Call Number:

C1616

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

21 boxes

Language:

English

Date:

1967-2016 (inclusive) and 1970-1993 (bulk)

Creator:

Blue Wind Press.

Abstract:

Consists of production files, correspondence, and administrative and financial records of Blue Wind Press and George Mattingly Design, mostly relating to books and literary journals published in the 1970s and early 1980s. Authors represented include William S. Burroughs, Ted Berrigan, Anselm Hollo, and others associated with the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Actualist poetry movement.

Blue Wind Press is an independent literary publisher based in Berkeley, California. George Mattingly, a Missouri-born publisher, graphic designer, and poet, founded the press in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1970. He has co-published alongside Lucy Farber Mattingly since 1974, when the press relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Blue Wind Press published some thirty books by various poets and authors, including William S. Burroughs, Keith Abbott, and Tom Clark; members of the Actualist poetry movement; and writers involved in the literary scene surrounding the Iowa Writers' Workshop in the early 1970s, such as University of Iowa professors Ted Berrigan, Anselm Hollo, and Jack Marshall. Mattingly's literary magazine, Search for Tomorrow, and his "Actualist American Poetry Circuit Readings for 1973-74" booklet also promoted the work of dozens of poets associated with Actualism. Blue Wind Press is perhaps best known for its three books by William Burroughs (Blade Runner, Port of Saints, and Book of Breeething) and Ted Berrigan's So Going Around Cities. George Mattingly also offers professional book and cover design and freelance production services via his business George Mattingly Design.

Consists of production files, correspondence, and administrative and financial records of Blue Wind Press and George Mattingly Design, mostly relating to books and literary journals published in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The bulk of the collection consists of production files, which contain correspondence, manuscript and typescript drafts, original artwork, illustrations, and photographs, paste-ups, proofs, galleys, photo offset negatives, and cover and layout design materials. Files exist for books, journals, and catalogs published by Blue Wind Press, including George Mattingly's Actualist literary journal, Search for Tomorrow, as well as for books and journals Mattingly designed and produced on behalf of other literary publishers and imprints including Grey Fox Press, Four Seasons Foundation, Turtle Island Foundation, Y'Bird, Black Book, Creative Arts Book Company, Sand Dollar Books, North Point Press, Ariel Books, the Smith Publishers, Rodale Press, and the Eugene O'Neill Foundation; for authors such as Gary Snyder and William Saroyan; and for periodicals like the women's langpo journal HOW(ever). There are also some design materials and letterpress broadsides advertising various Actualist poetry readings and events.

General correspondence files include correspondence with William S. Burroughs, Ted Berrigan, Aram Saroyan, Bernadette Mayer, Alice Notley, Fairfield Dawson, Michael Lally, Joe Brainard, Dick Higgins, Johanna Drucker, Gerard Malanga, Joanne Kyger, Dave Morice, James Laughlin, Ron Padgett, Tom Raworth, Ron Silliman, Ray DiPalma, Larry Eigner, Bill Berkson, Doug Blazek, and numerous others. There are also some administrative and business records relating to the operations of the press, promotional and advertising materials, clippings, and reviews.

Materials are arranged into three primary file groups, largely reflecting their original order.