's published and unpublished works of poetry,
fiction, and biography. Rowan's fiction includes
My Last Days (2007) and its sequel,
Our Last Days, two autobiographies of Superman;
Alphabet of Love Serial (2015), a collection of short stories;
A Mystery's No Problem, (2016) and it's precursor,
Interlude; and
Corpus, an alternate history of the United States. Works of poetry include
Your Pages Are Not Numbered (1968);
Let Leaves; an untitled manuscript for a book of poetry; and a handmade book of poetry and fiction. The subseries also includes a biography
of Seattle entrepreneur Linda Farris. Some early drafts of Rowan's books can be found in the Notebooks and Journals subseries.
Arranged chronologically.
F) Freelance Projects: Notes and drafts for advertising copy and biographies written for businesses and individuals on a freelance
basis.
Box 2, Folder 14
Hunting log
1954-1955
General note
Includes photographs of Lou Rowan and family.
Box 3, Folder 1-5
Journals and notebooks
1972-1996
Box 3, Folder 6
Journal - The Dance
1996-1997
Box 3, Folder 7
Notebook - Beginning of
My Last Days
ca. 1998
General note
Notebook is water damaged.
Box 4, Folder 2
Notebook -
Corpus!
2000-2004
Journal 12
2000-2007
General note
Rowan's journal entries interspersed with drafts of
Corpus! and other writings, originally compiled by Rowan in a Word document.
Box 4, Folder 3
Notebook - Paris/Madrid/Maui/U.S. P. Woolf project.
Corpus - Introduction and early plans.
Alphabet - Early outline
2001-2004
Box 4, Folder 4-5
Notebook and journal
2001-2005
Box 4, Folder 7
Anglo-Saxon, plus poems for Martha King
ca. 1965
Box 5, Folder 1
Cheating Winter's Crossword (for Franklin Irving)
1965-1986
Box 5, Folder 2-4
Trying to be White (Buck) (for Paul Blackburn)
1967-1986
Box 5, Folder 5
My Heart Flew at Half Mast to You (for Martin Luther King)
1968-1969
Box 5, Folder 6
Threnody for Kennedy
1969
Box 5, Folder 9
A Prayer for My Sister
ca. 1970-1979
Box 5, Folder 10
Translations of Paul Eluard
1971
Box 5, Folder 13
Father Serial. In Memory of Lou Rowan
ca. 1988
Box 6, Folder 1
Our Valentine
ca. 1990-1999
Box 6, Folder 6
A Sense of Life - Oratorio
1965-1966
Box 6, Folder 8
Georgie, Mommie, Poppy
ca. 2001
Box 6, Folder 9
Letters becoming stories
1960-1964
Box 6, Folder 11
Late Report from
Grant's Tombus
1965-1966
Box 6, Folder 14
An Entering-the-Union High
1968
Box 6, Folder 15
Heidegger-am-Bed (for Robert Kelly)
1968
Box 6, Folder 16
A Message from Low: To the Incoming Students, Words of Welcome
1968
Box 6, Folder 17
A 'Sperimental Stroll on John Finley Walk
1968
Box 6, Folder 20
Corn, Cones, Conches (for Bob Lamberton)
1968-2006
Box 7, Folder 1
Sketches toward stories
1971-1979
Box 7, Folder 2
Asylum and related journals
1979-1980
Box 7, Folder 3
Drafts toward stories
ca. 1980-1989
Box 7, Folder 4
Prose and poetry
1985-1992
Box 7, Folder 5
Story drafts
ca. 1990-1999
Box 7, Folder 7
Guidance (for Michael Sheldon)
1997-2006
Box 7, Folder 8
Blackout (for Gilbert Sorrentino)
1999
Box 7, Folder 10
Unreel (for David Antin)
2003
Box 7, Folder 11
World History (from
My Last Days)
2004
Digital documents - Writings in Microsoft Word
Folder 5
Notes from Imagined Childhood
2006
Folder 7
S (for Douglas Woolf)
2006
Box 7, Folder 12
Cherry Gets Me Going
2007
Box 7, Folder 13
The Met's Catcher's Vision of New Jersey
2013
Box 7, Folder 18
Dear Robert, Joan, and Button
Box 7, Folder 19
Early Rejoicing - Meditation for EJB
Box 7, Folder 22
A Fay School: Real Life is a Compromise with Power
Box 8, Folder 6
Me 'n' You (Mean You!) What
Do You Mean?
Box 8, Folder 7
My Heart Skipped a Beat When Your Gorilla Drank it Neat
Box 8, Folder 9
Pills, Razors and Ale (for Glenn, Vivian, Steve)
Box 8, Folder 11
Rest Less: A Grovel-Novel
Box 8, Folder 13
Robin Hood and the Virgin (for Toby Olson)
Box 8, Folder 15
Saturday Night Among These Last Things
Box 8, Folder 17
The Trouble With an Elephant
Box 8, Folder 20
Re: Vocation (Religion?)
ca. 1960
Box 8, Folder 21
The Price of Self Assertion
1961
Box 8, Folder 22
Field-work reports on Sunday School
1964
Box 8, Folder 24
The Holy State of Matrimony
1965-1966
Box 8, Folder 25
Panrirge's Panegyric on Columbia University
1967 November 15
Box 8, Folder 26
The
Reason, Friends, Why I am Not a Sunday Painter
1967 December 4
Box 8, Folder 27
A.B.C.'s for the Jefferson Airplane
1967
Box 8, Folder 28
Sent and unsent criticism
1967
Box 8, Folder 29
How Does a Feel Feel? Review of "Time has Come Today" (The Chambers Brothers, 1967)
Box 8, Folder 30
Let Leaves: What Basil King's Paintings Make Me See
1967-1968
Box 8, Folder 31
The American Mass
ca. 1968
Box 8, Folder 32
That I Shall Always Prefer the Indulgence of Your Inclinations to the Satisfaction of My Own: A Stylistic Comparison of
Tom Jones with the Movie Thereof
ca. 1968
Box 8, Folder 33
Grave, an Essay on
Tristram Shandy
1968
Box 8, Folder 34
Jean-Paul Sartre, Preface to
Critique of Dialectical Reason - English translation and commentary by Rowan
1968
Box 8, Folder 35
Words for Mrs. Davis with Respect to the Movie
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
1968
Box 8, Folder 36
Work That goes Farther Than Our Dream. Review of
Bending the Bow (Robert Duncan, 1968),
Of Being Numerous (George Oppen, 1968), and
The Back Country (Gary Snyder, 1967)
1968
Box 8, Folder 37
"Tooth'd Withal": An Essay on the Language of Ben Jonson's Major Comedies
1968-1969
Box 8, Folder 38
For Diane - Essay for Diane Wakoski symposium
1976
Box 8, Folder 39
The Very Thing That Happens (Russell Edson, 1964) - Review
1976
Box 8, Folder 40
Blue Chickory (Lorine Niedecker, 1976) - Review
1977
Box 9, Folder 1
The Syntax of Integrity. Review of Gilbert Sorrentino's
White Sail (1977) and
The Orangery (1978)
1978-1979
Box 9, Folder 3
The Intercourse of Life: Experiencing "The Price" and "The Structuralist" - Review of David Antin
1999-2001
Box 9, Folder 4
Matlin - Review of David Matlin
2003
Box 9, Folder 5
Response to Bernard Hoepffner
2003
Box 9, Folder 6
Walk Journal, 1/19/03: Our Latest War
2003
Box 9, Folder 7
Interview of David Matlin on U.S. prisons
2004
Digital documents - Writings in Word
2005
General note
Untitled essay on Douglas Woolf;
The Lecture: An Insouciance of Influence - Review of
The Lecture (Lydie Salvayre, 2005); and Brave World - Response to Stacey Levine's "Transgend/Ear."
Box 9, Folder 8
If Only the Imagination. . . Review of
Poems for the New Millennium, volume 3 (University of California Press, 2009)
2010
Box 9, Folder 9
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (John Henry Newman, 1870)
Box 9, Folder 10
Interlude (Halftime): What I Think
Box 9, Folder 14
A Parody of Xavier Prynne: A Personal and Confidential Letter to a Sub-Sub-Secretary
Box 9, Folder 15
The Shout Heard 'Round the World: or, Supergirl Converts a Muslim
Box 9, Folder 16
Why Not Me? - Talk for Benedictine College
Box 9, Folder 17
Your Pages Are Not Numbered (1968) - Drafts
1967-1968
Box 9, Folder 18-19
Let Leaves - Drafts, correspondence, and artwork
1983-1996
Box 9, Folder 20-23
My Last Days (2007) - Drafts and correspondence
1999-2009
Box 10, Folder 1-7
My Last Days (2007) - Drafts
1998-2002
Box 11, Folder 1-8
My Last Days (2007) - Drafts
1998-2007
General note
Includes a review by Toby Olson and artwork by Quentin Rowan.
My Last Days (2007) - Digital drafts
2006
Box 12, Folder 1
Our Last Days - Drafts
undated
Our Last Days - Digital drafts
2005
Box 12, Folder 2
Except My Life - Correspondence
2001
Except My Life - Digital drafts
2006
Box 12, Folder 3-6
Corpus - Notes and drafts
2002-2004
Corpus - Digital drafts
2006
You've Got My Number - Digital drafts
2006
Sweet Potatoes (2007) - Digital drafts
2006
Box 12, Folder 7-8
Alphabet of Love Serial (2015) - Drafts
Alphabet of Love Serial (2015) - Digital drafts
2006
Box 12, Folder 9-10
Her Soul on Display. Linda Farris: An Interpretation (2016)
2015-2016
Box 13, Folder 1-3
Her Soul on Display. Linda Farris: An Interpretation (2016)
2015-2016
Box 13, Folder 4-9
A Mystery's No Problem (2016) - Notes and drafts
1980-2011
Box 14, Folder 1-6
A Mystery's No Problem (2016) - Drafts
2004-2016
A Mystery's No Problem (2016) - Digital drafts
2006-2007
Box 14, Folder 7
Poetry manuscript
undated
Oversize FB-380, Folder 5
Untitled book of poetry and fiction on handmade paper
undated
EDITING
Scope and Content of Series
Series 4) EDITING: Drafts, correspondence, notes, incorporation documents, ephemera, and artwork for the poetry journals
Friendly Local Press and
Golden Handcuffs Review. Arranged in two subseries: A) Friendly Local Press and B) Golden Handcuffs Review.
A) Friendly Local Press: Drafts, correspondence, notes, and artwork for
Friendly Local Press, a poetry journal edited by Rowan from 1968 to 1971 and from 1986 to 1989.
B) Golden Handcuffs Review: Drafts, correspondence, notes, incorporation papers, artwork, and ephemera for
Golden Handcuffs Review, a poetry journal edited by Rowan starting in 2002.
Box 15, Folder 2
Radford, Matthew - Proposed logo
Oversize FB-380, Folder 5
Box 15, Folder 3
Stuecklen, Karl
1971-1986
Box 15, Folder 5
Enslin, Theodore (Ted)
1987-1988
Box 15, Folder 7
Miscellaneous correspondence
1968-1987
Box 15, Folder 8
Volume I, No. 1 - Draft, with dedication to Stephanie
1968
Box 15, Folder 9-10
Volume II, No. 1-2 - Notes and drafts
1986
Oversize FB-380, Folder 5
Volume II, No. 2 - Cover layout
1986
Folder 1
Business correspondence
2004-2006
General note
Email files converted to Word documents by Rowan.
Box 15, Folder 11
Correspondence and notes
2002-2010
Box 15, Folder 12
Editorial:
Golden Handcuffs' Foreign and Military Policy
2004-2005
Box 15, Folder 15
Ingram Periodicals
2002-2013
Folder 2
Production files
2005-2006
Folder 3
Volume I, Nos. 1-10 - Correspondence, cover art, and drafts in Word and PDF
2002-2008
Box 16, Folder 1-19
Volume I, Nos. 1-19 - Correspondence, drafts, notes and ephemera
2002-2015
Oversize FB-380, Folder 5
Volume I, No. 16 - Cover art
2013
Box 16, Folder 20-25
Volume II, Nos. 20-25 - Notes and outlines
2015-2018
