Title:

David Stacton papers: additions, 1944-1992 (bulk 1950-1970)

Creator/Contributor:

Stacton, David, 1925-1968, creator

The David Stacton Papers : Additions, 1944-1992, include correspondence, drafts, and notes. Correspondence to and from Stacton dates from 1960 to his death in 1968; also present are letters among his friends after his death, including some concerning posthumous copyright and republication of his works, as well as publishing contracts. Stacton's writings in manuscript include notes and drafts for novels and short stories, including a substantial draft text for the unpublished novel Restless Sleep; poems, including a draft of the unpublished collection Snow and Ice; drafts of plays and screenplays; and nonfiction essays on a broad range of subjects, including reflections on his own life and work. Stacton's autobiographical notes and correspondence also contain information on his sexual and emotional relationships with men.

Date:

1950 (issued)

Subject:

n-us---

Authors, American -- 20th century

Gay authors -- 20th century

Gay men

Écrivains américains -- 20e siècle

Écrivains homosexuels -- 20e siècle

Homosexuels masculins

male homosexuality

Authors, American

Gay authors

Gay men

Stacton, David -- 1925-1968 -- Archives

Stacton, David -- 1925-1968

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Restless Sleep, carton 2, folders 19-30: Also available on microfilm with call number BANC FILM 3374.

Gift; Dolores van Aken; August 1994 and July 28, 2004.

Related collection: David Stacton papers, 1959-1982 (BANC MSS 72/21 c).

Related collection: David Stacton papers : additions, circa 1959-1961 (BANC MSS 75/142 c).

Related collection: David Stacton scrapbooks, 1954-1965 (BANC MSS 76/155 c).

Related collection: David Stacton letters to David Walker, circa 1966-1971 (BANC MSS 78/102 c).

Portraits transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 1976.025--POR).

David Stacton was born on April 25, 1925 in Minden, Nevada. Raised in Nevada and Northern California, he considered the western frontier landscape to be a shaping influence on his artistic and spiritual sensibility. Stacton attended Stanford University from 1941-1943 and graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1951. After graduation, he traveled in Europe, and later split his time between Europe, Colorado, and California. He received Guggenheim fellowships in 1960-1961 and 1966-1967, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1968. Stacton also taught writing as Glasgow Visiting Professor at the University of Washington and Lee in Lexington, Virginia, in 1965-1966. In 1963, Time magazine listed Stacton as one of the ten most promising American novelists, describing his work as "masses of epigrams marinated in a stinging mixture of metaphysics and blood," and suggesting that "something similar might have been the result if the Duc de la Rochefoucauld had written novels with plots suggested by Jack London" ("The Sustaining Stream," Time, 2/1/1963). In addition to novels, Stacton also wrote short stories and poems, some of which appeared in print, and published four historical works. Stacton also wrote several pulp novels, often with gay themes, for Ace and other paperback publishers, including Muscle Boy and D is for Delinquent as Bud Clifton, and the Westerns Navarro and Ride the Man Down as Carse Boyd. His other pseudonyms include David West and David Derekson. Stacton died of natural causes in Fredensborg, Denmark, on January 19, 1968.

In English.

Preferred citation: David Stacton papers : additions, 1944-1992, BANC MSS 95/12 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Type:

manuscripts for publication.

Archives.

print

4 cartons, 8 v. (6 linear feet)

1 microfilm reel : negative and positive.

English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.