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United Artists (New York, N.Y.) Records
MSS 0012
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Table of contents
Creator:
United Artists (New York, N.Y.)
Title: United Artists (New York, N.Y.) Records,
Date (inclusive): 1977-1983
Extent:
3.60 linear feet
(9 archives boxes)
Abstract: Records of a publishing company established by poets Lewis Warsh and Bernadette Mayer in 1977. Successor to Angel Hair magazine
and Angel Hair Books, United Artists published works of contemporary poets and writers, including Ted Berrigan, Clark Coolidge,
Alan Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, and Bill Berkson. Correspondence with these and other United Artist contributors
can be found in the collection. Also included are typescripts of works submitted and materials used for production of United
Artists publications.
Repository:
University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.
La Jolla, California 92093-0175
Collection number: MSS 0012
Language of Material:
Collection materials in English
Collection is open for research.
Not Available
United Artists (New York, N.Y.) Records, MSS 0012. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Established by Lewis Warsh and Bernadette Mayer in 1977, United Artists press was located in New York City until it went out
of business in at the end of the 1980s. Typically, the press published four titles a year, generally with a run of 750 copies
each. While they provided a venue for artists who could not publish with mainstream presses, Warsh and Mayer also published
established writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, and Gregory Corso, all of whom had secured contracts with trade
publishers.
The forerunner of United Artists was Angel Artist (magazine) and Angel Hair Books, a press which Warsh co-founded and co-edited
from 1966 to 1977. Many of the contributors to United Artists, such as Ted Berrigan and Clark Coolidge, had previously been
associated with Angel Hair Books. Both presses were dependent on sales-generated income combined with the support offered
by grants and awards. Warsh was a recipient of National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1966 and 1979, and he received a
Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines award in 1981.
Scope and Content of Collection
Accession Processed in 1988
The papers relate to the professional and personal lives of persons associated with United Artists. Many of the artists that
Warsh and Mayer dealt with were also friends, and, as a result, the correspondence is often a mix of both literary and private
matters. Although a few items date from the middle 1970s, the bulk of the papers date from 1977 to 1983. The collection
is organized into three series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE; 2) TYPESCRIPTS, GALLEYS, AND PAGE PROOFS OF UNITED ARTISTS BOOKS; and 3)
TYPESCRIPTS SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED ARTISTS MAGAZINE.
The largest portion of the collection is comprised of CORRESPONDENCE from various writers to United Artists editors Mayer
and Warsh. The series is arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's name, and the letters of each correspondent are in
chronological order. Unless the correspondent addressed Mayer or Warsh individually, only the name of the writer is listed.
The successive stages of production for each book project can be surveyed in the TYPESCRIPTS, GALLEYS, AND PAGE PROOFS OF
UNITED ARTISTS BOOKS series. They are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.
The TYPESCRIPTS SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED ARTISTS MAGAZINE series contains original typescripts of published and unpublished
work. This section includes the work of Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, and Allen Ginsberg. It is also arranged alphabetically
by the name of the author.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
United Artists (New York, N.Y.) -- Archives
Warsh, Lewis -- Archives
Mayer, Bernadette -- Archives
American poetry -- 20th century
Publishers and publishing -- New York (State) -- Manuscripts
Berkson, Bill, -- correspondent
Bernstein, Charles, 1950- -- correspondent
Berrigan, Ted, -- correspondent
Brainard, Joe, 1942- -- correspondent
Callahan, Bob, -- correspondent
Coolidge, Clark, 1939- -- correspondent
Corbett, William, -- correspondent
Corso, Gregory, -- correspondent
Creeley, Robert, 1926- -- correspondent
Davies, Alan, -- correspondent
Elmslie, Kenward, -- correspondent
Ginsberg, Allen, 1926- -- correspondent
Howe, Fanny, -- correspondent
Howe, Susan, 1937- -- correspondent
Mac Low, Jackson, -- correspondent
Metcalf, Paul C., -- correspondent
Notley, Alice, 1945- -- correspondent
Palmer, Michael, 1943- -- correspondent
Raworth, Tom, -- correspondent
Waldman, Anne, 1945- -- correspondent
Watten, Barrett, -- correspondent
Warsh, Lewis
Mayer, Bernadette