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Fraser (Kathleen) Papers
MSS 0529
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Table of contents
Description
Papers of Kathleen Fraser (1935-2019), American poet, teacher and scholar. Influenced by the experimental poets of the New
York School in the 1960s, Fraser became a prolific poet, an advocate of innovative women's writing, and a professor of creative
writing at San Francisco State University. The collection contains correspondence with prominent poets and scholars; manuscript
and typescript drafts of Fraser's published and unpublished poetry and prose; administrative and production materials related
to the literary magazine
HOW(ever); interviews with Fraser; teaching materials; sound and video recordings; and digital media.
Background
Kathleen Joy Fraser was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1935 and attended high school in Covina, California. After discovering
the work of writers such as Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman and e.e. cummings while a student at Occidental College, Fraser decided
to major in English literature and began to write her own poetry. She graduated in 1959 and moved to New York City where she
developed her skills as a poet in workshops with Kenneth Koch and Robert Lowell at the New School for Social Research and
with Stanley Kunitz at the Poetry Center at the YMHA.
Extent
43 Linear feet
(104 archives boxes, 3 card file boxes, 1 tube, and 4 oversize folders)
Restrictions
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Availability
Materials in box 40, folders 10-15 are restricted until the year 2052, according to state and federal laws. Materials in box
40, folders 16-17 are restricted until the year 2077, according to state and federal laws. Original audiovisual and digital
media are restricted; listening/viewing copies may be available to researchers.