Guide to the Rae Armantrout Papers, circa 1970-2001
M.1211
Finding aid prepared by Joseph Geller
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Stanford University Libraries
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, California, 94305-6064
Repository URL http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html
Repository email: speccollref@stanford.edu
© 2009
The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved.
Title: Rae Armantrout papers
Identifier/Call Number: M.1211
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
10.5 Linear feet
(21 manuscript boxes, 1 half box)
Date (inclusive): circa 1970-2001
Abstract: The collection documents Rae Armantrout's writing career from the 1970's through 2001.
Physical Location: Special Collections materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections,
see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html.
creator:
Armantrout, Rae, 1947-
Preferrred Citation
[Identification of item], Rae Armantrout papers, M1211. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford,
Calif.
Access
The collection is open for research, except box 22, which is closed until 2021.
Publication Rights
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
Acquisition Information
Accession numbers: MSS.2001-095, MSS.2001-140. This collection was purchased by Stanford University, Special Collections in
April and May 2001.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains correspondence, notebooks, typescripts, teaching materials, and photographs. Much of the correspondence,
from the late 1970's to the present, consists of substantive letters and emails from other poets and writers, including Fanny
Howe, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, and Ron Silliman. The notebooks in the collection record random thoughts from which Armantrout's
poems often evolve, as well as multiple versions of both published and unpublished work. The collection also includes typescripts
for Armantrout's books, including
Precedence (1985),
Necromance (1989),
Made to Seem (1995),
True (1996), as well as typescripts for other miscellaneous poems and essays. Teaching materials in the collection consist of Armantrout's
lecture notes, syllabi, and course readers for classes on poetry and personal narrative taught at the University of California,
San Diego from the mid-1980's to the present.
Biography
The poet and essayist Rae Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California on 13 April 1947 and grew up in San Diego. Graduating
from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970, she later received a Master's degree in creative writing at San Francisco
State University in 1975. Armantrout is the author of many books, including, among others,
Extremities (1978),
The Invention of Hunger (1979),
Precedence (1985)
Necroromance (1991),
Made to Seem (1995),
Writing the Plot about Sets (1998),
True (a memoir, 1998),
The Pretext (2001),
Veil: New and Selected Poems (2001),
Up to Speed (2004), and
Next Life (2007). A founding member of the West Coast "Language Poetry" movement, Armantrout worked closely with a dynamic group of
writers including Ron Silliman, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, Steve Benson, Barret Watten, Tom Mandel, and Carla Harryman. Although
Language poetry can be seen as advocating a poetics of nonreferentiality, Armantrout's work, focusing as it often does on
the local and the domestic, resists such definitions. Internationally known, Armantrout's work has been the subject of numerous
essays (some of which are gathered in
A Wild Salience: The Writings of Rae Armantrout, a collection dedicated to her work), and an entry in the
Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 193). Currently, she teaches at the University of California, San Diego.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in five series:
Series I: Correspondence
Series II: Notebooks
Series III: Writing
Series IV: Teaching Materials
Series V: Photographs
Other Finding Aids
Fanny Howe Papers, M0648, M0768, M0848
Marjorie Perloff Papers, M1504
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Armantrout, Rae, 1947-
Davis, Lydia.
Hejinian, Lyn.
Howe, Fanny
Perelman, Bob
Silliman, Ronald, 1946-
American literature -- Poetry -- 20th Century
Women authors.
Series I: CORRESPONDENCE
Scope and Content
This series contains incoming letters, postcards, and printed emails. Typescripts and other materials originally included
with the correspondence have been retained in this series.
Box 1, Folder 1
Abbott, Steve, 1979: letters
Box 1, Folder 2
Acker, Kathy, 1978-1980: letters, postcard
Box 1, Folder 3
Alcosser, Sandra, 1988: letter
Box 1, Folder 4
Alexander, Charles, 1990-2000: letter, emails
Box 1, Folder 5
Alferi, Pierre, 1991: letter
Box 1, Folder 6
Andrews, Bruce, 1977-1995: letters, postcards
Box 1, Folder 7
Armantrout, Hazel, 1989: birthday card
Box 1, Folder 8
Ashbery, John, 1979-1992: letters
Box 1, Folder 9
Baracks, Barbara, 1976-1978: letters
Box 1, Folder 10
Bellamy, Dodie, 1995-1998: emails
Box 1, Folder 11
Benson, Steve, 1977-1992: letters, typescripts, postcards
Box 1, Folder 12
Bernheimer, Alan, 1985-1994: postcard, letter
Box 1, Folder 13
Bernstein, Charles, 1977-2000: postcards, letters, emails
Box 1, Folder 14
Berrigan, Sandy, 1988: letter
Box 1, Folder 15
Brito, Manuel, 1990-1994: letters, questionnaire
Box 1, Folder 16
Bromige, David, 1985-1997: letters, postcards, email
Box 1, Folder 17
Brooker, Gregory, 1994: letter, typescripts
Box 1, Folder 18
Brossard, Nicole, 1987: letter
Box 1, Folder 19
Brown, Colin, 1986: letters
Box 1, Folder 20
Brown, Lee Ann, 1994: letter
Box 1, Folder 21
Capgras, Genevieve, 1991: letter
Box 1, Folder 22
Chadwick, Cydney, 1989-1992: letters, postcard
Box 1, Folder 23
Chamberlain, Lori, 1988-1991: letters, postcard
Box 1, Folder 24
Codrescu, Andrei, 1993: letter
Box 1, Folder 25
Coleman, Wanda, 1990: letter
Box 1, Folder 26
Creeley, Robert, 1985-1999: postcards, email
Box 1, Folder 27
Cutler, Carolyn, 1991: letter
Box 1, Folder 28
Damon, Maria, 1995: email
Box 1, Folder 29
Darragh, Tina, 1987-1992: letters, postcards
Box 1, Folder 30
Davidson, Michael, 1987-1991: letters
Box 1, Folder 31
Davies, Alan, 1979-1992: postcards, essay
Box 1, Folder 32
Davis, Lydia, 1983-1995: typescripts, letters, postcards
Box 1, Folder 33
Davis, Lydia, 1996-2000: letters, postcards, emails
Box 1, Folder 34
Destremau, Lionel, 1995: letter
Box 1, Folder 35
Doris, Stacy, 1994: letter
Box 1, Folder 36
Doughty, Julia, 1987: postcard
Box 1, Folder 37
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, 1984-1998: letters, postcards, emails
Box 2, Folder 1
Edwards, Ken, 1978: letters
Box 2, Folder 2
Equi, Elaine, 1992-2001: emails, postcards
Box 2, Folder 3
Eshleman, Clayton, 1970-1988: letters
Box 2, Folder 4
Evans, Steve and Jennifer Moxley, 1989-1992: letters, greeting card
Box 2, Folder 5
Fraser, Kathleen, 1978: letter
Box 2, Folder 6
Freilicher, Melvyn, 1982-1992: postcards
Box 2, Folder 7
Gilonas, Harry, 1990: letters
Box 2, Folder 8
Gizzi, Michael, 1991: letters
Box 2, Folder 9
Gizzi, Peter, 1988-1997: letters, postcards, email
Box 2, Folder 10
Golding, Alan, 1992-1995: letters, email
Box 2, Folder 11
Grim, Jessica, 1989-1998: letters, postcards, email
Box 2, Folder 12
Hejinian, Lyn, 1977-1995: letters, signed broadside, postcards, typescripts, emails
Box 2, Folder 13
Hejinian, Lyn, 1996-2000: letters, emails
Box 2, Folder 14
Hocquard, Emmanuel, 1985-1986: letters, program
Box 2, Folder 15
Hoover, Paul, 1988-1994: letters
Box 2, Folder 16
Howe, Fanny, 1988-1995: letters, postcards, typescripts
Box 2, Folder 17-18
Howe, Fanny, 1996-2000: emails
Box 22, Folder 1
Howe, Fanny, 1994-2000: emails. Closed until Jan. 1, 2021.
Box 3, Folder 1
Howe, Susan, 1978-1996: letters, postcards, emails
Box 3, Folder 2
Jarolin, Edie, 1985-1991: letters, postcards
Box 3, Folder 3
Jorris, Pierre and Jerome Rothenberg, 1996: letter
Box 3, Folder 4
Killian, Kevin, 1989-1996: letters
Box 3, Folder 5
Killian, Kevin and Dodie Bellamy, 1996-2000: emails, letter
Box 3, Folder 6
Kinnell, Galway, 1990: letter
Box 3, Folder 7
Kitchell, Marilyn, 1986: letters
Box 3, Folder 8
Krantz, Chris, 1989: letters
Box 3, Folder 9
Lally, Michael, no date: note
Box 3, Folder 10
Lauterbach, Ann, 1991: letters
Box 3, Folder 11
Lazer, Hank, 1988-2000: letters, emails, typescripts
Box 3, Folder 12
Leddy, Michael, 1991-1995: letters, postcards, typescripts, essay on Armantrout
Box 3, Folder 13
Levertov, Denise, 1970-1978: postcards
Box 3, Folder 14
Littman, Brett, 1991-1993: letters, typescript, postcard
Box 3, Folder 16
Manson, Peter, 1994: letters
Box 3, Folder 17
Mayer, Bernadette, circa 1989: postcards, letters
Box 3, Folder 18
McCaffery, Larry, 1991: letter
Box 3, Folder 19
McGann, Jerome, 1989-1990: letters
Box 3, Folder 20
Merritt, Bruce, 1993: letter
Box 3, Folder 21
Messerli, Douglas, 1985-1997: letters, postcards, publishing agreement
Box 3, Folder 22
Moriarty, Laura, 1994-2000: letters, emails, wedding invitation
Box 3, Folder 23
Morrow, Brad, 1990-1995: letters
Box 3, Folder 24
Mott, Glenn, 1991: letters
Box 3, Folder 25
Moxley, Jennifer, 1991-1995: letters, typescripts
Box 3, Folder 26
Mullen, Harryette, 1993: letter
Box 3, Folder 27
Myles, Eileen, 1994: postcard
Box 3, Folder 28
Neilson, Melanie, 1989-1995: letters, postcard
Box 3, Folder 29
Nicholls, Peter, 1994-1995: letters, email
Box 3, Folder 30
Nielsen, Aldon, 1992: letter
Box 3, Folder 31
Nowak, Mark, 1992: letter
Box 3, Folder 32
Olson, Toby, 1985: letter
Box 3, Folder 33
O'Sullivan, Maggie, 1994-1995: letters
Box 3, Folder 34
Owen, Maureen, 1978: letter
Box 4, Folder 1
Perelman, Bob, 1978-1994: letters, postcards, typescripts, some with annotations by Armantrout
Box 4, Folder 2-3
Perelman, Bob, 1994-2001: emails; includes poems, some with annotations by Armantrout.
Box 4, Folder 4
Perloff, Marjorie, 1994-2001: emails, letter, postcard
Box 4, Folder 5
Perry, Margeaux, 1989: letter
Box 4, Folder 6
Peterson, Jeffrey, 1995: essay on Armantrout
Box 4, Folder 7
Piombino, Nick, 1990: note
Box 4, Folder 8
Quartermain, Peter, 1995: email
Box 4, Folder 9
Raworth, Tom, 1990-1999: letters, postcards, email
Box 4, Folder 10
Reed, Pat, no date: greeting card
Box 4, Folder 11
Retallack, Joan, 1992: letter
Box 4, Folder 12
Robinson, Kit, 1978: letter, postcard
Box 4, Folder 13
Royet-Journoud, Claude, no date: letter
Box 4, Folder 14
Scalopino, Leslie, 1990: postcard
Box 4, Folder 15
Schultz, Susan, 1990-1995: letter, email
Box 4, Folder 16
Sherry, James, 1992: letter, postcards
Box 4, Folder 17
Silliman, Ron, 1972-1994: postcards, letters, essay
Box 4, Folder 18-19
Silliman, Ron, 1994-2000: letters, emails, typescripts
Box 4, Folder 20
Sloan, Margy, 1994-2000: letters, emails
Box 5, Folder 1
Stein, Jean, 1990-1991: letters
Box 5, Folder 2
Swenson, Cole, 1992-1995: letter, greeting card
Box 5, Folder 3
Sze, Arthur, 1992: greeting card
Box 5, Folder 4
Waldrop, Rosemarie, 1983-1991: letters, postcard
Box 5, Folder 5
Ward, Diane, 1989-1998: postcards, note, email
Box 5, Folder 6
Watten, Barrett, 1985-1993: letters, greeting card
Box 5, Folder 7
Wheeler, Susan, 1997-2000: emails; includes typescript essay on Armantrout.
Box 5, Folder 8
White, Shelly, 1990-1991: letters, greeting cards
Box 5, Folder 9-12
Miscellaneous correspondence: mostly emails; some letters, cards, typescripts.
Box 6, Folder 1-5
Miscellaneous correspondence continued
Series II: NOTEBOOKS
Scope and Content
The notebooks in this series contain drafts and notes for published and unpublished poems, as well as miscellaneous notes.
Dated notebooks are arranged chronologically, followed by undated notebooks.
Series III: WRITING
Scope and Content
This series contains typescripts, proofs, periodicals, clippings, and other materials relating to Armantrout's publications
and reading engagements. Loose typescripts by other writers have also been included in this series.
Box 13, Folder 1
American Literature, 1993: letter
Box 13, Folder 2
Best American Poetry, 1988: letter
Box 13, Folder 3
Clippings, circa 1986-1995: newspaper and magazine articles by or about Armantrout
Box 13, Folder 4
Davis, Lydia, circa 1994:
End of the Story typescript
Box 13, Folder 5
Davis, Lydia, circa 1999: typescripts
Box 13, Folder 7
Equi, Elaine, no date: typescripts
Box 13, Folder 8
The Germ, 2000: galley proofs
Box 13, Folder 9
Grand Piano Project, 2000-2001: emails
Box 13, Folder 10
Hejinian, Lyn, 1991: typescript
Box 13, Folder 11
HOW(ever), 1983-1984: vol. 1, nos. 1, 3; vol. 2, no. 1
Box 13, Folder 12
Howe, Fanny, no date: typescripts
Box 14, Folder 1
Interview, 1987: typescript interview of Armantrout by Lori Chamberlain
Box 14, Folder 2
LANGUAGE, 1978-1979: nos. 2, 3, 5, 7,
Box 14, Folder 3
Lazer, Alexander, no date: typescript of essay on Armantrout
Box 14, Folder 4
Made to Seem, circa 1995: typescript
Box 14, Folder 5
Necromance, 1989: typescript; includes letter from Sun and Moon Press.
Box 14, Folder 7
Neilson, Melanie, 1995: typescripts
Box 14, Folder 8
Page Mothers, 1999: typescript essays by Armantrout and others
Box 14, Folder 9
Partisan Review, 1981: letter
Box 14, Folder 10
Perelman, Bob, no date: typescripts
Box 14, Folder 11
Perelman, Bob, 1998: annotated proof for
The Future of Memory
Box 14, Folder 12
Poetry Flash, 1979-1991: nos. 74, 148, 223
Box 14, Folder 13
Precedence, circa 1985: typescript
Box 14, Folder 14
Prosodia, 1994-1995: letters
Box 15, Folder 1
Reviews, circa 1989-2000: clippings, typescripts
Box 15, Folder 2
Silliman, Ron, no date: typescript
Box 15, Folder 3
Sun and Moon Press, 1992-1993: royalty statements, publishing agreement
Box 15, Folder 4
True, circa 1996: typescripts
Box 15, Folder 6
Tuumba Press, no date: broadsides
Box 15, Folder 7-9
Typescripts, no date: poems and essays, many with extensive annotations
Box 17, Folder 1
Wesleyan University Press, 1999-2001: emails, publishing agreement for
American Women Poets of the Twenty First Century
Box 17, Folder 2
A Wild Salience, 1998-2000: correspondence
Box 17, Folder 3
A Wild Salience, 2000: page proofs
Box 17, Folder 4
Zyzzyva, 1993: letter, publishing agreement
Box 18, Folder 1-5
Miscellaneous writing, no date: typescript essays by Armantrout and others; includes flyers for readings and conferences.
Series IV: TEACHING MATERIALS
Scope and Content
This series contains teaching materials, such as course readers and handouts from courses taught by Armantrout at the University
of California, San Diego.
Box 20, Folder 1
Course readers, 1985-1987
Box 20, Folder 4
Course readers, 1991-1992
Box 21, Folder 2
Course readers, 1994-1996
Box 21, Folder 5
Naropa course packet, 2000
Series V: PHOTOGRAPHS
Scope and Content
This small series includes one black and white portrait of Armantrout from a 1982 reading, snapshots from a later reading
with Ron Silliman, and other miscellaneous snapshots of Armantrout and others.
Box 21, Folder 7
Photographs, circa 1982-1996
