Call Number:

MSS 0701

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

• 1 linear foot (3 boxes)
• 1 oversize removal

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0701, Lewis Warsh collection of twentieth-century poetry ephemera, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1962-2012 (inclusive)

Creator:

Warsh, Lewis

Form:

Promotional materials, Printed ephemera, Posters, Fliers (printed matter), Programs (documents), Photographs, Calendars, Press releases, Petitions, Poetry, Letterpress printing, and Catalogs (documents)

Abstract:

American poet Lewis Warsh (born 1944) compiled this collection of promotional ephemera primarily documenting what is known as the second generation of the New York School. The collection also includes material relating to Warsh's own readings and performances, writing, and publishing ventures.

American poet Lewis Warsh (born 1944) was a central figure in the second generation of the New York School of poets. He joined a circle of writers associated with the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and established a poetry career that bridged the experimental writing movements on the East and West coasts.

Warsh was born November 9, 1944, in the Bronx, New York, and attended City College of New York. His first published poems appeared in

Wild Dog magazine in 1965. The following year, Warsh and fellow poet Anne Waldman (born 1945) co-founded the small press Angel Hair. Warsh found himself involved in the burgeoning arts scene at the Poetry Project, which included Ted Berrigan (1934-1983), George Schneeman (1934-2009), and Bernadette Mayer (born 1945). Warsh and Mayer married in 1975 and in 1977, established United Artists Books and co-edited United Artists Magazine between 1977 and 1983.

Warsh has written over twenty books of poetry, including

Dreaming as One (1971), Blue Heaven (1978), and Information from the Surface of Venus (1987). In addition to poetry, he authored autobiographical works and fiction, such as Agnes & Sally (1984) and A Place in the Sun (2010). With Anne Waldman, Warsh co-edited an anthology of the Angel Hair Magazine , titled Angel Hair Sleeps with a Boy in My Head: The Angel Hair Anthology (2002). He has taught English at Long Island University since 2000, and directed the MFA program in creative writing from 2007 until 2013.

Lewis Warsh. http://www.lewiswarsh.com (accessed July 08, 2015)."Lewis Warsh." The Poetry Foundation. www.poetryfoundation.org (accessed May 12, 2015).

American poet Lewis Warsh (born 1944) compiled this collection of promotional ephemera primarily documenting what is known as the second generation of the New York School. The collection also includes material relating to Warsh's own readings and performances, writing, and publishing ventures.

The collection is arranged into two series: I. Lewish Warsh and II. Poetry ephemera. Series I. comprises personal and professional material related to Warsh and includes Warsh's financial documents and catalogs, brochures, and advertisements pertaining to Angel Hair Press and United Artists Books represent his professional activities and publishing ventures. Other items represented Warsh's engagement in activism, in particular his response to what was called "The Whalen Affair": Warsh led a protest against the high sales price Harcourt, Brace & World had placed on its edition of Philip Whalen's (1923-2002)

On Bear's Head (1969).

The posters, mailers, fliers, and programs in Series II. feature his friends such as Bernadette Mayer (born 1945) and Anne Waldman (born 1945) and/or poets he admired as readers and/or performers. The majority of the promotional material was produced for venues that Warsh regularly frequented, such as The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, Bolinas Community Center, and Intersection in San Francisco.

Note: There is no Folder 18 in this collection.