Papers of poet, writer, and educator David Bromige (1933-2009), who was associated with the Black Mountain School of poetry. The collection includes extensive writings, correspondence, audiovisual recordings, notebooks, biographical information, photographs, and digital files.
David Bromige Papers, 1885-2017 (bulk 1960-2009) (MSS 6)
Restrictions: Original media formats are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be available for
researchers. Writings originally saved to floppy disk, in series 6, are not accessible
online and researchers may need to consult the files in the Special Collections Reading
Room.
Extent: 38 Linear feet (84 archives boxes, 1 records carton, 7 card file boxes, 6 oversize folders), + 9.172 GB of digital files
Digital Content
The collection contains digital files, described in the container list. Writings originally saved to floppy disk, in series 6, are not accessible online and researchers may need to consult the files in the Special Collections Reading Room, although they can be requested through the finding aid. Audiovisual recordings from this collection are available online.
David Mansfield Bromige, who resided in Sebastopol, California, is often associated with the Black Mountain School via the Vancouver nexus of poets centered around the magazine Tish.
Bromige was born to Harold and Ada Bromige on October 22, 1933 in London, England, where his father directed documentary films. He emigrated to Canada in 1954 and became a naturalized citizen. Until he settled in the Bay Area in the early '70s, Bromige led a peripatetic life: he travelled, held various jobs, and received an education in Europe, Canada, and the United States.
After attending prep school at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Boys in London, Bromige worked from 1950 to 1953 as a cowman on dairy farms in England, Sweden, and Canada. During the '50s he also supported himself as an attendant in mental hospitals in Canada and as an elementary school teacher in England and Vancouver, British Columbia. He acted with the Tavistock Repertory Company from 1957 to 1958, and served as a freelance critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Vancouver in the early 1960s.
It was during his years in Vancouver that Bromige began gaining a reputation for his writing, receiving awards in poetry, playwriting, and journalism. In 1961 he won the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Playwriting Prize for "The Cobalt Poet," and in 1962 he won the KVOS TV Playwriting Prize for "Save What You Can." Bromige received his B.A. in English, with honors, from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver in 1962. After receiving the Woodrow Wilson fellowship in graduate studies, Bromige enrolled at the University of California in Berkeley where he earned a master's degree in English in 1964.
Bromige taught English at the University of British Columbia and at UC Berkeley while continuing his studies of Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Charles Olson. He left UC Berkeley in 1970 without completing his dissertation to take a position as assistant professor of English at Sonoma State University. Bromige continued teaching English and poetry at Sonoma State University until he retired in 1993 to spend more time on his writing.
Starting with his earliest work, Bromige's poetry has been centered on the page, not in the "real" world. He describes his writing as an exploration process, saying, "I am interested in poetry as speech arising from dumb desire and passion and arousing further word clusters until constellations emerge I had previously no knowledge were within me."
Much of Bromige's influence on contemporary poetry has been the result of his association with various journals. He was poetry editor of The Northwest Review (1963-64), and editor of The Raven (1960-62), Coyote's Journal (1964-74), R.C. Lion (1966-67), and Open Reading (1970-76). He was also an editor for Black Sparrow Press.
Bromige's publications include: The Gathering (1965), The Ends of the Earth (1968), Threads (1970), Birds of the West (1973), Ten Years in the Making: Selected Poems, Songs, and Stories, 1961-1970 (1973), Tight Corners and What's Around Them (1974), My Poetry (1980), Red Hats (1986), Desire: Selected Poems (1988), The Harbormaster of Hong Kong (1993), Vulnerable Bundles (1995), and As in T, as in Tether (2002).
Bromige has coauthored works with Sherril Jaffe, Barry Gifford, Opal Nations, George and Angela Bowering, Michael Matthews, Karen Eberhardt Shelton, Elizabeth Herron, and Richard Denner. The recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and awards, Bromige received the Pushcart Prize in Poetry in 1980 for My Poetry and the Western States Book Award in 1988 for Desire. He was named poet laureate of the University of California in 1965 and of Sonoma County in 2002.
Bromige was married to actor Ann Livingston from 1957-1961; to Joan Peacock from 1961 to 1970; to writer Sherril Jaffe from 1970 to 1980; and to Cecelia Belle from 1981 until his death. He had two children: Christopher, born in 1964, and Margaret, born in 1982. Bromige died in Sebastopol, California on June 3, 2009.
Additional information on David Bromige can be found at:
Papers of poet, writer, and educator David Bromige (1933-2009), who was associated with the Black Mountain School of poetry. The collection includes extensive correspondence, writings, audiovisual recordings, notebooks, biographical information, photographs, and digital files.
Arranged in eight series: 1) AUDIOVISUAL RECORDINGS, 2) BIOGRAPHICAL, 3) CORRESPONDENCE, 4) EDUCATIONAL FILES, 5) NOTEBOOKS, 6) WRITINGS BY BROMIGE, 7) WRITINGS BY OTHERS, and 8) PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARTWORK.
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