John Taggart Papers, 1962-2012 (MSS 11)

Restrictions: Original sound recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available for researchers.

Extent: 29.6 Linear feet (69 archives boxes, 1 records carton and 2 oversized folders)

Papers of John Taggart, a contemporary American poet known for his formal and prosodic innovations. The collection contains manuscripts and typescripts of Taggart's published and unpublished poetry, juvenilia from the 1960s and 70s, fiction, and essays devoted to the work of individual artists such as George Oppen and Edward Hopper as well as collective movements such as the Objectivist poets. The collection also contains many of his personal journals, notebooks, and loose notecards, as well as ongoing correspondence with writers, artists, and editors such as Theodore Enslin and Susan Howe.

John Taggart was born in 1942 in Guthrie Center, Iowa. He graduated with honors in 1965 from Earlham College in Indiana, earning a B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy. In 1966 he received a M.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Chicago, and in 1974 he completed a Ph.D. in the Humanities Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Syracuse University. His dissertation, titled "Intending a Solid Object: A Study in Objectivist Poetics," was one of the first extended discussions of the compositional strategies informing the work of poets Louis Zukofsky and George Oppen. Though the work has never been published as a monograph, revised sections of it have appeared in Louis Zukofsky: Man and Poet, edited by Carroll F. Terrell (National Poetry Foundation, 1979) and Credences: Journal of Twentieth Century Poetry and Poetics (nos. 2-3 Fall/Winter, 1982).

Taggart's poetry first appeared in print in 1965, when three poems, "Upon the Sweeping Flood," "An Egyptian Cat," and an "Evening with Anna Akhmatova" were published in Crucible. Since then, Taggart's work has appeared in many literary journals including The North American Review, The Painted Bride Quarterly, Ironwood, Boundary 2, Sulfur and Temblor. His work was featured in the 1969 summer issue of Cid Corman's Origin, and the 1979 spring issue of Paper Air was given over entirely to Taggart's work. Besides Taggart's long poem Peace on Earth, a "healing prayer" on the Vietnam War, the issue included commentary on Taggart's work by Toby Olson, Bruce Andrews, Jackson Mac Low, Paul Metcalf, and several others. Taggart's poetry has been printed in several anthologies including The Gist of Origin (Grossman, 1975), Pushcart Prize Anthology (Avon, 1980), New Directions: An International Anthology of Prose and Poetry (issues 24 and 41), and Poetes Americans D'Aujourd'hui (Delta, 1986).

In addition to numerous appearances in literary magazines and journals, Taggart has also published several collections of verse including To Construct a Clock, The Pyramid is a Pure Crystal, and Prism and the Pine Twig (Elizabeth Press 1971, 1974 and 1977 respectively), Dodeka, with an introduction by Robert Duncan (Membrane, 1979), Peace on Earth (Turtle Island, 1981), Dehiscence (Membrane, 1983), Loop (Sun and Moon, 1991), Standing Wave (Lost Roads, 1993), When the Saints (Talisman House, 1999), Pastorelles (Flood Editions, 2004), Crosses: Poems 1992-1998 (Stop Press, 2006), There Are Birds (Flood Editions, 2008) and Is Music: Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2010).

Taggart has earned a reputation as a judicious, though infrequent, commentator on contemporary American poetry. In addition to seminal articles on Zukofsky, Oppen and Objectivist poetics, Taggart has also reviewed the work of Wallace Stevens, William Bronk, Robert Duncan, Bruce Andrews, Theodore Enslin, and several other contemporary American poets. He was also the editor and publisher of Maps, an acclaimed literary magazine appearing during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and, in 1978, edited an issue of Truck (1978) devoted to the work of Enslin.

Taggart was a professor of literature and creative writing at Shippensburg State University from 1969 until his retirement in 2001. His work as writer and teacher has been awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship (1965), a Distinguished Academic Service Award from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, a Pushcart Prize, and the Chicago Review Poetry Prize, as well as two National Endowments for the Arts Writing Fellowships (1976 and 1986).

Papers of John Taggart, a contemporary American poet known for his formal and prosodic innovations, and literary technique associated with Objectivist theory. The collection contains manuscripts and typescripts of Taggart's published and unpublished poetry, juvenilia from the 1960s and 70s, fiction, and essays devoted to the work of individual artists such as George Oppen and Edward Hopper as well as collective movements such as the Objectivist poets. The collection also contains many of his personal journals, notebooks, and loose notecards, as well as ongoing correspondence with writers, artists, and editors such as Theodore Enslin and Susan Howe.

Accessions Processed in 1987

The bulk of this accession dates from the early 1970s when Taggart was a doctoral student at Syracuse University, assembling his first collection of poetry and editing Maps. It also includes essays completed by Taggart while an undergraduate at Earlham College and a graduate student at the University of Chicago.

Arranged in seven series: 1) NOTEBOOKS AND JOTTINGS, 2) POETRY, 3) FICTION, 4) TRANSLATIONS, 5) ESSAYS AND REVIEWS, 6) CORRESPONDENCE and 7) MISCELLANEOUS.

Accessions Processed in 1989

Arranged in four series: 8) POETRY, 9) ESSAYS AND REVIEWS, 10) CORRESPONDENCE and 11) MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

ACCESSIONS PROCESSED IN 1991-2000

Arranged in three series: 12) CORRESPONDENCE, 13) WRITINGS and 14) NOTEBOOKS.

Accession Processed in 2005, 2015

Additional materials highlighting Taggart's literary and teaching career, including more recent letters from colleagues, editors and fellow poets, numerous drafts of both published and unpublished poems and critical works, as well as composition notebooks.

Arranged in three series: 15) CORRESPONDENCE, 16) WRITINGS and 17) NOTEBOOKS.

Container List

Accessions Processed in 1987

NOTEBOOKS AND JOTTINGS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 1) NOTEBOOKS AND JOTTINGS: Consists of notebooks, journals, and notecards dating from 1963 to 1983, and newspaper clippings with annotations or attached notes. Most of the earlier notebooks appear related to classes Taggart attended at Earlham College and Syracuse University. The loose notecards filed in this series are citations taken from his reading during the 1970s. (Taggart has been fond of composing on notecards and small sizes of loose leaf paper before preparing a final draft on standard 8 x 11 paper. Typically these notecards have been filed with or in close proximity to the typescript to which they pertain, but only when that relationship was quite evident.) The journals written during the 1980s are more closely connected to subsequently published work; they often contain seed ideas for poems and essays, but also citations from and comments on other writers.

Box 1 Folder 1-4
Earlham notebook, 1963 - 1964
Box 1 Folder 5
Notebook, 1969
Box 1 Folder 6
Notebook "Surrealism", 1969
Box 1 Folder 7
Notebook "Arts-Ideas of 18th Century"
Box 1 Folder 8
Notebook "Analytic Problems in Visual Arts", 1969
Box 1 Folder 9
Notebook "Wittgenstein", 1970
Box 1 Folder 10
Selected notebooks on Romanticism
Box 1 Folder 11
Selected notes on Walt Whitman
Box 1 Folder 12
Selected notes on Arnold Schoenberg
Box 1 Folder 13
Notes on Luminist painters, 1975
Box 1 Folder 14
Assorted notecards
Box 2 Folder 1-3
Assorted notecards, 1978
Box 2 Folder 4
Notebook, 1981 - 1982
Box 2 Folder 5
Journal, 1982
Box 2 Folder 6
Notebook, 1982 - 1983
Box 2 Folder 7-11
Newspaper clippings with notes attached

POETRY

Scope and Content of Series

Series 2) POETRY: Worksheets, heavily annotated drafts, and final versions of poems. Arranged in three subseries: A) Juvenilia and Unpublished Poetry, B) Uncollected Published Poetry and C) Collected Works.

A) Juvenilia and Unpublished Poetry: 110 or so unpublished poems, many of which are standard academic exercises, such as odes, sonnets, elegies, etc., dating from ca. 1963-1968. There are also a few poems written for Donald Justice's poetry workshops at Syracuse University, which are annotated by Justice. (Several of the poems in this template may have appeared in print.) Arranged alphabetically.

B) Uncollected Published Poetry: 45 published poems which have not been collected in any of Taggart's books, dating from 1964 to 1985. Arranged alphabetically.

C) Collected Works: Works published under the following titles: Liveforever, a lyrical mixture of poetry and meditations on the philosophy of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger; To Construct a Clock (1972); The Pyramid is a Pure Crystal (1974); Prism and the Pine Twig (1977); Dodeka (1979); Peace on Earth (1981); Dehiscence (1983); and Loop. Organization mirrors the arrangement of the published collection to which the poems pertain. Dates for the composition of individual poems are given as provided by the poet.

Juvenilia and Unpublished Poetry

Box 2 Folder 12
Adultery, 1928: A Model, 1969
Box 2 Folder 13
And this has also been..., 1965
Box 2 Folder 14
Anise
Box 2 Folder 15
Antinous of Eleusis
Box 2 Folder 16
Approximations of a Galvometer
Box 2 Folder 17
Artemis, 1965
Box 2 Folder 18
At the Grave of Blind Lemon Jefferson, 1965
Box 2 Folder 19
Bowl-Ring Valentine Poem, 1970
Box 2 Folder 20
Burning of My Cock's House
Box 3 Folder 1
But There Is No Evading, 1974
Box 3 Folder 2
Chirographi
Box 3 Folder 3
Coming Forth By Day, 1966
Box 3 Folder 4
Dancing - Lesson
Box 3 Folder 5
David Smith
Box 3 Folder 6
Day's Sickness, 1965
Box 3 Folder 7
Dead is Now That Bankrupt
Box 3 Folder 8
Despairing
Box 3 Folder 9
Early, Adolescent Solipsism, 1964
Box 3 Folder 10
Eight Lines on the State of the Nation / Realizati
Box 3 Folder 11
Emily Dickinson, 1965
Box 3 Folder 12
Evening with Anna Akmatova
Box 3 Folder 13
Eyes That Look Through Many Branches
Box 3 Folder 14
Father and Son, 1965
Box 3 Folder 15
Flame Fusion, 1974
Box 3 Folder 16
Fear Behind the Curtain
Box 3 Folder 17
Few words for..., 1968
Box 3 Folder 18
First Fragment: Sappho to Aphrodita
Box 3 Folder 19
For One Percussionist
Box 3 Folder 20
Garden of Cyrus, 1974
Box 3 Folder 21
Georgia O'Keefe's Breasts..
Box 3 Folder 22
Happiness
Box 3 Folder 23
Hash Gift Returned
Box 3 Folder 24
How white bodies ought..
Box 3 Folder 25
Im Felden: The Unfaithful Shepherd
Box 3 Folder 26
In a Summer Season
Box 3 Folder 27
In Honor of This High Feast
Box 3 Folder 28
In My Father's House
Box 3 Folder 29
Innocent Dream of a Young White Man
Box 3 Folder 30
In Our City, 1968
Box 3 Folder 31
It is a Relief
Box 3 Folder 32
Khum
Box 3 Folder 33
Le Sperme
Box 3 Folder 34
Let Him Kiss Me
Box 3 Folder 35
Main, 1969
Box 3 Folder 36
Mantis and The Bee
Box 3 Folder 37
Marriage, 1964
Box 3 Folder 38
Mummy, Seen..., 1965
Box 3 Folder 39
Musick of..., 1965
Box 3 Folder 40
My Brother Has Committed a Crime
Box 3 Folder 41
Narcissus
Box 3 Folder 42
Nothing Is So Lovely as a Lie
Box 3 Folder 43
Nuances of a Theme by Stevens
Box 3 Folder 44
Nuances of a Theme of Rilke
Box 3 Folder 45
Ode for Gnaeus, Marcius, Surnamed, 1964
Box 3 Folder 46
Ode for Titus Manlius, Son of God, 1964
Box 3 Folder 47
Ode on a Bird Called the Phoenix, 1964
Box 3 Folder 48
Ode on the Banishment of Appuleia Varilia
Box 3 Folder 49
Ode on the Battle of Cannae, 1964
Box 3 Folder 50
Ode on the Birds of Evil Omen, 1964
Box 3 Folder 51
Ode on the Death of Lutorius Priscus, 1964
Box 3 Folder 52
Ode on the Death of Seneca, 1964
Box 3 Folder 53
On a Painting by Rousseau
Box 3 Folder 54
Osiris: For Her Hand, Crumpled
Box 3 Folder 55
Painting: "Femme et enfants..."
Box 3 Folder 56
Painting, No. 2: "Femmes affrayees..."
Box 3 Folder 57
Panama, The Dream
Box 3 Folder 58
Passive girl reading..
Box 3 Folder 59
Piano Lessons, 1916-17 Matisse
Box 3 Folder 60
Please Forward If Found, 1968
Box 3 Folder 61
Poem For My Birthday
Box 3 Folder 62
Poem for Looking Where Bud Powell...
Box 3 Folder 63
Poem for Willis, 1965
Box 3 Folder 64
Poem Upon the Death of My Grandfather, 1965
Box 3 Folder 65
Poet talks quietly
Box 3 Folder 66
Question
Box 3 Folder 67
Rain
Box 3 Folder 68
Raking Horse Manure
Box 3 Folder 69
Randolph Street, Chicago 1956, 1964
Box 3 Folder 70
Reading Lesson, 1972
Box 3 Folder 71
Real Hate Rises from Its Obscure Field
Box 3 Folder 72
Remote Flowers
Box 3 Folder 73
Samuel Beckett's Last Words
Box 3 Folder 74
Search for the Fecund Minimum
Box 3 Folder 75
She Burned
Box 3 Folder 76
Shells, 1968
Box 3 Folder 77
She May Ask Him
Box 3 Folder 78
Sometimes, When It All Hangs In Air, 1965
Box 3 Folder 79
Song Breaks Dragon's Teeth, 1965
Box 3 Folder 80
Sonnet for a Portuguese Nun, 1965
Box 3 Folder 81
Stone Breakers Make Way
Box 3 Folder 82
Syd Valentine..
Box 3 Folder 83
Tamarisk and Grass, 1984
Box 3 Folder 84
That is the Poem, 1974
Box 3 Folder 85
There Was a Clamouring Crowd
Box 3 Folder 86
There Was a Man
Box 3 Folder 87
These Nostril Hairs
Box 3 Folder 88
This Is So
Box 3 Folder 89
Thoughts Are Trees
Box 3 Folder 90
Transaction, 1969
Box 3 Folder 91
Tribute to Charles Ives
Box 3 Folder 92
Turn Away As From a Snake
Box 3 Folder 93
Two Sisters
Box 3 Folder 94
Unexpected, I
Box 3 Folder 95
Upstate N.Y. Dusk Poem, 1974
Box 3 Folder 96
Verses on an Ionian Analogy
Box 3 Folder 97
Villa Lante, No. 2
Box 3 Folder 98
Waiting for Things to Become Clear
Box 3 Folder 99
When the Cathedrals Were White, 1964
Box 3 Folder 100
Whistling Clay Bull Made in Mexico
Box 3 Folder 101
Why the Nights Are Quiet
Box 3 Folder 102
Winter, Radio Poem, 1968
Box 3 Folder 103
Words at my School, 1969

Uncollected Published Poetry

Box 4 Folder 1
7 Series
Box 4 Folder 2
Antimasque for Antonio
Box 4 Folder 3
Body and Soul
Box 4 Folder 4
Christopher Columbus and the Guitar Factory, 1964
Box 4 Folder 5
DeathBean Man, 1965
Box 4 Folder 6
Die Logik, 1975
Box 4 Folder 7
Disease Called Takeoff, 1981
Box 4 Folder 8
Enticements, 1985
Box 4 Folder 9
German Game, 1970
Box 4 Folder 10
Gift of Fossils
Box 4 Folder 11
In Chicago, On a Bus
Box 4 Folder 12
In Itself, 1987
Box 4 Folder 13
Inquiry, 1987
Box 4 Folder 14
K Variations
Box 4 Folder 15
Knee, 1969
Box 4 Folder 16
Kore's Sleeping Song
Box 4 Folder 17
Lester Young Pursued..
Box 4 Folder 18
My Daughter Sarah Gives..
Box 4 Folder 19
Nasturtium, 1969
Box 4 Folder 20-22
Not Quite Parallel Lines, 1985
Box 4 Folder 23
Noun Can Be Best, 1974
Box 4 Folder 24
One True Love
Box 4 Folder 25
Poem for Morandi, 1975
Box 4 Folder 26
Prayer No. 20, 1986
Box 4 Folder 27
Question, 1974
Box 4 Folder 28-29
Reading of Something Written, 1985

Rothko Chapel Poem

Box 4 Folder 30-32
Drafts, 1983
Box 5 Folder 1
Page proofs for "Conjunctions"; letter from Bradford Morrow, 1984
Box 5 Folder 2
Page proofs for "Temblor"; letter from Leland Hickman, 1985
Box 5 Folder 3
Rub Her Coke, 1974
Box 5 Folder 4
Rule 14 L, 1984
Box 5 Folder 5
Stone, 1974
Box 5 Folder 6
Strip or Ribbon
Box 5 Folder 7
Tall Man
Box 5 Folder 8
Violet
Box 5 Folder 9
Walking and Running: A Model, 1971
Box 5 Folder 10
What I said to Monk, 1968
Box 5 Folder 11
Which Explains
Box 5 Folder 12
Young Man Said to Me
Box 5 Folder 13
Young White Man Steps Out..
Box 5 Folder 14
Bound workbook, 1969 - 1972

Collected Works

Liveforever

Box 5 Folder 15-16
Drafts
Box 5 Folder 17-20
Second version, 1970
Box 5 Folder 21
Two notebooks - Some material concerns THE PYRAMID IS A PURE CRYSTAL

To Construct a Clock (1972)

Box 5 Folder 22
Ricercar, pp. 11-12
Box 5 Folder 23
Egg, pp. 13-14
Box 5 Folder 24
Box, pp. 15-16
Box 5 Folder 25
Position, p.17
Box 6 Folder 1
Resemblances, p. 18, 1968
Box 6 Folder 2
Signification, Burrs, p. 19
Box 6 Folder 3
Problem, p. 20, 1970
Box 6 Folder 4
There Was a Cat, p. 21
Box 6 Folder 5
Miro's "The Kiss," p. 22
Box 6 Folder 6
Deceased Man, p. 23
Box 6 Folder 7
Drum Thing, p.24
Box 6 Folder 8
Corot's "Women With Child"
Box 6 Folder 9
Head in a Mirror, pp. 27-28
Box 6 Folder 10
Room, pp. 29-30
Box 6 Folder 11
Dance of Sleeves, pp. 31-33
Box 6 Folder 12
Eroded Rock, 1942, pp. 34-38
Box 6 Folder 13
Liveforever: Of Actual Things..., pp. 39-45
Box 6 Folder 14
Bound typescript, 1972

The Pyramid is a Pure Crystal (1974)

Box 6 Folder 15
Notebook, 1972
Box 6 Folder 16-17
Worksheets
Box 6 Folder 18
Manuscript, 1971 - 1972
Box 6 Folder 19
Typescript
Box 6 Folder 20
Publisher's typescript
Box 6 Folder 21
Page proofs

Prism and the Pine Twig (1977)

Box 6 Folder 22
I live in a barn, p. 9
Box 6 Folder 23
They and We, no. 1 of "3 Poems...," p. 10, 1974
Box 6 Folder 24
Tzuzumi, no. 2 of "3 Poems...," pp. 11-12, 1974
Box 6 Folder 25
After-Image, no. 3 of "3 Poems...," p. 13, 1974
Box 6 Folder 26
Black Puritan Trees of..., p. 15, 1974
Box 6 Folder 27
Balance / Rest, p. 16, 1974
Box 6 Folder 28
Square Order Shuffle, p. 17, 1974
Box 6 Folder 29
Contrafact, pp. 18-19, 1974
Box 6 Folder 30
Weight, pp. 21-22, 1974
Box 6 Folder 31
Thought, Walking Away from Town, p. 23, 1974
Box 6 Folder 32
Ars Poetics, p. 24, 1974
Box 6 Folder 33
Bat-Geode, p. 25, 1975
Box 6 Folder 34
Prism and the Pine Twig, p. 26, 1975
Box 6 Folder 35
Jennifer's Poem, p. 27, 1972
Box 6 Folder 36
Good-Bye, pp. 28-30, 1975
Box 6 Folder 37
Dipytch: Some Words of Meister Eckhart, pp. 31-32, 1975
Box 7 Folder 1
Notebook from Prism and the Pine Twig and Dodeka, 1974

Dodeka (1979)

Box 7 Folder 2
Notecards
Box 7 Folder 3
Source essays
Box 7 Folder 4-10
First version, 1975-1976
Box 7 Folder 11-13
Second version, 1976
Box 7 Folder 14
First unison
Box 7 Folder 15-16
Last version
Box 8 Folder 1-9
Last version
Box 8 Folder 10-11
Dodeka

Peace on Earth (1981)

Box 8 Folder 12
Giant Steps, 1978
Box 8 Folder 13
Slow Song for Mark Rothko
Box 8 Folder 14-15
Peace on Earth
Box 8 Folder 16-17
Inside Out

Dehiscence (1983)

Box 9 Folder 1
Typescripts
Box 9 Folder 2-6
Worksheets
Box 9 Folder 7
Typescript
Box 9 Folder 8
Cover art

Loop (1987)

Box 9 Folder 9
Notebook: "New Poetry for Mild Shouting Poems", 1983
Box 9 Folder 10
Sumac: for George Oppen, 1980
Box 9 Folder 11
Sumac, 1981
Box 9 Folder 12-13
O for a Thousand Tongues, 1980
Box 9 Folder 14
Babble, Babble, 1980
Box 9 Folder 15
See What Love, 1981
Box 10 Folder 1
Mild Shouting Poem - Includes a letter from William Spanos, 1981
Box 10 Folder 2
Bird Run
Box 10 Folder 3
Very Slow, 1981
Box 10 Folder 4-5
Brace's Cove - Includes two letters from G. Butterick, 1981
Box 10 Folder 6
Wild Blue Phlox, 1981
Box 10 Folder 7
My Name Called Out, 1981
Box 10 Folder 8
Nativity, 1981
Box 10 Folder 9
Against the Nurses of Experience, 1982
Box 10 Folder 10
In True Night, 1982
Box 10 Folder 11
Sine Cura, Securum, 1982
Box 10 Folder 12
Lily Alone, 1982
Box 10 Folder 13
Not Raw Enough, 1982
Box 10 Folder 14-15
Twenty-One Times
Box 10 Folder 16
Through Planes, 1982
Box 10 Folder 17
Return to Dehiscence, 1982
Box 11 Folder 1
Beware, 1982
Box 11 Folder 2-3
Were You, 1983
Box 11 Folder 4
Monk, 1983
Box 11 Folder 5-6
Never Too Late, 1983
Box 11 Folder 7
Orange Berries and Chain Letter, 1987
Box 11 Folder 8
Repetition, 1983
Box 11 Folder 9
Pen Vine and Scroll, 1983
Box 11 Folder 10
Loop, 1983
Box 11 Folder 11
Let's Be Indians and For Jerry Lee Lewis, 1983
Box 11 Folder 12
Desire, 1985
Box 11 Folder 13
Night Train, 1985
Box 11 Folder 14
Three, 1985
Box 11 Folder 15-16
Loop

FICTION

Scope and Content of Series

Series 3) FICTION: Six unpublished works.

Box 11 Folder 17
Into a More Gray Distant Suburb
Box 11 Folder 18
Skyaminos Not Yet Ascended
Box 11 Folder 19
Fiftieth Gate
Box 11 Folder 20
He Fell, Thunderously..
Box 11 Folder 21
Young America
Box 11 Folder 22
Nothing But Dust..
Box 11 Folder 23
Packing envelope for fiction

TRANSLATIONS

Box 11 Folder 24
Sappho's First Fragment
Box 11 Folder 25
Francis Ponge's My Creative Method

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 5) ESSAYS AND REVIEWS. Arranged in two subseries: A) Unpublished and B) Published.

A) Unpublished: Consists almost wholly of papers written for undergraduate and graduate courses, most of which address the works of literary authors. Of particular interest are the papers regarding Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman and Henry Miller, and Taggart's dissertation on the Objectivist poets.

B) Published: Includes papers treating the work of William Bronk, Robert Duncan, Louis Zukofsky, and Susan Howe. It also includes two statements of Taggart's poetics, "The Poem as Woven Scarf" and "Of the Power of the Word," as well as correspondence to Taggart from various writers, artists, and editors.

Unpublished

Box 12 Folder 1
Theology of the 1 Isaiah, 1962
Box 12 Folder 2
Concerning Fate in the Iliad, 1963
Box 12 Folder 3
Explication of a Poem by Dylan Thomas
Box 12 Folder 4
Paper on Gerard Manley Hopkins
Box 12 Folder 5
Paper on Samuel Johnson
Box 12 Folder 6
Paper on Lyrical Ballads
Box 12 Folder 7
Paper on Classical Ideal of Art
Box 12 Folder 8
Paper on Jonathan Edwards, 1964
Box 12 Folder 9
Paper on Richard Crashaw, 1964
Box 12 Folder 10
Paper on John Milton, 1964
Box 12 Folder 11
Paper on Dante and Ezra Pound, 1964
Box 12 Folder 12
Paper on Franz Kafka
Box 12 Folder 13
Paper on William Shakespeare, 1964
Box 12 Folder 14
Paper on Marlowe and Shakespeare, 1964
Box 12 Folder 15
Paper on Jean-Paul Sartre
Box 12 Folder 16
Paper on Stephen Spender, 1965
Box 12 Folder 17-18
Papers on Wallace Stevens, 1965
Box 12 Folder 19
Paper on Edmund Spenser, 1965
Box 12 Folder 20
3rd Paper on Wallace Stevens, 1965
Box 12 Folder 21
Paper on Joan Miro, 1965
Box 12 Folder 22
4th Paper on Wallace Stevens, 1968
Box 12 Folder 23
Paper on Wolfgang Mozart, 1968
Box 12 Folder 24
Review of Frank Samperi

Paper on Walt Whitman and Henry Miller

Box 12 Folder 25-28
Notes
Box 13 Folder 1-2
Notes & drafts
Box 13 Folder 3-4
Paper on Miller and the Whitman Tradition
Box 13 Folder 5
On Working With Dancers

Intending a Solid Object, Ph. D. thesis, 1974

Box 13 Folder 6-7
Notes
Box 13 Folder 8-11
Abstract, chapters 1-7, bibliography
Box 13 Folder 12
Notes for bibliography of work by Cid Corman
Box 13 Folder 13
Notes and draft for talk on Pablo Neruda
Box 13 Folder 14
Statement of influences

Published

Box 14 Folder 1
Deep Jewels: George Oppen's SEASCAPE: Needle's Eye
Box 14 Folder 2-3
Reading William Bronk - Notecards & typescript
Box 14 Folder 4
Enslin Symposium (issue of Truck edited by Taggart)
Box 14 Folder 5-6
The New Primitive - Notes & typescript
Box 14 Folder 7-13
Louis Zukofsky: "Song of Degrees"
Box 14 Folder 14
Poem as Woven Scarf
Box 14 Folder 15
Of the Power of the Word
Box 14 Folder 16
Review of Susan Howe's Pythagorean Silence

CORRESPONDENCE

Scope and Content of Series

Series 6) CORRESPONDENCE: Charles Bernstein, George Butterick, Robert Creeley, Ted Enslin, Bradford Graves, Susan Howe, Paul Metcalf, Toby Olson, George Oppen, Ron Silliman, James Weil, and Karl Young are some of the major represented correspondents. Also includes letters from Rene Char, Robert Duncan, Leslie Fiedler, and Louis Zukofsky. Several of the correspondent's files contain literary manuscripts or typescripts by the correspondent.

Box 15 Folder 1
Andrews, Bruce, 1973 - 1978
Box 15 Folder 2
Barone, Dennis, 1982 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 3-4
Bernstein, Charles, 1978 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 5
Bronk, William, 1975
Box 15 Folder 6-11
Butterick, George, 1970 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 12
Byrd, Bobby, 1980 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 13
Byrd, Don, 1984
Box 15 Folder 14
Callahan, Bob, 1979 - 1980
Box 15 Folder 15
Carruth, Hayden, 1971 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 16
Char, Rene, 1966
Box 15 Folder 17
Corman, Cid, 1972
Box 15 Folder 18-19
Creeley, Robert, 1979 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 20
Cuddihy, Michael, 1983 - 1985
Box 15 Folder 21
Duncan, Robert, 1973 - 1978
Box 15 Folder 22
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, 1981, 1984
Box 15 Folder 23
Economu, George, 1975
Box 15 Folder 24
Edson, Russell, 1976 - 1979
Box 15 Folder 25
Elliott, George P., 1978 - 1979
Box 15 Folder 26
Ellison, Ralph

Enslin, Theodore

Box 15 Folder 27-28
1975 - 1977
Box 16 Folder 1-7
1978 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 8
Eshleman, Clayton, 1982 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 9
Ferreni, Vincent, 1971
Box 16 Folder 10
Fiedler, Leslie, 1978
Box 16 Folder 11
Golding, Alan, 1983 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 12
Gottleib, Michael, 1978
Box 16 Folder 13-14
Graves, Bradford, 1981 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 15
Hejinian, Lyn, 1974 - 1978
Box 16 Folder 16
Hickman, Leland, 1983 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 17-21
Howe, Susan, 1981 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 22
Johnson, Ronald, 1974
Box 16 Folder 23
Justice, Donald, 1979 - 1981
Box 16 Folder 24
Kitchell, Marilyn, 1984 - 1985
Box 16 Folder 25
Mackey, Nathaniel, 1982 - 1984
Box 16 Folder 26
Messerli, Douglas, 1978 - 1979

Metcalf, Paul

Box 16 Folder 27-28
1978 - 1981
Box 17 Folder 1-2
1982 - 1983
Box 17 Folder 3
Morrow, Bradford, 1982 - 1985
Box 17 Folder 4-9
Olson, Toby, 1970 - 1985
Box 17 Folder 10-11
Oppen, George and Mary, 1970, 1980
Box 17 Folder 12
Ortiz, Simon, 1980 - 1981
Box 17 Folder 13
Palmer, Michael, 1982 - 1985
Box 17 Folder 14
Pearson, Norman Holmes, 1974 - 1975
Box 17 Folder 15
Piper, Paul, 1983 - 1985
Box 17 Folder 16-17
Rothenberg, Jerome, 1976 - 1983
Box 17 Folder 18
Samperi, Frank, 1973
Box 17 Folder 19
Sherman, Bill, 1974
Box 17 Folder 20
Sherry, James, 1978
Box 17 Folder 21-24
Silliman, Ron, 1971 - 1980
Box 17 Folder 25
Snyder, Gary, 1972 - 1979
Box 17 Folder 26
Sorrentino, Gilbert, 1976 - 1979
Box 17 Folder 27
Stryk, Lucien, 1982 - 1983
Box 18 Folder 1
Tarn, Nathaniel and Janet, 1978 - 1981
Box 18 Folder 2
Tarn, Nathaniel, 1983 - 1985
Box 18 Folder 3-4
Waldrop, Keith and Rosmarie, 1972 - 1979
Box 18 Folder 5-6
Watson, Craig, 1982 - 1985
Box 18 Folder 7
Watten, Barrett, 1972 - 1973
Box 18 Folder 8-10
Weil, James, 1969 - 1979
Box 18 Folder 11
Williams, Jonathan, 1977 - 1978
Box 18 Folder 12
Wilson, Keith, 1973
Box 18 Folder 13-18
Young, Karl, 1974 - 1985
Box 18 Folder 19
Zukofsky, Louis and Celia, 1970 - 1980
Box 18 Folder 20
Miscellaneous correspondence

MISCELLANEOUS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 7) MISCELLANEOUS: Includes C.E. Hockersmith's musical settings for four of Taggart's poems, syllabi for courses Taggart taught at Shippensburg State University, and various publicity releases.

Box 18 Folder 21
Course syllabi and form for professorial evaluation
Box 18 Folder 22
Publicity releases
Box 18 Folder 23
Four musical compositions by C.E. Hockersmith

Accessions Processed in 1989

POETRY

Scope and Content of Series

Series 8) POETRY: Includes materials on the poems Dodeka and Loop, which directly relate to the previously processed accession. The Dodeka files contain a version prepared for poetry readings, which varies from the published edition; while the Loop materials comprise worksheets for poems not included in the previous Loop subseries. Taggart's latest poems are organized under the title Standing Wave and are arranged by order in which they will appear in the published work.

Box 19 Folder 1-3
Dodeka - Version prepared for reading purposes with variations from published edition, 1979

LOOP

Box 19 Folder 4
Reflexive and His Master's Voice, 1986
Box 19 Folder 5
Saul and David, 1986
Box 19 Folder 6
Game With Red, 1986
Box 19 Folder 7
Crying In The Chapel and Three Kisses, 1986
Box 19 Folder 8
Rougher Black Music, 1986
Box 19 Folder 9
Poem Beginning With A Line by Traherne, 1986
Box 19 Folder 10
For Me, undated
Box 19 Folder 11-12
Marvin Gaye Suite, 1986
Box 19 Folder 13
That This May Be, undated

STANDING WAVE

Box 19 Folder 14
Typescripts of final drafts
Box 19 Folder 15
Last Train, 1988
Box 19 Folder 16
Three Words From Thomas Bernhard, 1988
Box 20 Folder 1
All the Steps, 1988
Box 20 Folder 2
King of Eynan, 1988
Box 20 Folder 3
Blueweed, 1988
Box 20 Folder 4
Star Dust, 1988
Box 20 Folder 5
In The Sense Of, 1988
Box 20 Folder 6
Black And White Close-Up, 1988
Box 20 Folder 7
In And Under, 1988
Box 20 Folder 8
Question No Question and The Face of Love, 1988
Box 20 Folder 9
Take Away, 1988
Box 20 Folder 10
How Long, 1988
Box 20 Folder 11
Standing Wave, 1988
Box 20 Folder 12
For Instance and Free Gifts, 1988
Box 20 Folder 13
Alternate Take, 1988
Box 21 Folder 1
Rereading, 1988
Box 21 Folder 2
Vaguely Harmless, 1988
Box 21 Folder 3
Milk and Seed, 1988
Box 21 Folder 4
Ready Or Not, 1988
Box 21 Folder 5
Like That And Then and "Louder", 1988

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 9) ESSAYS AND REVIEWS. Arranged in two subseries: A) Essays and B) Reviews. No distinction has been made regarding published versus unpublished works. The materials in each subseries are arranged alphabetically by title.

A) Essays: Included among these essays are a college paper on Charles Olson, notes on a paper for the UC San Diego Oppen Conference, and an exhibition catalogue essay on the sculpture of Bradford Graves.

B) Reviews: Includes Taggart reviews of the work of Theodore Enslin, Susan Howe, and Karl Young.

Essays

Box 21 Folder 6-7
Come Shadow Come And Take This Shadow Up - Essay on Louis Zukofsky
Box 21 Folder 8
Composition By Field: The Poetics of Charles Olson - Earlham (College) paper on projective verse
Box 21 Folder 9
Essay For Brad Graves' Show - Includes notebook, 1985
Box 21 Folder 10-11
George Oppen And The Anthologies
Box 21 Folder 12
Notes concerning procedure in Basil Bunting's Briggflatts
Box 21 Folder 13
Olson and Melville
Box 21 Folder 14
Oppen notes for UCSD Oppen Conference, 1986
Box 21 Folder 15
Prompted By Jazz
Box 21 Folder 16
Prose on Poetry - Foreword
Box 21 Folder 17
Review of Frank Samperi - Published in Occurrence 7, 1977
Box 21 Folder 18
Slow Sing For Mark Rothko - Preface
Box 21 Folder 19
Teaching Of Poetry
Box 21 Folder 20
To Go Down To Go Into - Revised original

Reviews

Box 21 Folder 21
Enslin, Theodore. The Weather Within
Box 22 Folder 1
Howe, Susan. My Emily Dickinson
Box 22 Folder 2
Young, Karl. Five Kwaidan

CORRESPONDENCE

Scope and Content of Series

Series 10) CORRESPONDENCE: Contains many of the same correspondents included in the accession processed in 1987, although more than two-thirds of correspondents are new. Letters are organized by author, then arranged chronologically from earliest to latest. Among the correspondents in this series are Theodore Enslin, Bradford Graves, David Melnick, Bradford Morrow, Andrew Schelling, and Karl Young.

Of special importance is the abundant correspondence between Taggart and Enslin, including both incoming and outgoing letters. The Taggard-Enslin correspondence is deeply personal and involves discussions of contemporary writing, current events, music, and philosophical issues.

Box 22 Folder 3
Unidentified correspondents
Box 22 Folder 4
Alexander, Charles, 1985 - 1987
Box 22 Folder 5
American Biographical Institute, Inc., 1987
Box 22 Folder 6
Ammons, Archie, 1987
Box 22 Folder 7
Anderson, Cindy, 1986 - 1987
Box 22 Folder 8
Andrews, Bruce, 1976
Box 22 Folder 9
Barone, Dennis, 1985 - 1989
Box 22 Folder 10
Berge, Carol, 1970
Box 22 Folder 11
Bernstein, Charles, 1986 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 12
Booth, Phillip, 1988 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 13
Butterick, George, 1979 - 1987
Box 22 Folder 14
Byrd, Bobby, 1979 - 1987
Box 22 Folder 15
Callahan, Bob, 1980
Box 22 Folder 16
Callahan, Eileen, 1986
Box 22 Folder 17
Caputo, John, 1988
Box 22 Folder 18
Carruth, Hayden, 1986
Box 22 Folder 19
Coburn, Robert, 1984
Box 22 Folder 20
Creeley, Robert, 1986 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 21
Crumb, George, 1985 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 22
Cuddihy, Michael, 1975 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 23
Davidson, Michael, 1984
Box 22 Folder 24
Dickison, Steven, 1987
Box 22 Folder 25
Doyle, Mike, 1970
Box 22 Folder 26
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, 1987 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 27
Edson, Russell, 1970
Box 22 Folder 28-29
Enslin, Theodore, 1972 - 1989
Box 22 Folder 30
Eshleman, Clayton, 1986 - 1989
Box 22 Folder 31
Evans, George, 1988
Box 22 Folder 32
Foss, Phillip, 1987 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 33
Gartung, Karl, undated
Box 22 Folder 34
Gass, William, 1985
Box 22 Folder 35
Gingerich, Willard, 1987 - 1988
Box 22 Folder 36
Giscombe, C.S., 1985
Box 22 Folder 37
Golding, Alan, 1986 - 1989
Box 22 Folder 38
Graves, Bradford, 1970 - 1989
Box 22 Folder 39
Heller, Michael, 1970
Box 22 Folder 40
Hickman, Leland, 1985 - 1986
Box 22 Folder 41
Hocquard, Emmanuel, 1985
Box 22 Folder 42
Hoover, Paul, 1988
Box 22 Folder 43
Jaffer, Frances, 1987
Box 22 Folder 44
Johnson, Ronald, 1985
Box 22 Folder 45
Kenner, Hugh, 1987
Box 23 Folder 1
Kimmelman, Burt, 1985 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 2
Kitchell, Marilyn, 1986 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 3
Laughlin, James, 1969 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 4
Levi Strauss, David, 1986 - 1988
Box 23 Folder 5
Mac Low, Jackson, 1988
Box 23 Folder 6
Marshall, Jack, 1988
Box 23 Folder 7
Melnick, David, 1966 - 1971
Box 23 Folder 8
Metcalf, Paul, 1986 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 9
Morrow, Bradford, 1985 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 10
Olson, Toby, 1986 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 11
Palmer, Michael, 1986
Box 23 Folder 12
Pater Faranda, Lisa, 1987
Box 23 Folder 13
Perlman, John, 1987 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 14
Perloff, Marjorie, 1982 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 15
Perschetti, Vincent, 1982
Box 23 Folder 16
Piper, Paul, 1985 - 1986
Box 23 Folder 17
Quartermain, Peter, 1986 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 18
Rosenblum, Martin, 1986 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 19
Schelling, Andrew, 1984 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 20
Scroggins, Mark, 1987 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 21
Silliman, Ron, 1986 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 22
Smith, Marla, 1989
Box 23 Folder 23
Smith, Pat, 1986 - 1988
Box 23 Folder 24
Steiner, George, 1986
Box 23 Folder 25
Stevens, Holly, 1970
Box 23 Folder 26
Sutton, Walter, 1986 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 27
Tarn, Nathaniel, 1986
Box 23 Folder 28
Tisdale, Walter, 1988 - 1989
Box 23 Folder 29
Veinus, Abraham, 1970 - 1988
Box 23 Folder 30
Waldrop, Rosmarie, 1983 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 31
Watson, Craig, 1985 - 1987
Box 23 Folder 32
Wellman, Don, 1987 - 1988
Box 23 Folder 33
Young, Karl, 1985 - 1989

MISCELLANEOUS

Scope and Contents of Series

Series 11) MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS: Includes three-dimensional paper models and a metal frame used in the composition of the poem Dodeka. Also contained in this group is a reel-to-reel audio tape recording of a 1965 reading Taggart organized in support of Exclusions, which later became the magazine Maps, and a group of sketches by Bradford Graves for Taggart's book of poetry Peace on Earth.

Box 23 Folder 34
First Exclusions Reading - Reel-to-reel audio tape recording of a reading which Taggart organized in support of Exclusions, later his magazine Maps. Readers at the Earlham College event included Clayton Eshleman, Ronald Johnson, Jonathan Williams, as well as regional poets, 1965
Box 24 Folder 1
Dodeka - Construction paper models and metal frame used in the composition of the poem
Oversize MC-037-07
Paper Air. Sketches by Bradford Graves

Accessions Processed in 1991-2000

CORRESPONDENCE

Scope and Content of Series

Series 12) CORRESPONDENCE: Contains Taggart's professional correspondence with fellow poets, writers, editors and others connected with his teaching and literary career including Charles Bernstein, Bobby Byrd, Lew Daly, Alan Golding, Bradford Graves, James Laughlin, Hank Lazer, Paul Metcalf, Gil Ott, Pam Rehm, Abraham Veinus, Rosmarie Waldrop, John Wilson and Karl Young. Significant correspondents appearing in previous accessions include Theodore (Ted) Enslin and Bradford Graves. Also included is correspondence with the University of Alabama Press regarding the production process for Songs of Degrees. Materials date from 1970s to 2000.

Box 25 Folder 1
Alcalay, Ammiel, 1989 - 1991
Box 25 Folder 2
Alexander, Charles, 1985
Box 25 Folder 3
Andre, Michael, 1972 - 1974