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Monette (Paul) papers
LSC.1707
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Paul Monette papers
Creator:
Monette, Paul
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1707
Physical Description:
32.6 linear feet
(64 document boxes, 7 flat boxes)
Physical Description:
49 audiovisual carriers
(1 film strip, 1 open reel videotape, 35 videocassettes, 12 audiocassettes)
Physical Description:
21 born-digital carriers
(16 floppy disks, 5 floppy discs)
Date (inclusive): 1945-1995
Abstract: Paul Landry Monette (1945-1995) was a novelist and poet. He received a best biography nomination from the National Book Critics'
Circle and won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1992. The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, proofs,
notes, screenplays, plays, daybooks, memorabilia, photographs, clippings, and printed material related to Monette's life and
literary career. Also included in the collection are the papers of two of Monette's significant others, Roger Horwitz and
Stephen Kolzak.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS UNPROCESSED DIGITAL MATERIALS: Digital materials are not currently available for access and will require further
processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- Gift of Paul Monette, 1993-94.
- Gift of Winston Wilde, 1996.
- journals, 2012 addition
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9924702543606533
[Identification of item], Paul Monette papers (Collection 1707). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Dan Luckenbill, 1997.
Processing of the papers is to the folder level, with at times item level description, largely when one manuscript or group
of manuscripts comprises one folder.
A 2012 addition, comprised of 13 journals, was processed and described by Aaron Gorelik in 2013 in the Center for Primary
Research and Training (CFPRT) with the assistance of Jillian Cuellar. Previously unprocessed materials were also arranged
and described by Gorelik in 2014.
Receiving his PhD from the UCLA Department of English in 2014, Gorelik wrote his dissertation about the effects of the early
AIDS epidemic on the course of American poetry. He discovered his dissertation topic by way of Monette's book Love Alone:
Eighteen Elegies for Rog (1988) and focused his dissertation's first chapter, as well as a related article, on Monette. At
UCLA, he taught Monette's poetry, memoirs, and novels in a number of forums.
Processing of Monette's journals was generously supported by
Arcadia.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating
existing description of our materials that contains language
that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they
could be described more accurately, by filling out the form
located on our website:
Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special
Collections.
Paul Landry Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1945; BA, English, Yale, 1967; taught at Cheshire
Academy, Connecticut, 1968-70; taught at Milton Academy, Massachusetts, and Pine Manor College, 1970-76; met Roger Horwitz
in 1974 and the two moved to Los Angeles, California, 1977; writings include
Carpenter at the Asylum (1975),
Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll (1978),
The Gold Diggers (1979),
Long Shot (1981), and
No Witnesses (1981); after Horwitz's death in 1986, Monette wrote
Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog (1988),
Borrowed Time: an AIDS Memoir (1988),
Afterlife (1990), and
Halfway Home (1991); Monette's work,
Borrowed Time: an AIDS Memoir, was nominated as best biography for the National Book Critics' Circle Award; Monette wrote of his struggle for identity
as a gay man in his book,
Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (1992), which won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1992; final publications include
Last Watch of the Night (1994),
West of Yesterday, East of Summer (1994), and the posthumous
Sanctuary (1997); he died of complications from AIDS on February 10, 1995.
Several printed obituaries and appreciations have been collected in Special Collections URL and can be found in the papers.
Major critical overviews include those in
Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama,
Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields
vol. 139, edited by Donna Olendorf, Detroit, Washington, D.C., London: Gale Research Incorporated, 1993,
Gay & Lesbian Literature, edited by Sharon Malinowski, Detroit and London: St. James Press, 1994, and
Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwod Press, 1994.
By Paula Zeszotarski
| October 16, 1945 | Paul Landry Monette born in Lawrence, Massachusetts |
| 1951 | Brother Robert Monette born |
| 1963 | Graduated from Phillips Andover Academy |
| September 1963 | Entered Yale University as a member of Jonathan Edwards College |
| Summer 1966 | On scholarship to Cambridge University to work on senior thesis and travel in Europe |
| 1967 | Graduated from Yale University with Bachelor of Arts in English |
| September 1967-June 1968 | Spent year on Carnegie Teaching Fellowship at Yale |
| November 1968-June 1970 | Taught at Cheshire Academy, Cheshire, Connecticut |
| September 1970-1976 | Taught at Milton Academy, Milton, Massachusetts and Pine Manor College and lived in Boston |
| September 4, 1974 | Met Roger Horwitz |
| 1975 | Carpenter at the Asylum published |
| November 1977 | Moved with Roger to Los Angeles |
| 1978 | First novel published, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll |
| 1979 | Gold Diggers published |
| 1981 | Long Shot published |
| 1981 | No Witnesses published |
| 1983 | First novelization published, Scarface |
| November 29, 1984 | Receives City of West Hollywood Certificate of Commendation |
| October 22, 1986 | Roger Horwitz dies |
| 1988 | Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog published |
| 1988 | Borrowed Time published |
| 1989 | Borrowed Time nominated for National Book Critic's Circle Award |
| 1990 | Afterlife published |
| February 22, 1990 | PM's mother dies |
| September 19 1990 | Stephen Kolzak dies |
| 1990(?) | Met Winston Wilde |
| 1991 | Halfway Home published |
| 1992 | Becoming a Man published |
| 1992* | Won National Book [Critic's Circle] Award for Becoming a Man* the award was for 1992 but was given in 1993 |
| June 1994 | Last Watch of the Night published |
| July 1994 | West of Yesterday, East of Summer published |
| February 10 1995 | PM dies of complications from AIDS |
Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, notes, screenplays, plays, daybooks, memorabilia, photographs,
clippings, and printed material related to the life and literary career of Paul Monette. Materials in the collection reflect
Monette's childhood, education, relationships with significant others, writings, and public appearances. Correspondences in
the collection include fan mail as well as letters from many prominent literary figures and gay and lesbian activist leaders.
Daybooks document his life as a gay man in Los Angeles during the post-Stonewall rebellion and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
Photographs document his receipt of the National Book Award in 1992, Monette's various friendships, and his home life with
partners Roger Horwitz, Stephen Kolzak, and Winston Wilde. Portrait photographs include prints by Robert Giard, photographer
of gay and lesbian authors. Also included in the collection are the papers of two of Monette's previous significant others,
Roger Horwitz and Stephen Kolzak. The 2012 addition to the papers consists of 13 journals, dating from 1971-1992.
These papers represent all those saved by Paul Monette and include documents relating to his childhood, education, significant
others, writing career, activism, honors, and celebrity.
The papers contain a fairly complete sampling of manuscripts and publication materials including notes, rough drafts, typed
drafts, and editor's and printer's copies of galley proofs. There are copies of his screenplays, television scripts, and plays.
Notably, no complete manuscript of
Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll or
Becoming a Man appear in the papers (the latter was written and submitted on diskette); nor do the papers include a complete set of the
literary journals that printed his poems. Monette provided copies of most of his books, including novelizations, and those
are cataloged separately. (A copy of
No Witnesses was not provided.)
Also found in the papers are clippings and copies of reviews and recordings of general speeches and appearances made for the
publicity of particular published works. A substantial holding of fan mail has been filed in relationship to the published
works in reference. There are manuscripts and notes pertaining to others' works, including some for which Monette wrote blurbs
or prefaces, including
A Rock and a Hard Place, by Anthony Godby Johnson. Records of Monette's poems set to music, primarily from
Love Alone, can be found: composers include Ned Rorem, Roger Bourland, Jeffrey Brody, and Gary Bachlund.
Memorabilia, photographs, and daybooks cover his entire life. There are few snapshots of his childhood and adolescence. Some
are interfiled in a baby book, but most primarily date to after his graduation from college. His home life with his partners
Roger Horwitz, Stephen Kolzak, and Winston Wilde, and some friendships, particularly with Craig Rowland, Rudy Kikel, and Cesar
Albini, are chronicled. There are few photographs from publicity tours, etcetera, that do not appear in publications. There
are some photographs from his presentation at the Library of Congress after receiving the National Book Award in 1992. Portraits
include prints by photographer Robert Giard, noteworthy photographer of gay and lesbian authors. Significantly, the papers
hold all thirteen diaries Monette diligently kept from 1971 to 1992.
Correspondents represented in the papers include many prominent literary figures as well as gay and lesbian activist leaders,
such as Louis Untermeyer, Richard Howard, Rudy Kikel, Joey Terrill, Elisabeth Nonas, Teresa DeCrecenzo, John Preston, Richard
Labonté, Mark Thompson, Malcolm Boyd, Mark Thompson, Katherine V. Forrest, Betty Berzon, Torie Osborn, Michael Denneny, Doug
Sadownick, Larry Duplechan, Gay Block, Malka Drucker, Guru Ma Jaya, Vito Russell, Alfred Corn, Philip Gambone, Eloise Klein
Healy, David Groff, and Alison Bechdel. There are correspondences with fans, some of whom became friends--for example, Sascha
Bittner. Condolences on the deaths of Roger Horwitz and Stephen Kolzak are extant. However, few outgoing correspondences exist
in the papers, except for some photocopies of letters Monette evidently wished to save as well as letters he wrote to his
parents during his first European tour that they, presumably, kept.
Also in Monette's papers are those of his two significant others who preceded him in death, Roger Horwitz and Stephen Kolzak.
Those for Horwitz include records of his education, travel, and residence in France and friendship with Madeleine Follain,
daughter of painter Maurice Denis. Horwitz's papers include poetry, diaries, correspondences, and documents pertaining to
his post-Stonewall friendships with Craig Rowland and Rudy Kikel. Kolzak's records primarily consist of clippings and photographs;
some relate to his work as casting director for the television series
Cheers.
The Paul Monette papers are arranged in the following series and subseries:
- Series 1: Journals
- Series 2: Biographical
- Subseries 2.1: Family and Friends
- Subseries 2.2: Education and Teaching
- Subseries 2.3: Relationships
- Subseries 2.4: Press, Appearances, and Honors
- Subseries 2.5: Projects, Involvements, etc.
- Subseries 2.6: Personal Materials
- Subseries 2.7: Memorial Items
- Series 3: Biographical, Photographs
- Series 4: Writings
- Subseries 4.1: Poetry
- Subseries 4.2: Fiction
- Subseries 4.3: Screenplays/Television Scripts/Plays
- Subseries 4.4: Nonfiction/Memoirs
- Subseries 4.5: Fan Mail and Miscellaneous
- Series 5: Roger Horwitz Papers
There was no filing order to the records as received. Paul Monette reviewed his papers and made some identifying notes and
dates before giving them to the UCLA Library; he also reviewed a first draft finding aid to supply further dates (primarily
of early poem manuscripts and publications), but he died before the processing was completed.
Materials are arranged largely chronologically. Accurate dates, however, were frequently difficult to determine. In the case
of Monette's writings, the first publication or genesis of a work constituted the filing date for its related materials.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online:
Paul Monette Papers (2 items) .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Manuscripts for publication
Online resources.
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Archives.
AIDS (disease) in literature -- Archives.
Gay men's writings, American -- Archives.
Monette, Paul -- Archives
Horwitz, Roger
Kolzak, Stephen
- Collection Overview
-
Collection Details
- Restrictions on Access
- Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
- Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- UCLA Catalog Record ID
- Preferred Citation
- Processing Information
- Biography
- Biographical Note
- A Chronology of Paul Monette
- Scope and Content
- Expanded Scope and Content
- Organization and Arrangement
- Online Items Available