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Guide to the Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound Collection
ARS.0104
ARS.0104
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Table of contents
Title: Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound Collection
Dates: 1946-1991
Dates: Bulk, 1972-1976
Collection number: ARS.0104
Collection size:
14 boxes
: 265 open reel tapes (73 7" reels ; 192 10.5" reels) ; 2 audiocassettes ; 28 folders
Repository:
Archive of Recorded Sound
Abstract: The Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound was a project begun by English Department graduate student Mike Stillman that
sponsored readings by poets and novelists either in residence or visiting Stanford. These readings were professionally recorded,
and a series of vinyl LPs were produced. The collection consists of original open reel tapes of these readings.
Language of Material: Multiple languages
Open for research; material must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Contact the Archive for
assistance.
Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound.
Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound Collection, ARS-0104. Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
The Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound Collection was donated to the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound by Mike Stillman
from 1980 to 2008.
This finding aid was produced with generous financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Formed 1972 by Michael Stillman, then a graduate student in the English Department, the Stanford Program for Recordings in
Sound aimed to create studio-quality recordings of readings by poets and novelists either in residence or visiting Stanford
University. Many writers read their own work, some read the work of others. The tapes include commentary, introductions, and
translations when necessary (some works were in Hebrew, French, Russian, German, Latin, and Swedish). The majority of readings
are of poetry, fiction, and criticism. There are also plays, lectures and interviews, but the collection is not exclusively
focused on literature (cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz speaks on thick description on one tape).
Most readings were at Stanford or at the Djerassi Foundation near Woodside, California, but almost all were in the San Francisco
Bay Area, including recordings from the Foothill College Writers' Conference and the San Jose State University Contemporary
American Poetry Festival. Yvor Winters, whose work is an inspiration and guide to much of the collection, is featured in a
1958 reading at the San Francisco Museum of Art. Winters and his wife Janet Lewis were also recorded by the Library of Congress
in the 1940s, and copies of those readings are in the collection (the original discs are housed in the Archive of Recorded
Sound's Transcription and Instantaneous Disc Collection). A few readings have been recorded from radio broadcasts (such as
Winters on KPFA in 1953, Miriam Patchen reading Kenneth Patchen on KZSU in 1978), and there are a handful of home recordings
as well.
The SPRS tapes were used in the production of six vinyl LPs. These albums, while not part of the SPRS collection, are in the
Archive's general collection and are available for listening. All master tapes were intended to be permanently housed at the
Archive of Recorded Sound. Stillman left for a career at IBM in 1976 and the project slowed down considerably. Most recordings
date from this period. Although readings by writers-in-residence at the Foundation were recorded beginning in 1985, the Stillman/Djerassi
partnership began formally with a document of understanding in 1987. The SPRS Collection contains tapes from Djerassi readings
through 1991.
A few of the more familiar names in the collection: Saul Bellow, Robert Bly, John Cheever (also interviewed), Wanda Coleman,
Robert Creeley, Carl Djerassi, Alex Haley, Seamus Heaney, John Irving, Michael McClure, Diane Middlebrook, N. Scott Momaday,
Pablo Neruda, Ishmael Reed, Adrienne Rich, Alain Robbe-Grillet (lecture), Ntozake Shange, Gary Snyder, and Yvor Winters. And
among the Stanford-affiliated writers included here: Janet Lewis, Kenneth Fields, Herbert Lindenberger, Albert Guerard, Albert
Gelpi, Barbara Gelpi, Nancy Packer, J.V. Cunningham, Donald Davie, Thom Gunn, and Edgar Bowers.
Tapes were numbered consecutively prior to accession, although there are also many unnumbered reels. 1-138 are SPRS-sponsored
recordings, 138-229 are Djerassi Foundation. Detailed notes concerning the recordings are held in the Archive in the form
of an Annotated Discography of Literary Recordings, created in 1985 by Mike Stillman. The remainder of tapes are listed in
a spreadsheet.
Stanford University Archives holds the Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound Collection, SC0888, which is likely a duplication
of recordings at ARS. Likewise, the Djerassi Foundation retains copies of readings conducted there.
Stanford Program for Recordings in Sound.
Djerassi Foundation.
Authors, American--20th century.
Poets, American--20th century.