Susan Howe papers

Collection

Call Number: YCAL MSS 338

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of material created and accumulated by Susan Howe in the course of her activities as a poet, author, and teacher, and primarily documents Howe's literary career from 1998 to 2008. Material includes correspondence with poets, authors, artists, and musicians; drafts and manuscripts of published poetry collections, including The Midnight, Kidnapped, and Pierce-Arrow, and other writings; notebooks and diaries; teaching and research material; artwork; and family and personal papers. Correspondents include: Rae Armantrout, Dennis Barone, Samuel Beckett, Susan Bee, Charles Bernstein, Anne Carson, Norma Cole, Robert Creeley, Simon Cutts, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Alec Finlay, Dominique Fourcade, Lyn Hejinian, Fanny Howe, Devin Johnston, J. C. C. Mays, Maureen Owen, Michael Palmer, Kristin Prevallet, Bernard Rival, Leslie Scalapino, Susan Stewart, Cole Swensen, John Taggart, Erica Van Horn, Rosmarie Waldrop, and Elizabeth Willis.

Dates

1894 - 2008
Majority of material found within 1956 - 2008

Creator

Howe, Susan, 1937-

Language

English

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Box 31 (electronic document): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies of electronic files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Boxes 21-30 (Series IV: Art Work): Restricted fragile material. For further information consult the appropriate curator.

Box 32 (audiovisual material): Restricted fragile. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Susan Howe Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Granary Books on the Elizabeth Wakeman Dwight Memorial Fund, 2009.

Arrangement

Organized into six series: I. Correspondence, 1956-2008. II. Writings, 1894-2007. III. Notebooks and Diaries, 1984-2007. IV. Professional Papers, 1961-2007. V. Family and Personal Papers, circa 1916-2001. VI. Art Work, 1958-1973.

Extent

15.50 Linear Feet ((23 boxes) + 72 broadside folders)

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.howesu

Additional Description

Overview

Susan Howe

Susan Howe was born in 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of several books of poems and two volumes of criticism. Her poetry collections include: The Midnight (2003), Kidnapped (2002), The Europe of Trusts (2002), Pierce-Arrow (1999), Frame Structures: Early Poems 1974-1979 (1996), The Nonconformist's Memorial (1993), The Europe of Trusts: Selected Poems (1990), and Singularities (1990).

Since 1989 she has been a professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and is currently the Samuel P. Capen Chair of Poetry and the Humanities. She was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2000. Susan Howe lives in Guilford, Connecticut.

Biographical information is drawn from Poets.org.

Processing Information

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collection, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

This collection received a basic level of processing at the time that it was acquired by the library. Material has been rehoused in acid-free boxes and, when necessary, acid-free folders, and has been organized into series based on the way in which the collection was organized upon receipt by the library. Where feasible, material has been left in original folders and titles have been transcribed from original folders. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing. Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents.

This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.