John Wieners holograph poetry notebook

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0099-F0479

Staff Only

John Wieners (1934-2002)

This holograph poetry notebook was kept by twentieth-century American poet and activist John Wieners (1934-2002), who was associated with the Beat movement and the Black Mountain School. The notebook contains several unpublished poems as well as prose writings and lists kept between 1962 and 1965.

During this time, Wieners was living in New York City with American Beat poet Herbert Huncke (1915-1996) until 1963, when he moved back to live with his parents in Boston until 1965.

The notebook contains ten titled poems: "The Ivy," "The Bateleur," "Diary of a Breakdown," "Memories," "On Books, Incorporated Lending Library," "Digression on a Theme," "The Big Apple," "The Magic of this Summer," "Main Str.," and "Amphetamine Blues," as well as one long, untitled poem and four short, untitled verses or poems.

"The Magic of this Summer" appeared in Selected Poems (1972) dated June 23, 1963, but the version in the present notebook bears little resemblance to the published piece. The remaining poems appear to be unpublished work.

The notebook also contains two lists: one Wieners titled "My Friends" and another "Names of participants and audience at reading." The list of friends contains almost exclusively names of women including, among others, people known from work at "Howard, Micro. Photography, and Jordan's," "the girls of Poet's Theatre" and "the female poets." The list includes American poets May Sarton (1912-1995), May Swenson (1913-1989), and Jean Garrigue (1914-1972).

"Diary of a Breakdown" is prose writing or a prose poem, as is another, untitled work on the same page as the beginning of the "My Friends" list. This work mentions Charles Olson, Wieners's mentor and teacher at the Black Mountain School whom he met in 1954 and an essay by Olson titled "Against Wisdom as Such." Also mentioned are Herbert Huncke and "Cisco," perhaps a shortened version of San Francisco, a major center of the Beat movement in the mid-to-late 1950s and home to Wieners from 1958-1960.

All of the writings contain extensive editing and some marginalia.

Dates

Creation: 1962-1965

Creator

Wieners, John, 1934-2002 (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

John Wieners (1934-2002)

American poet John Wieners (1934-2002) is identified with both the Black Mountain School as well as the Beats. His poetry contains themes of drug abuse and mental illness, as well as a concern for women's rights, gay rights, and other social issues.

Raymond Foye, "John Wieners," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 16.The Beats: Literary Bohemians in Postwar America. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. p. 572-583. "John Wieners."Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2007. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com (Retrieved 2007 March 4).