Kenneth Rexroth papers, 1940-1982, bulk 1969-1981

Summary

Creators:

Rexroth, Kenneth, 1905-1982

Abstract:

The papers of Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and activist, comprise manuscripts, notes, printed material, publications, correspondence, ephemera, and artwork related to poetry, writing, speaking engagements, and teaching, primarily from the last decade of his life; also included are correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and edits compiled by Geoffrey Gardner for a Kenneth Rexroth festschrift published in 1980.

Extent:

18.17 Linear Feet 28 boxes

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kenneth Rexroth papers, Collection no. 0119, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

The papers of Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and activist, comprise manuscripts, notes, printed material, publications, correspondence, and ephemera related to Rexroth's poetry, writing, speaking engagements, and teaching, primarily from the last decade of his life.

Biographical / historical:

American painter, poet, critic, translator, and playwright Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth was born in 1905 in South Bend, Indiana. After being expelled from a Chicago high school, Rexroth worked as a soda jerk, clerk, wrestler, and reporter to support himself. Although he attended the Art Institute of Chicago, he was largely self-educated in the literary salons, nightclubs, lecture halls, and hobo camps he frequented in the 1920s. In his youth Rexroth traveled extensively in the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and backpacked frequently in the American wilderness. During this time he worked as a forest ranger, harvester, fruit packer, factory hand, and mental institution attendant. He also became something of a political radical, allying himself with various avant garde and leftist organizations, and developing what would become lifelong interests in eroticism, anarchy, mysticism, and Eastern philosophy. In the 1940s New Directions published Rexroth's first poetry collections "In What Hour" and "The Phoenix and the Tortoise." Both works encapsulated Rexroth's pacifistic, anti-establishment ethos, represented his interest in the natural and erotic, and alluded to classical poets from the East and West. In the late 1940s, Rexroth launched the San Francisco Renaissance, promoting the work of poets like William Everson, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Denise Levertov on a weekly radio show. His poetry and lifestyle also clearly influenced Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and other Beat poets, though Rexroth would eventually come to disapprove of the Beat movement, and was displeased when he became known as the father of the Beats. In the 1960s, Rexroth brought national public attention to world literature poetry in translation through his "Classics Revisited" column in the Saturday Review and his anthologies of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Recognized by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964, he went on to publish collections of his shorter poems and longer poems in 1967 and 1968. From 1968 through 1974 he taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1974, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Japan, and in 1975 he received the Copernicus Award from the Academy of American Poets in recognition of a poet's lifetime work and contribution to poetry as a cultural force. Rexroth died June 6, 1982 in Montecito, California.

Acquisition information:

All files acquired from Bradford Morrow, Kenneth Rexroth's literary executor.

Processing information:

Partially processed by Mike Garabedian, Fall 2004. In October 2011, Sue Luftschein completed the remaining rehousing and description.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into the following series: Series 1. Correspondence, Series 2. Festschrift, Series 3. Manuscripts by Rexroth, Series 4. Other writers' manuscripts, Series 5. Notes, notebooks, and scrapbooks, Series 6. Ephemera, clippings, miscellaneous records, Series 7. Artwork, Series 8. Financial records

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Related material:

Kenneth Rexroth papers, Collection 175, Department of Special Collections, UCLA

Separated material:

Rexroth's papers came with 8 cartons of books and journals from his personal library. These have been cataloged separately into USC's online public access catalog, Homer.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

American poetry -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Authors, American -- California -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Poetry -- Archival resources
Poets -- Archival resources
Correspondence
Ephemera
Financial records
Manuscripts
Notebooks
Notes
Scrapbooks

Names:

Copperhead (Press) -- Correspondence
Copper Canyon Press -- Correspondence
Axelrod, Joseph -- Correspondence
Atsumi, Ikuko -- Correspondence
Berry, Wendell -- Correspondence
Benedict, Nannette -- Correspondence
Cooney, Rian -- Correspondence
Ciani Forza, Daniela M. -- Correspondence
Acker, Kathy -- Correspondence
Anderson, Marta -- Correspondence
Adam, Helen -- Correspondence
Atchity, Kenneth John -- Correspondence
Argüelles, Ivan -- Correspondence
Raine, Kathleen -- Correspondence
Tinker, Carol -- Correspondence
Solt, John -- Correspondence
Szerlip, Barbara -- Correspondence
Tarn, Nathaniel -- Correspondence
Thomas, Janet -- Correspondence
Roditi, Edouard -- Correspondence
Sakurai, Emiko -- Correspondence
Sanchez, Thomas -- Correspondence
Shiffert, Edith Marcombe -- Correspondence
Rexroth, Katharine -- Correspondence
Rexroth, Mary -- Correspondence
Rexroth, Kenneth, 1905-1982 -- Archives
Rainer, Dachine -- Correspondence
Racionero, Luis -- Correspondence
Piercy, Marge -- Correspondence
Oden, Gloria -- Correspondence
Norse, Harold -- Correspondence
Morrow, Bradford -- Correspondence
Milosz, Czeslaw -- Correspondence
Matsui, Keiko -- Correspondence
Levertov, Denise -- Correspondence
Lawless, Gary -- Correspondence
Lawler, Justus George -- Correspondence
Laughlin, James -- Correspondence
Lattimore, Richmond Alexander -- Correspondence
Kuzma, Greg -- Correspondence
Kray, Elizabeth -- Correspondence
Kertesz, Louise -- Correspondence
Huerta, Albert -- Correspondence
Kodama, Sanehide -- Correspondence
Hamill, Sam -- Correspondence
Handler, Esther -- Correspondence
Hagedorn, Jessica Tarahata -- Correspondence
Hamalian, Leo -- Correspondence
Gidlow, Elsa -- Correspondence
Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997 -- Correspondence
Gardner, Geoffrey -- Archives
Gibson, Morgan -- Correspondence
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence -- Correspondence
Forché, Carolyn -- Correspondence
Douskey, Franz -- Correspondence
Everson, William -- Correspondence
Corman, Cid -- Correspondence
Dana, Robert -- Correspondence

Restrictions:

Advance notice required for access. Financial records are restricted.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. 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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kenneth Rexroth papers, Collection no. 0119, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:

University of Southern California, Special Collections

Special Collections

Doheny Memorial Library, Room 209

Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189, US

Contact:

(213) 740-5900

specol@usc.edu

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