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Gregory Corso letters and poems
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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Born in New York City, American poet Gregory Corso (1930-2001) was a young associate of the Beat poets.
Corso spent his early years in and out of prison. During his five year sentence for robbery at Dannemora prison in upstate New York, he learned to read and developed a passion for Percy Bysshe Shelley and Homer. When he was released from prison in 1950, he moved to Greenwich Village and developed close friendships with Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. In 1954, Corso moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and became a fixture of the literary underground. A group of Harvard students and intellectuals were so impressed with his poetry that they paid for the publication of his first collection,
The Vestal Lady on Brattle. Corso's literary reputation was established in 1960 when he was included in the Grove Press Anthology The New American Poetry 1945-1960. By 1963, however, Corso's career was beginning to falter because of his addiction to heroin and alcohol. Although he published two more collections of poetry Elegiac Feelings American in 1970, and Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit in 1981), his career never regained the momentum of his great period in the 1950s.Corso's personal life was never as successful as his literary career. He abandoned and eventually divorced four wives and several children. From 1992 until his death, Corso was supported financially by a wealthy Japanese artist, Hiro Yamagata. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999, Corso died in 2001 and his ashes were buried next to the grave of Percy Bysshe Shelley in Rome.
American National Biography. 24 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
The Gregory Corso Letters and Poems comprise nineteen items spanning the dates 1958-1964 (with one poetry manuscript possibly signed in the 1970s). The collection includes letters from Corso to Ted Wilentz, Anselm Hollo, and the bookseller U. Grant Roman. A typescript letter accompanies a contract for Corso from Donald Allen regarding Corso's inclusion in his
Anthology of Modern American Poetry from 1948 to 1958-59. The collection also contains a typescript, signed copies of "Hedgeville," "For Ignorance," and an untitled poem about Lawrence Ferlinghetti with handwritten additions and corrections. Additionally, five short untitled poems and a small notebook with the beginnings of a poem entitled "A Gift" are included.Box 40, F0748: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0099 manuscript boxes.
Purchase, August 2005.
Processed by Karalee Kopreski, October 2005. Encoded by Jaime Margalotti, November 2006. Further encoded by George Apodaca, October 2015.
People
- Corso, Gregory
- Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
- Hollo, Anselm
- Roman, U. Grant
- Wilentz, Ted
- Allen, Donald Merriam, 1912-2004
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Delaware Library Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
- Finding Aid Date
- 2006 November 13
- Access Restrictions
-
The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
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/
Collection Inventory
Typescript letter and contract from Donald M. Allen, New York, for Corso's inclusion in his
Anthology of Modern American Poetry (1948 to 1958-59), signed and dated by Corso. Physical Description2 pp.
Typescript letter signed, Gregory Corso to Otto. With holograph postscript by Irving Rosenthal, "editor of Big Table." Corso advises 17-year old Otto to "stick Mulenberg [sic] out" and spend the time reading; Rosenthal counters Corso and advises the youth to leave.
Physical Description2 pp.
Postcard signed, Gregory Corso, Paris, to Anselm Hollo, London.
Autograph letter signed, Gregory Corso, Paris, to U. Grant Roman, Roman Books, Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Letter to the bookseller requesting fare home to the States in exchange for sale of his manuscripts; verso of the letter includes Corso's recollection of "these two poems," "On Mozart's Unmarked Grave" and "Sea Chanty."
Physical Description2 pp. with envelope
Corso, Paris, to Wilentz, New York.
Physical Description1 p. with envelope
Corso, Paris, to Wilentz, New York.
Physical Description2 pp. with envelope
Corso, London, to Wilentz, New York. Written while recovering at Cromwell Nursing Home.
Physical Description1 p. with envelope
Corso, Capoke Falls, New York, to Wilentz, New York.
Corso, New York, to Wilentz, New York.
Physical Description1 p. with envelope
Mrs. Sally Corso, New York, to Wilentz, New York.
Physical DescriptionPrinted announcement with envelope.
Typescript (copy) with autograph notes, signed "G. C.," Note in corner reads "from G. C. 8/20/75."
Physical Description1 p.
Typescript manuscript signed. From
Elegiac Feelings American , the early version of his "Last Night I Drove a Car" from Gasoline . First appeared in "Combustion" in 1956. Probably from the broken-up typescript of Elegiac . Physical Description1 p.
Typescript and holograph draft of poem.
Physical Description1 p.
Holograph draft of poem.
Physical Description1 p.
Typescript manuscript poem.
Physical Description1 p.
Holograph manuscript of poem.
Physical Description1 p.
Holograph draft of poem.
Physical Description1 p.
Typescript poem with holograph corrections, undated. Bears stamp "New Directions / 333 Sixth Ave. / New York 14, N.Y."
Physical Description1 p.