Will Alexander Papers: Finding Aid mssAlexanderw
Kelly Kress
The Huntington Library
February 2023
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Business Number: (626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Will Alexander papers
Identifier/Call Number: mssAlexanderw
Physical Description:
8 Linear Feet
(15 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1979-2017
Abstract: Materials related to the creative output of writer, artist, and musician Will Alexander, including drafts of artistic works;
notebooks containing poetry, prose, and notes; research materials indicating areas of interest and inspiration; and audio
recordings.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more
information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
NOT AVAILABLE. Audio materials in box 15 are not available for paging until reformatted. Please contact Reader Services for
more information.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Will Alexander papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Will Alexander through Granary Books, December 2021.
Biographical / Historical
Writer and artist Will Alexander was born in Los Angeles, California in 1948. He attended the University of California, Los
Angeles, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing in 1972. Alexander has published several books
of poetry including Across the Vapour Gulf (2017), Compression & Purity (2011), The Sri Lankan Loxodrome (2009), Asia & Haiti
(1995), and The Stratospheric Canticles (1995). He has taught at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa
University; the University of California, San Diego; and Hofstra University. His collection Singing In Magnetic Hoofbeat:
Essays, Prose, Texts, Interviews, and a Lecture (2013) was awarded an American Book Award; and Refractive Africa: Ballet of
the Forgotten was a 2022 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Alexander's other honors include a Whiting Fellowship
for Poetry, a California Arts Council Fellowship, a PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the 2016 Jackson Poetry Prize.
Scope and Contents
The collection includes drafts of Will Alexander's artistic works; notebooks containing poetry, prose, and notes; research
materials indicating areas of interest and inspiration; and audio recordings of interviews and Alexander's piano playing.
Processing Information
Processed by Kelly Kress in March 2023. Will Alexander's original arrangement and folder titles were retained.
Other Finding Aids
Detailed inventory available in collection information file. See Reader Services for more information.
Arrangement
Arranged in three series:
1. Works, projects, and research materials
2. Notebooks
3. Audio recordings
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American poetry -- African American authors
American poetry -- 20th century
American poetry -- 21st century
Poetry, Modern -- 20th century
Poetry, Modern -- 21st century
Audiocassettes
Drafts (documents)
Poetry
Alexander, Will
Torregian, Sotère
Works, projects, and research materials
1979-2020
Physical Description: 5 Linear Feet(12 boxes)
Scope and Contents
Will Alexander's written works and collaborative projects: primarily typescript drafts or copies of typescripts; printed proofs;
and some handwritten drafts. Many of the typescripts and printed drafts include handwritten notes and corrections. There are
also copies of reviews of Alexander's work, and reviews by him of others' work. Interspersed with these works are Alexander's
research materials, usually printouts of articles and information from the internet that influenced and inspired his writing.
Boxes 10-12 consist entirely of research materials.
There is a small amount of correspondence and biographical material also interspersed with the works, which is noted in the
individual boxes. Box 5 includes the bulk of the correspondence; box 8 includes Sotère Torregian signed poems and correspondence.
Box 3 also includes a few drawings.
Processing Information
Series preserves Alexander's original organization and provides insight into his creative process. Alexander's original folder
titles are retained whenever possible; many items are undated.
Box 1, Folder 1-17
Works and projects
1987-2020; undated
Scope and Contents
Notes for Jerry Rothenberg volume; biographic material; Arcane Lavender Morals, 1996; Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century;
The Interval of Dormancy (unpublished) approximately 1997-2007; Being as Neutrality and Drift; Vertical Rainbow Climber (early
drafts) 1987–1988; Optic Occultation exhibition notes; research materials: Johannes Kepler & astronomy; research materials:
On Dar El-Hikma; reviews: Kaleidoscopic Omniscience (2013), At Night on the Sun, Diary as Sin, The Brimstone Boat, Singing
in Magnetic Hoofbeat, Stratospheric Canticles, and others; At the Vertigo Borders; research materials: Roger Gilbert-Lecomte;
research materials: alien encounters, UFO Digest; research materials: Subhankar Banerjee, Octavio Paz on André Breton.
Box 2, Folder 1-9
Works and projects
2000-2015; undated
Scope and Contents
Research materials: Egyptian symbolism, global warming, fish of the Congo River, exoplanets, alchemy, life on Mars, epigenetics,
aboriginal Australian art, Moorish culture, Arabic poets, medieval Islamic astronomy; Kaleidoscopic Omniscience: notes and
introduction; Kaleidoscopic Omniscience: annotated typescript; resume and CV materials, biographical; The Brimstone Boat drafts
(2012); The Brimstone Boat typescript (2012);
Notes approximately 2000.
Box 3, Folder 1-19
Works and projects
1979-2018; undated
Scope and Contents
Compression & Purity drafts and proofs; The One True Body, Spectral Hieroglyphics drafts; "The Sand Genie," (unpublished 2017-18)
fragments; Drawings; research materials: Roger Weir; Sunrise in Armageddon, fragments; "Polynesian Blackberry Units," 1985
(unpublished poem); "Mountain Slope Swimming in Detroit," (first poem published in River Styx); Fragments (possibly from Spectral
Hieroglyphics); Utopian Stellar Preamble; "Ball Lightning," early 1990s; Utopian Stellar Concentrations, late 1980s-1990s;
On Crossing the Vermin Frontier (with letter to Nathaniel Mackey); On Crossing the Vermin Frontier typescript; book on aphorisms
fragment; Letters to Rosa unpublished excerpt; Letters to Rosa typescript.
Box 4, Folder 1-13
Works and projects
1998-2017; undated
Scope and Contents
At Night on the Sun; Inside the Earthquake Palace; "On Higher Phlogiston Current"; A Note on General Scatterings and Comment;
Across the Vapour Gulf; study material: Spectral Hieroglyphics; Coming Mental Range; On Dar El Hikma fragments; "The Impalpable
Brush Fire Singer"
Box 5, Folder 1-15
Works and projects
1993-2018; undated
Scope and Contents
Statement for Poet Laureate of Los Angeles application; Diary as Sin; correspondence; "California: The Golden Beacon" poems
and fragments; reviews by Will Alexander; interviews of Will Alexander; comic art project with Kerry James Marshall, 2010–2012;
"On Microbes and Adders"; poetry workshop at San Quentin; Across the Vapour Gulf, early work; Sunrise in Armageddon; On Dar
El Hikma.
Box 6, Folder 1-12
Works and projects
1995-2015; undated
Scope and Contents
On Dar El Hikma; biographic materials; aborted projects; Diary as Sin excerpt, Compression & Purity contract, City Lights;
The Audiographic as Data; Solar Fire on Earth; Secrets Prior to the Sun; On Crossing the Vermin Frontier (copy); At Night
on the Sun fragment and research; General Scatterings and Comments.
Box 7, Folder 1-13
Works and projects
1993-2015; undated
Scope and Contents
Towards the Primeval Lightning Field; Sri Lankan Loxodrome; Secrets Prior to the Sun; notes on Wanda Coleman; Gherasim Luca;
Inscrutable Visibility; "Saturate with Refined Enigmas", research: Antonin Artaud; Singing in Magnetic Hoofbeat; Notes on
Kaufman. Folder 13 also includes letters to editors with related essays.
Box 8, Folder 1-16
Works and projects
1983-2012; undated
Scope and Contents
Intuitive Primevals; Mirach Speaks to His Grammatical Transparents; Treason in the Northern Theatre; unpublished materials;
The Density Paintings; Sotère Torregian signed poems and correspondence; Brian Lucas: Circles Matter; poems by Roberta Olson,
Heller Levinson, and others; Marie Wilson exhibition brochures; Post Fukushima (introduction by Will Alexander); Inalienable
Recognitions lecture; marketing report; Pandora's Hatchery.
Box 9, Folder 1-24
Works and projects
1990s-2011; undated
Scope and Contents
Stratospheric Canticles; Taking Issue with Ubiquitous Reduction; "One's Organic Intuition…"; On the Substance of Disorder;
"The Dust Pony"; "A Conversation About Light" collaboration with Gaspar Orozco; "The Western World"; Singing in Magnetic Hoofbeat;
materials by Heller Levinson and Janice Lee; "The Impossible Dagger" (unpublished); "On Microbes and Adders"; Zomaya and the
Myrmidons; random notes; correspondence and ephemera;
"Texas Blind Salamander"; "From Alien Weaving"; "The Cryptographic Ocelot"; "Candle from the Black Widow's Love Cake"; Ron
Allen's The Ink Blot Theory (edited by Will Alexander); "Enjaracon Sponaeda"; Singing in Magnetic Hoofbeat; Combustion & Leakage,
Lightning.
Box 10, Folder 1-9
Research materials
2010s; undated
Scope and Contents
Printed typescripts of works by others, including Ron Allen, Jed Rasula, and Philip Lamantia. Research materials: printouts
of subjects related to Alexander's work.
Box 11, Folder 1-5
Research materials
2010-2014
Scope and Contents
Research materials: printouts of subjects related to Alexander's work.
Box 12, Folder 1-6
Research materials
2010s
Scope and Contents
Research materials: printouts of subjects related to Alexander's work; plus some magazine issues.
Notebooks
2011-2015
Physical Description: 2 Linear Feet(2 boxes)
Scope and Contents
Handwritten notebooks, most entirely filled with writing, including extended pieces and some titled works of poetry and prose
that can be cross-referenced in Series 1. Notebooks also contain notes ranging from reading observations to rental housing,
to baseball statistics. Some notebooks include check marks next to pieces, suggesting their eventual transformation into typescripts
and ultimately published work.
Audio recordings
approximately 2010s
Physical Description: 1 Linear Feet(1 box)
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
NOT AVAILABLE. Audio materials in box 15 are not available for paging until reformatted. Please contact Reader Services for
more information.
Scope and Contents
Audio recordings on cassette and compact disc, including interviews, live readings, conference proceedings, and recordings
of Alexander playing piano.
Box 15, Item 1-54
Audio recordings
approximately 2010s
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
NOT AVAILABLE. Audio materials in box 15 are not available for paging until reformatted. Please contact Reader Services for
more information.
