Scope and Contents
The Daisy Aldan Papers document the professional and personal life of poet, editor, educator, translator, and filmmaker Daisy Aldan. The papers consist of personal and professional correspondence, drafts of writings, writings of others, notebooks, diaries, teaching material, artwork, audiovisual material, photographs, printed material, and personal papers spanning the years 1919 to 2000.
Dates
- 1919 - 2000
Creator
Language of Materials
In English, German, French, and Spanish.
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Boxes 31-32, 35-36, 106-110 and 116 (sound and video recordings): Use of originals is restricted. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Boxes 94-97 (motion picture film): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Boxes 33-34, 98-105 and 115 (reel-to-reel sound recordings): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Daisy Aldan 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
Gift of Daisy Aldan, 1983-2000. Gift of Diana Cohen, 1992. Purchased from the Argosy Book Store on the Elizabeth Wakeman Dwight Memorial Fund, 1999. Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum on the Elizabeth Wakeman Dwight Memorial Fund, 2005.
Arrangement
Organized into twenty groupings: I. August 1983 Acquisition. II. April 1989 Acquisition. III. April 1990 Acquisition. IV. July 1990 Acquisition. V. July 1990 Acquisition. VI. February 1991 Acquisition. VII. July 1992 Acquisition. VII. November 1992 Acquisition. VIII. November 1992 Acquisition. IX. November 1992 Acquisition. X. November 1992 Acquisition. XI. May 1993 Acquisition. XII. June 1993 Acquisition. XIII. May 1995 Acquisition. XIV. December 1995 Acquisition. XV. November 1997 Acquisition. XVI. February 1998 Acquisition. XVII. July 1998 Acquisition. XVIII. October 1999 Acquisitions. XIX. December 2000 Acquisition. XX. June 2005 Acquisition.
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/or relates to material found in other acquisitions. For instance, correspondence and writings can be found in all twenty groupings. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each acquisition described in the Collection Contents section.
Extent
73.58 Linear Feet ((105 boxes) + 3 portfolios, 4 broadside folders, 5 art storage objects)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The Daisy Aldan Papers document the work of poet, editor, educator, translator, and filmmaker Daisy Aldan. The papers consist of personal and professional correspondence, drafts of writings, writings of others, notebooks, diaries, teaching material, artwork, audiovisual material, photographs, printed material, and personal papers spanning the years 1919 to 2000.
Daisy Aldan (1923-2001)
Daisy Aldan, American poet, editor, educator, translator, and filmmaker.
Aldan was born in 1923 in New York City to designer Louis Aldan and actress Esther Edelheit Aldan. She was a child actor on the CBS radio program, Let’s Pretend, and was first published in the pages of Poetry at age twelve. Aldan stayed in New York City, where she received a Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in 1943, a Master of Arts from Brooklyn College in 1948, and took graduate coursework at New York University. Her publications included her first chapbook of poems (1946), The Destruction of Cathedrals and Other Poems (1963) and Seven: Seven (Poems and Photographs) (1965) and several books of experimental poetry published in the 1970s. In 1979, with the assistance of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, she published the novella, A Golden Story.
Aldan co-founded, with Richard Miller, the Tiber Press in 1953 and published and edited Folder Magazine of Literature and Art (1953 to 1959), an influential magazine featuring the poetry of New York School poets and the art of many notable artists. In 1959, she published the anthology A New Folder: Americans: Poems and Drawings. Aldan also co-edited, with Anaïs Nin, the poetry magazine Two Cities (1961 to 1962).
Throughout her career, Aldan contributed to many anthologies and literature magazines. She was a respected translator and published translations of works by Stéphane Mallarmé, Anaïs Nin, Albert Steffen, and Rudolf Steiner. In 1955 she made the 8mm color film, Once Upon an El, that featured several notable artists, writers, and composers protesting the demolition of New York City's Third Avenue elevated railway. For thirty-five years, Aldan taught at the School of Industrial Art (presently the High School of Art and Design) in New York City, where her students included Gerard Malanga, Jackie Curtis, Art Spiegelman, Tony Bennett, Calvin Klein, and Harvey Fierstein. Her former students cite her as a major influence in their identity and evolution as artists. Aldan died in New York City in 2001.
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.
The collection received preliminary processing at the time of acquisition. Further organization, rehousing, and description were carried out in 2012.
The collection is comprised of material formerly classed as: Uncat ZA MS 100, Uncat ZA MS 137, Uncat ZA MS 244, Uncat ZA File 251, Uncat ZA MS 82, Uncat ZA File 283, Uncat ZA MS 283, Uncat ZA MS 269, Uncat ZA MS 273, Uncat MSS 604, Uncat ZA MS 289, Uncat ZA MS 288, Uncat ZA MS 440, Uncat ZA File 347, Uncat ZA MS 539, Uncat ZA MS 551, Uncat ZA MS 639, Uncat ZA MS 639, Uncat MSS 95, and Uncat MSS 779. 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, according to month and year of acquisition.
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. 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 basic processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Aldan, Daisy
- American literature -- 20th century
- American poetry -- 20th Century
- Audiocassettes
- Authors
- Authors, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Editors
- Editors, American -- 20th Century
- Lecturers
- Motion pictures (visual works)
- Photographs -- 20th Century
- Poets, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Slides (photographs)
- Sound recordings -- 20th Century
- Translators
- Translators, American -- 20th century
- Videocassettes
- Women authors
- Title
- Guide to the Daisy Aldan Papers
- Author
- by Andrea Benefiel and Molly Wheeler
- Date
- 2012
- 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.