Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014, Di Prima, Diane 1934-, and Jones, Hettie 1934-
- Abstract:
- The Jones, L. mss., 1950-1961, consists of the editorial office records of two magazines: Yugen, 1958-1961, of which LeRoi Jones and Hettie (Cohen) Jones were editors, and The Floating Bear, 1961, of which Jones and Diane Di Prima were editors. Also included are manuscripts and proofs of certain books published by the Totem Press.
- Extent:
- 1 Box (1 standard)
- Language:
- Materials are in English .
- Preferred citation:
[Item], Jones, L. mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Background
- Biographical / Historical:
Amiri Baraka, 1934-2014, was an American poet, essayist, and political activist. He was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey, on October 7, 1934. He attended Rutgers University for two years and then transferred to Howard University, earning his B.A. in English in 1954. After serving in the Air Force from 1954 until 1957, he moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where he joined a loose circle of Greenwich Village artists, musicians, and writers.
The author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, Baraka also recited poetry and lectured extensively on cultural and political issues in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. He is the recipient of numerous literary prizes and honors, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, the Langston Hughes Award from The City College of New York, and a lifetime achievement award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He taught poetry at the New School for Social Research in New York, literature at the University of Buffalo, and drama at Columbia University as well as San Francisco State University, Yale University and George Washington University. He was also made Poet Laureate of New Jersey for 2002-2003. Though his career was fraught with controversy, he is widely regarded as an influential writer for African-American culture and community, exploring topics of race and equality in his works. He died on January 18, 2014.
Diane Di Prima, 1934- , is an American writer, poet and editor. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the granddaughter of the anarchist Domenico Mallozzi. She is well known for her involvement with the Beat Movement, the Jack Kerouac School of the Disembodied Poetics, and the newspaper The Floating Bear, which she edited with Amiri Baraka. She has published several books and collections of poetry, including her long poem Loba (1978), her selected poems Pieces of a Song (1990), and her memoir Recollections of My Life as a Woman (2001). She has five children: Jeanne di Prima, Dominique di Prima, Alex Marlowe, Tara Marlowe, and Rudi di Prima. She was married to Alan Marlowe in 1962 (divorced 1969) and in 1972 to Grant Fisher (divorced 1975.) In 2009, she was named the Poet Laureate of San Francisco, and she currently lives in Northern California.
- Scope and Content:
The collection has been arranged in three sections:
[1] Correspondence, 1955-1961. This consists primarily of letters to LeRoi Jones and Diane Di Prima from contributors and others interested in expressing the opinions of the "beat generation." The letters are concerned with contributions, criticism of contemporaries, and descriptions of activities participated in by various individuals.
Correspondents represented include Daisy Aldan, Donald M. Allen, John Ashbery, James Baldwin, Bill Berkson, Wallace Berman, Paul Blackburn, Robin Blaser, Raymond Bremser, William S. Burroughs, Paul Carroll, Bruce Conner, Sidney Corman, Gregory Corso, Robert Creely, Judson Crews, Edward Dahlberg, Fielding Dawson, Ellis Dorfman, Edward Dorn, Richard Edson, Larry Eigner, Edmund L. Epstein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Max Finstein, John Fles, Allen Ginsberg, Louis Ginsberg, Jack Green, Barbara Guest, Lorraine Hansbury, Jack Hirschman, Andrew Hoyem, Langston Hughes, Steve Jones, Robert Kelly, John Kerouac, Kenneth Koch, Seymour Krim, Dale Landers, Alfred Leslie, Denise Levertov, Stephen Levine, Ron Loewinsohn, Walter Lowenfels, Desmond McCarthy, Michael McClure, William F. McNaughton, Edward Marshall, David Meltzer, Jack Micheline, John Montgomery, Barbara Ellen Moraff, Frank O'Hara, Charles Olson, Gil Orlovitz, Rochelle Owens, Ron Padgett, Stuart Z. Perkoff, John Perreault, Stan Persky, Donald Phelps, Ezra Loomis Pound, Marc Schleifer, Howard Schulman, Alan Shavzin, Michael Shayer, Gary Snyder, Harriet Sohmers, Carl Solomon, Gilbert Sorrentino, Raymond Souster, A. B. Spellman, Jack Spicer, George Stade, George Stanley, David Rafael Wang, James Waring, Jon Edgar Webb, Philip Whalen, John Wieners, Elias Wilentz, Theodore Wilentz, Johnathan C. Williams, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofsky.
[2] Mss. of poems and articles submitted for publication in Yugen and The Floating Bear and mss. and proofs of publications of the Totem Press. Authors of manuscripts and writings submitted for publication in Yugen and The Floating Bear include: John Ashbery, Bill Berkson, Paul Blackburn, Robin Blaser, Raymond Bremser, Harold Briggs, Robert Carlton Brown, William S. Burroughs, Paul Carroll, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Judson Crews, Fielding Dawson, Fivos Delfis, Diane Di Prima, Edward Dorn, Russell Edson, Larry Eigner, Charles Farber, Max Finstein, Allen Ginsberg, Barbara Guest, Bobb Hamilton, Langston Hughes, Thomas Jackrell, LeRoi Jones, Steve Jones, John Kerouac, Tuli Kupferberg, Denise Levertov, Ron Loewinsohn, Walter Lowenfels, Michael McClure, William F. McNaughton, Edward Marshall, Mason Jordan Mason, James Boyer May, David Meltzer, Barbara Ellen Moraff, Frank O'Hara, Charles Olson, Joel Oppenheimer, Peter Orlovsky, Ron Padgett, Stan Perksy, Thomas Postell, Jr., Howard Schulman, Gary Snyder, Carl Solomon, Gilbert Sorrentino, A. B. Spellman, Ben Spellman, George State, C. Jack Stamm, George Stanley, Philip Whalen, and John Wieners.
Totem Press books represented in the collection include: Jones, LeRoi. Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (New York, Totem Press, 1961) (galleys included); Kerouac, John. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (New York, Totem Press, 1960); Loweinsohn, Ron. Watermelons (New York, Totem Press, 1959); McClure, Michael. For Artaud (New York, Totem Press, 1959); O'Hara, Frank. Second Avenue (New York, Totem Press, 1960) (page proofs included); Snyder, Gary. Myths & Texts (New York, Totem Press, 1960) (page proofs included).
[3] Editorial make-ups and proofs of Yugen, arranged in the order of the numbers of the magazine. Included are:
No. 1, 1958. Editorial make-up. Lacks cover, advertising, pp. 22-24, and illustrations.
No. 3, 1958. Editorial make-up. Lacks cover, advertising, and illustrations. Page 24 varies greatly from printed content.
No. 4, 1959. Editorial make-up. Lacks cover, advertising, p. 28, and illustrations.
No. 7, 1961. Galley proofs. Holograph emendations. Lacks cover, contents, advertising, illustrations, and p. 63.
Unused editorial make-up dated Jan. 1, 1959, 5 pp.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchase: 1961
- Arrangement:
This collection is arranged following original order.
- Physical location:
- Lilly - Stacks
Indexed Terms
Access
- RESTRICTIONS:
-
This collection is open for research.
Many collections are housed offsite; retrieval requires advance notice. Please make an appointment a minimum of one week in advance of your visit.
- TERMS OF ACCESS:
-
Photography and digitization may be restricted for some collections. Copyright restrictions may apply. Before publishing, researchers are responsible for securing permission from all applicable rights holders, then filling out the Permission to Publish form.
- PREFERRED CITATION:
-
[Item], Jones, L. mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
- CAMPUS:
- Indiana University Bloomington
- LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
-
1200 East Seventh StreetBloomington, Indiana 47405-5500, USA
- CAMPUS:
- Indiana University Bloomington
- CONTACT:
-
(812) 855-2452liblilly@indiana.edu