Description
The R. L. Barth papers consist of manuscripts, paste-ups, chapbooks, and file copies of small press poetry published by the
Robert L. Barth Press from the time of its founding in 1981 until the press ceased in the early 2000s. The collection also
includes Barth's correspondence with poets Turner Cassity, Dick Davis, John Finlay, Charles Gullans, X. J. Kennedy, Janet
Lewis, Timothy Steele, and Wesley Trimpi. Notable among the correspondence is a file of letters from Barth to Timothy Steele,
which spans 1981 to 2000, along with an additional letter written in February of 2022. Timothy Steele and Victoria Lee Steele
provided the following biographical information (abridged here) when they donated an accrual to the R. L. Barth papers in
2022: "Robert L. Barth (1947-) was not only a publisher, but is also a poet and editor. In the latter capacity, he has edited
both the selected letters and the selected poems of Yvor Winters and the selected poems of Winter's wife, Janet Lewis. As
a poet, he is best known for his poems about the Vietnam War, in which he served as a young Marine in the late 1960s, at the
height of the conflict." See the unabridged quote under this finding aid's biographical note.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special
Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.