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Finding aid of the James L. White Papers
Coll2006-003
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Table of contents
Title: James L. White papers
Dates: 1970-1981
Bulk Dates: (bulk
1979-1981)
Collection number: Coll2006-003
Creator:
White, James L.,
1936-1981
Collection Size: 4 archive boxes
1.5 linear feet
Repository:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.
Los Angeles, California 90007
Abstract: Journals and drafts of poetry, in particular
the posthumously-published anthology,
The Salt
Ecstasies
, and prose of the poet James L. White (1936-1981).
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access
restrictions.
Researchers wishing to publish materials must obtain permission in
writing from ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives as the physical owner.
Researchers must also obtain clearance from the holder(s) of any copyrights in
the materials. Note that ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives can grant
copyright clearance only for those materials for which we hold the copyright.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright clearance for
all other materials directly from the copyright holder(s).
Box #, folder #, James L. White papers, Coll2006-003, One National Gay
& Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Gift, together with the James White Review Association Records, the Tom
Young Papers, and the David M. Lindahl Papers, of Philip H. Willkie, March 21,
2004.
Collection processed by Michael C. Oliveira,
November 13, 2006.
Processing this collection has been funded
by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
James L. White was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 26, 1936.
From the age of 16 he received training in classical ballet. He was later
awarded a scholarship to the American Ballet Theater in New York City, and
while serving in the U.S. Army in West Germany he danced for the State Ballet
in Karlsruhe. White obtained undergraduate degrees from Indiana University and
Colorado State University, and an MA in Literary Criticism from the latter.
For three years in the 1960's, White worked as a poet-teacher with the
Navajo in the American Southwest, where he created and directed the Navajo Folk
Art Theater. In 1971, he relocated to Minnesota to serve as the Director of the
Native American Project of the Poets in the Schools Program, and he later
taught in the Writers in Schools Program sponsored by COMPAS (Community
Programs in the Arts and Sciences). While teaching he collected and edited
Time of the Indian (1976), contemporary poetry
written by Native American children, and
First Skin
Around Me
(1976), an anthology of American Indian writings. During the
late 1970's, he worked with Allen Ginsberg at the Jack Kerouac School for the
Disembodied Poetics, at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
In addition to anthologies of Native American writings, White published
three anthologies of his own works during his lifetime:
Divorce Proceedings (1972),
Crow's
Story of Deer
(1974), and
Del Rio Hotel
(1975). In 1978, the Bush Foundation awarded him a Literature Fellowship that
enabled him to complete his final anthology,
The Salt
Ecstasies
, published posthumously in 1982. White's works were also
published in
The Paris Review, American Poetry Review,
Ironwood, The Ohio Review, Kansas Quarterly, Sonora Review,
and
Prairie Schooner.
White died of heart disease at his home in Minneapolis, in July 1981, at
the age of 45.
Sources:
James White Review, 1, no. 1, 1983, 3.
"James White Review Visits Madison."
Out!
1987, 3.
James L. White Papers, Coll2006-003, ONE National Gay & Lesbian
Archives, Los Angeles, California.
James White Review Association Records, Coll2006-004, ONE National Gay
& Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Willkie, Phil and Kevin Burke. "Jim, His Friends and the
Heaven-Cafeteria."
James White Review, no. 1,
1983, 3.
Scope and Content of Collection
James L. White's Papers consist almost entirely of his journals and
drafts of poetry and prose. The collection forms a single series, arranged by
format: interview, journals, poetry, prose, and notes, each arranged
chronologically. The journals form the bulk of the collection, and contain
photographs and other documents as pasted inserts. White sanitized his papers
prior to his death, and they have been re-arranged several times since his
death. During the course of these re-arrangements, all loose documents were
removed from the journals; these materials are now filed with the journals, but
their precise context has been lost. Other materials include a transcript of an
interview with White; drafts of his poetry, in particular of his final
work,
The Salt Ecstasies; two audiocassettes with
comments on
The Salt Ecstasies by Tess Gallagher;
a small amount of prose; and notes on the writings of others.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Diaries
Gays in literature
Gay men's writings, American
Gays' writing, American
Interviews
Poetry
Poets, American--20th century
White, James L., 1936-1981
James White Review Association Records, Coll2006-004, ONE National Gay
& Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Tom Young Papers, Coll2006-005, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives,
Los Angeles, California.
David M. Lindahl Papers, Coll2006-006, ONE National Gay & Lesbian
Archives, Los Angeles, California.