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The Charles Tomlinson Papers contain materials related to his career as a poet and
translator, including notebooks, handwritten and typescript drafts, and proofs of
many of
his works. Also present is extensive correspondence from colleagues and friends. The
collection is divided into three series: Series I. Works; Series II. Correspondence;
and
Series III. Other Papers. Some of the materials in the collection are in French, Italian,
Spanish, or Portuguese. |
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The works in Series I. are arranged alphabetically by title, and include published
and
unpublished individual poems, articles, lectures, and books. There are several interviews
with and by Tomlinson about poetry, as well as introductions for several collections
edited
by Tomlinson. Some titles are more heavily represented than others, and frequently
there is
a mix of handwritten and typescript drafts, as well as proofs and tear sheets. Titles
include Airborn / Hijos del Aire, a book of collaborative
poems written by Tomlinson and Octavio Paz; American Scenes, and Other Poems; The Necklace, one of Tomlinson's earliest published efforts; A Peopled Landscape; Poetry and Metamorphosis, a collection of
lectures Tomlinson delivered at Cambridge University; and Renga: A Chain of Poems, a collaboration between Tomlinson, Paz,
Jacques Roubaud, and Edoardo Sanguineti. There are several boxes of poetry notebooks
that
contain early ideas and drafts for poems, from the early 1950s through 1990. Also
present
are five folders labeled Juvenilia that contain early projects, as well as some student
essays from Tomlinson's time at Queens' College, Cambridge. |
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Series II. Correspondence is divided into Subseries A. Outgoing; and Subseries B.
Incoming.
The Outgoing correspondence is comprised of letters to the poet and educator Donald
Davie,
Tomlinson's tutor at Queens' College and later a close personal friend, and to Oscar
Mellors
at Fantasy Press, who published the first edition of The Necklace. |
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The incoming correspondence in Subseries B. represents Tomlinson's wide circle of
acquaintances in the world of poetry and literature. Particularly well-represented
are Bruce
Berlind, Attilio Bertolucci, Ronald Bottrall, Frederick Busch, Donald Davie, Ted Hughes,
Hugh Kenner, James Laughlin, George Oppen, Octavio Paz, and Michael Schmidt. Other
notable
correspondents include Dannie Abse, Homero Aridjis, John Betjeman, Austin Clarke,
Cid
Corman, Guy Davenport, Fay Godwin, Donald Hall, Seamus Heaney, F. R. Leavis, Marianne
Moore,
Kathleen O'Gorman, Omar Pound, Mary de Rachewiltz, and Louis Zukofsky. |
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Series III. Other Papers includes several academic papers written by others about
Tomlinson's poetry, as well as extensive newspaper clippings of reviews of his works. |
