The Holly Prado Papers include material spanning the career of poet Holly Prado, from examples of early efforts written in her youth in the 1950s, through her professional work in the 2010s. Prado's personal journals, dating from 1960 - 2019, make up the largest portion of the collection. Influenced by Jungian psychology, Prado has described journals an important tool for "nourishing" her writing. The second largest group of material consists of drafts of poetry, prose, and talks and lectures. The collection also includes correspondence, photographs, artwork, audiovisual recordings, and publication materials from Cahuenga Press.
Holly Prado Papers, 1890-2019 (MSS 597)
Extent: 22 Linear feet (55 archives boxes, 3 oversize folders), + 6.2 GB of digital files
Digital Content
The collection contains a small number of individually described digital files.
Holly Prado was born Holly Kay Johnson on May 2, 1938 in Lincoln, Nebraska. She attended Grand Rapids Junior College and Albion College, where she was awarded a bachelor of arts with honors in 1960. After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles, where she remained to become an active, influential member of the Southern California literary community as a poet, educator, and regular participant in live poetry readings and literary events. She began writing as Holly Prado during her marriage to George Prado (1967-1975) and continued using that name after her marriage to actor and poet Harry Northup in 1990. She has also used the names Holly Schwartz and Holly Prado Northup.
Prado became involved in poetry and literary education for all age groups in the mid-1960s. She taught English at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles (1965-1972), participated in a Poetry in the Schools Program sponsored by the Department of Labor and the National Endowment for the Arts (1973-1974), and has taught numerous writing workshops offered through a variety of schools and organizations. Prado was hired as a faculty member for the University of Southern California Master of Professional Writing Program in 1973.
Prado began writing for publication while still in college, but attributes a 1970 writing workshop taught by Alvaro Cardona-Hine with helping her develop her mature style. Prado's first published collection was Nothing Breaks Off at the Edge (1976). Her other published collections include Specific Mysteries (1990), Esperanza: Poems for Orpheus (1998), These Mirrors Prove It: Selected Poems and Prose, 1970-2003 (2005), Oh, Salt/Oh, Desiring hand (2013), and Weather: A Poem/A Chronicle (2019). Her poetry has also appeared in various anthologies, poetry journals, and magazines such as Ms. and Rolling Stone. In addition to poetry, Prado has contributed essays and reviews to several periodicals, notably the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and published two books of prose, Feasts (1976) and Gardens (1985). Prado became a founding member of the Cahuenga Press Poets Publishing Cooperative in 1989 with James Cushing, Phoebe MacAdams, Bill Mohr, Cecilia Woloch, and Harry Northup.
Prado's work is often noted for her use of a mythic voice and references to classical myths and mysteries. In the introduction to her collection Greatest Hits (2000), she described the work in Specific Mysteries and Word Rituals (released as a spoken word recording in 1993) as "ceremonies making words sacred." Jungian psychology has also had a significant influence on Prado's work, especially her enthusiasm for keeping personal journals. In the literary journal Chrysalis (no. 7, 1979) she discussed personal journaling as an important tool for keeping in touch with the unconscious, developing intuitiveness, and exploring emotional states without self-censoring, as well as a means of "nourishing" writing intended for publication. Her personal journals record thoughts, experiences, and dreams and sometimes include drawings, photographs, or ephemera.
Holly Prado and Harry Northup shared a home on Mariposa Avenue in East Hollywood for more than thirty years. In July 2017 an electrical fire in the apartment destroyed their study along with their computer and much of their correspondence, records, and artwork. A box of Prado's family photographs, slightly singed and smoke damaged, survived the fire. Prado and Northup relocated to housing on the Motion Picture and Television Fund campus in Woodland Hills. Holly Prado died on June 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
The Holly Prado Papers include material spanning the career of poet Holly Prado, from examples of early efforts written in her youth in the 1950s, through her professional work in the 2010s. Prado's personal journals, dating from 1960 - 2019, make up the largest portion of the collection. Influenced by Jungian psychology, Prado has described journals an important tool for "nourishing" her writing. The second largest group of material consists of drafts of poetry, prose, and talks and lectures. The collection also includes correspondence, photographs, artwork, audiovisual recordings, and publication materials from Cahuenga Press.
Accessions Processed in 2006
Arranged in nine series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, 4) NOTES, 5) READINGS, 6) TEACHING MATERIALS, 7) CONFERENCES, 8) JOURNALS, 9) WRITINGS BY OTHERS & MISCELLANEOUS.
Accessions Processed in 2008, 2022
Arranged in nine series: 10) BIOGRAPHICAL, 11) CORRESPONDENCE, 12) WRITINGS, 13) READINGS AND LECTURES, 14) JOURNALS, 15) CAHUENGA PRESS, 16) PHOTOGRAPHS, 17) ARTWORK, and 18) AUDIOVISUAL RECORDINGS.