Scope and Contents
The collection consists of material created and accumulated by William Heyen in the course of his activities as a poet and editor, and primarily documents Heyen's literary career from 1995 to 2009. Material includes correspondence with poets and writers, writings by Heyen and others, bound copies of Heyen's journals dating from 1965 to 1994, original journals dating from 1994 to 2006, notebooks, printed material, and other papers.
Writings by Heyen include typed and manuscript drafts of poems that appeared in Crazy Horse in Stillness (1996), Shoah Train (2003), and A Poetics of Hiroshima (2008), among other works; books annotated with manuscript drafts of poems and notes; and galley proofs of early published works, including Noise in the Trees (1974), Swastika Poems (1977), Long Island Light (1979), that were returned to Heyen when Vanguard Press was sold to Random House. Also included are correspondence and manuscripts relating to September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (2002), edited by Heyen; correspondence, manuscripts, and art work stemming from planned collaboration between Heyen and the artist Robert E. Marx; correspondence with Joyce Carol Oates; and materials related to collaborations with June Prager and Douglas Knehans.
Dates
- 1915-2015
Creator
Conditions Governing Use
The William Heyen 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 William Heyen on various funds, 2005-2022.
March 2011 Acquisition: Purchased from Clouds Hill Books on the Danford N. Barney, Jr. Fund, 2011.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into seven groupings: I. February 2005 Acquisition, 1970-2003. II. May 2006 Acquisition, circa 1950-2006. III. August 2006 Acquisition, 1984-2005. IV. January 2010 Acquisition, 1961-2009.
V. March 2011 Acquisition, 1979-2010. VI. October 2015 Acquisition, 1915-2015. VII. June 2021 Acquisition, circa 2006 December.
Material within this collection has been organized by acquisition reflecting the fact that the collection has been acquired in increments over time.
Researchers should note that material within each acquisition overlaps with and/or relates to material found in other acquisitions. For instance, correspondence and writings can be found in all four groupings. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each acquisition described in the Collection Contents section.
Researchers should also note that similar material can be arranged differently in each acquisition, depending on how the material was organized when it was received by the library.
Extent
62.97 Linear Feet (79 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection consists of material created and accumulated by William Heyen in the course of his activities as a poet and editor, and primarily documents Heyen's literary career from 1995 to 2009. Material includes correspondence with poets and writers, writings by Heyen and others, bound copies of Heyen's journals dating from 1965 to 1994, original journals dating from 1994 to 2006, notebooks, printed material, and other papers.
William Heyen (b. 1940)
William Heyen is an American poet and editor. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940, and educated at the State University of New York at Brockton and Ohio University. He taught American literature and creative writing at SUNY Brockport for over thirty years before his retirement in 2000.
His books of poetry include: Erika: Poems of the Holocaust (1984), Crazy Horse in Stillness (1996), Pig Notes and Dumb Music (1998), Diana, Charles, and the Queen (1998), Shoah Train (2003), The Confessions of Doc Williams (2006), and A Poetics of Hiroshima (2008). He edited the collection of poetry September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (2002).
General note
This finding aid describes a collection that has been acquired by the library in discrete segments over time. The narrative sections of the finding aid provide information about the content and context of the collection. The Collection Contents section provides a general description and in some instances a box or folder listing of the various acquisitions of the collection. The Processing Notes section provides information about the way and extent to which the library has processed this collection. The Arrangement section provides information about how material within this collection is organized and tips on how to locate material across various acquisitions.
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 collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and in some instances minimal organization. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, titled according to month and year of acquisition. Includes material formerly classed as Uncat MSS 747, Uncat MSS 868, and Uncat MSS 887.
The finding aid for this collection is compiled from individual preliminary lists for each acquisition that were created at or around the time of receipt by the library. The preliminary lists were migrated to comply with current archival descriptive standards and merged into a single file in 2007-2008. As part of the migration, modifications were made to the formatting of individual lists; however, the content of the lists was neither modified nor verified.
As a rule, descriptive information found in the Collection Contents section is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American literature -- 20th century
- American literature -- 21st century
- American poetry -- 20th Century
- American poetry -- 21st century
- Audiovisual materials
- Authors, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Authors, American -- 21st century -- Archives
- Born digital
- Electronic documents
- Heyen, William, 1940-
- Marx, Robert E. (Robert Ernst), 1925-
- Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938-
- Poets
- Title
- Guide to the William Heyen Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Beinecke staff, Annalise Hennessey
- Date
- 2007-05-21. Revised: October 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.