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David Bromige Correspondence
MSS 0006
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Creator:
Bromige, David
Title: David Bromige Correspondence,
Date (inclusive): 1966-1970
Extent:
0.20 linear feet
(1 archives box)
Abstract: The correspondence of David Bromige, poet, playwright, and educator. He is associated with the Black Mountain School of poetry,
particularly with his two mentors, Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan. The collection includes materials from Ted Berrigan,
Richard Brautigan, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Clayton Eshleman, Denise Levertov, George Oppen, and Gary Snyder.
Repository:
University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.
La Jolla, California 92093-0175
Collection number: MSS 0006
Language of Material:
Collection materials in English
Collection is open for research.
Not Available
David Bromige Correspondence, MSS 0006. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
David Bromige, now a resident of the Bay Area, is often associated with the Black Mountain School via the Vancouver nexus
of poets centered around the magazine Tish.
He was born to Harold and Ada Bromige on 22 October 1935 in London, England, where his father was a director of documentary
films. Until he settled in the Bay Area in the early '70s, Bromige led a peripatetic life: he travelled, held various jobs,
and received an education in Europe, Canada, and the United States.
After attending prep school at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Boys in London, Bromige worked, from 1950 to 1953, as a cowman
on dairy farms in England, Sweden, and Canada. During the '50s he also supported himself as an attendant in mental hospitals
in Canada and as an elementary school teacher in England and Vancouver, British Columbia. In the early 1960s he served as
a free lance critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Vancouver.
It was during his years in Vancouver that Bromige began gaining a reputation for his writing. In 1961 he won the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation's Playwriting Prize for "The Cobalt Poet," and in 1962 he won the KVOS TV Playwriting Prize for "Save
What You Can." In 1961 Bromige divorced his wife of four years, actress Ann Livingston, and married Joan Peacock, with whom
he had a son Christopher.
Bromige received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1962. That same year he began working toward his Master's
Degree at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later he received his degree from Berkeley and returned to the
University of British Columbia, where he worked as an instructor in English for a short time. Bromige then returned to Berkeley
where he continued his studies and taught from 1964 1970. In 1965 he published his first book, The Gathering, and he wrote
his Ph.D. dissertation on the poetry of Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan -- Duncan having been particularly influential to
Bromige's own work. In 1970 Bromige married the writer Sherril Jaffe, and he began teaching English at Sonoma State University
in Rohnert Park, California -- a position he still holds.
Much of Bromige's influence on contemporary poetry has been the result of his association with various journals. He was poetry
editor of the Northwest Review (1963-64), and editor of Raven (1960-62), R.C. Lion (1966-67), and Open Reading (1972-76).
Starting with his earliest work, Bromige's poetry has been centered on the page, not in the "real" world. He describes his
writing as an exploration process, saying, "I am interested in poetry as speech arising from dumb desire and passion and arousing
further word clusters until constellations emerge I had previously no knowledge were within me." Bromige's publications include:
The Gathering (Sumbooks, 1965), Please, Like Me (Black Sparrow Press, 1968), The Ends of the Earth (Black Sparrow Press, 1968),
The Quivering Roadway (Archangel Press, 1969), In His Image (Twybyl Press, 1970), Threads (Black Sparrow Press, 1970), The
Fact So of Itself (1971), They Are Eyes (Panjandrum Press, 1972), Birds of the West (Coach House Press, 1973), Ten Years in
the Making: Selected Poems, Songs, and Stories 1961 1970 (Vancouver Community Press, 1973), Tight Corners and What's Around
Them (Black Sparrow Press, 1974), Spells and Blessings (Talon Press, 1974), Out of My Hands (Black Sparrow Press, 1974), Credences
of Winter, (Black Sparrow Press, 1976), My Poetry (The Figures, 1980), Red Hats (Tonsure Press, 1986), and Desire : Selected
Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 1988).
Scope and Content of Collection
The David Bromige Correspondence includes exchanges with such noted American writers as Ted Berrigan, Robert Bly, Richard
Brautigan, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Clayton Eshleman, Denise Levertov, George Oppen, and Gary Snyder. The collection
is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. The materials cover the period from approximately 1966 to 1970 and include copies
of written materials and often detailed exchanges concerning publishing and readings.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Bromige, David, -- Archives
American poetry -- 20th century
Berrigan, Ted, -- correspondent
Bly, Robert, -- correspondent
Brautigan, Richard, -- correspondent
Corman, Cid, -- correspondent
Creeley, Robert, 1926- -- correspondent
Duncan, Robert Edward, 1919- -- correspondent
Eshleman, Clayton, -- correspondent
Levertov, Denise, 1923- -- correspondent
Oppen, George, -- correspondent
Snyder, Gary, 1930- -- correspondent
Wakoski, Diane, -- correspondent