Guide to the Robert Peterson Papers
UCSC OAC Unit
The University Library
Special Collections and Archives
University Library
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California, 95064
Email: specoll@library.ucsc.edu
URL: http://library.ucsc.edu/speccoll/
© 2005
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Robert Peterson Papers
Collection number: MS 44
The University Library
Special Collections and Archives
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
- Processed by:
- UCSC OAC Unit
- Date Completed:
- July 2005
- Encoded by:
- UCSC OAC Unit
© 2005 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Robert Peterson papers
Dates: 1945-1990
Collection number: MS 44
Creator:
Peterson, Robert
Collection Size:
1 document box
Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library.
Special Collections and Archives
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Abstract: This collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, drafts and annotated typescripts of poet, Robert Peterson.
Physical location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice is required for access to the papers.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
Collection open for research.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Preferred Citation
Robert Peterson papers. MS 44. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of
California, Santa Cruz.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Robert Peterson and Carolyn Stoloff.
Biography
The author of nine books and a widely anthologized poet, Robert Peterson was born in Denver in 1924. His childhood was spent
in San Francisco at the Fielding Hotel, a Union Square hotel owned by his adoptive parents. There he developed a sharp idiosyncratic
eye for human nature that would later give his poems their particular style and charm. He was writer-in-residence at Reed
College, Portland Oregon from 1969-1971. After leaving Reed College, Peterson lived in Taos, New Mexico, where he wrote a
collection of poems,
Leaving Taos, that was named a National Poetry Series selection in 1981. He then returned to the Bay Area, where he started his own publishing
company, Black Dog Press, and created artworks that were shown in local galleries. He also served a writer-in-residence at
Oregon's Willamette University from 1991-1992. Peterson was one of the first artists to win a grant from the National Endowment
for the Arts after its founding in 1965, and one of the first to edit an anthrology of poems in opposition to the Vietnam
War.
Robert Peterson died of cancer in September 2001 at the age of 76.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains early correspondence from Peterson to his parents, outgoing correspondence to long time friend and
poet Carolyn Stoloff, manuscripts, drafts and annotated typescripts of poems.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Peterson, Robert--Archives
Authors, American--California--Santa Cruz County
American poetry--20th century
Santa Cruz County (Calif.)--Imprints
Stoloff, Carolyn
Box:folder 1:2-7
Correspondence - Outgoing
Box:folder 1:2
To Mr. & Mrs. Ernest F. Peterson,
February 2 - May 26, 1945
Box:folder 1:8
Undated manuscripts, drafts, annotated typescripts,
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Yesterday at the Tavern...
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Cracking its wild bones, 1/23
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Kuhlman as Caviar, 2/18
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Amos Feely at the Fielding (Sonnet for Amos Feely), 3/9
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Evening Poem (Meditations on a Still Night), 4/16
undated
Box:folder 1:8
A Possible Suicide, 4/17
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Now and then I find myself, 5/5
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Planning my future (backside:
To the Single Mind),
5/5
undated
Box:folder 1:8
We're sitting around a table, 5/7
undated
Box:folder 1:8
In the 2am club, 5/9
undated
Box:folder 1:8
You've been sent off in the rain, 5/9
undated
Box:folder 1:8
I'm walking to the Bay, 5/12
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Hands folded like napkins in my lap, 5/13
undated
Box:folder 1:8
The Second Year, Two Rhododendrons, 5/19
undated
Box:folder 1:8
The Young Conquistador, 5/26
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Three Northamericans, 7/6
undated
Box:folder 1:8
A Swim in Ouhuira Bay, 7/18
undated
Box:folder 1:8
The Yellow Cat, 7/28
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Thinking about what to do next, 8/12
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Famous for Comfort, 9/25
undated
Box:folder 1:8
You Dream of Bawdy Priests, 10/10
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Late Autumn Leaves, 11/2
undated
Box:folder 1:8
Stopped by Highway Patrol going too slow, 12/26
undated
Box:folder 1:9
Dated manuscripts, drafts, annotated typescripts,
1957-1979
Box:folder 1:9
I can hear it now (The First day of the Lovers)
4/21/1957
Box:folder 1:9
Beach at Ft. Cronkite - Draft 1
10/5/1965
Box:folder 1:9
Toshiro Mifune as Ski Patrol
11/16/1965
Box:folder 1:9
A Neighbor to the South (An Enemy)
4/20/1966
Box:folder 1:9
The laurels sway like java dances
9/11/1966
Box:folder 1:9
Cracking its Drunken Bones
1/21/1967
Box:folder 1:9
Sea Poem / Sea Changes
1/26/1968
Box:folder 1:9
Lone Rider (Taos Dog)
10/5/1971
Box:folder 1:9
In the St. James Hotel
10/15/1971
Box:folder 1:9
Sonnet for Grandpa
10/24/1971
Box:folder 1:9
Near Ojo Caliente, November
10/29/1971
Box:folder 1:9
Southwest Sunsets
12/1/1971
Box:folder 1:9
Winter Evening, Ranchos
12/6/1971
Box:folder 1:9
January of this Year
1/4/1972
Box:folder 1:9
How to use Italian Trains
1/24/1973
Box:folder 1:9
Swifts / Summer Evening, Ranchos
9/6/1973
Box:folder 1:9
Nacho Jimenez (Stockton) vs. Richie Manchacha (Pittsburgh) Lightweights, Kezar Pavilion, San Francisco 8/25/1975
2/6/1976
Box:folder 1:9
How to Bury a Sparrow
8/10/1977
Box:folder 1:9
The Mountains of Taos
5/12/1978
