The papers of Clayton Eshleman, American poet, translator, and editor. Included is extensive correspondence dating from 1963 to 1992; original typescripts and manuscripts of Eshleman's prose and verse writings; travel notebooks; interviews; original typescript and manuscript drafts; drafts and correspondence pertaining to Eshleman's translations of Antonin Artaud, Bernard Bador, Aime Cesaire, Michel Deguy, Juan Guzman Cruchaga, Cesar Vallejo, and others; original submissions, later drafts with editorial changes, and paste-ups, all relating to the publication of Sulfur; and various personal ephemera. The collection comprises an extensive source of information on the American, Latin American, and European poetry scene of the post-Beat era.
Clayton Eshleman Papers, 1958-1993 (MSS 21)
Extent: 66.4 Linear feet (148 archives boxes, 42 oversize folders)
Born June 1, 1935, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Clayton Eshleman is the only child of Gladys and Ira Eshleman. In 1953, Eshleman declared himself a music major at the University of Indiana but switched departments several times before receiving his BA in Philosophy in 1958. For three years he travelled in Mexico and Latin America. Returning to Indiana, he married Barbara Novak in the summer of 1961. Also in 1961, Eshleman's first book of poetry, Mexico and North, was printed privately in Japan. Eshleman spent three years in Japan, teaching English and studying Asian religion. He returned briefly to the United States and then moved, in 1965, to Lima, Peru. In Lima, in 1966, his only son, Matthew, was born. Eshleman returned to New York City in 1966 and soon separated from Barbara and Matthew. Two years of Reichian therapy followed.
In 1967, Eshleman published the first issue of Caterpillar, a journal of contemporary writing. He published twenty issues over a period of five years, ending the journal in 1973. While editing Caterpillar, Eshleman published his first major work, Indiana (1969) and his first major translation, Vallejo's Poemas Humanos/Human Poems (1968). Also during the Caterpillar years, Eshleman met his second wife Caryl Reiter and moved with her to Los Angeles in 1970.
The next years were most productive. Eshleman followed Indiana with Altars (1971), Coils (1973), The Gull Wall (1975), What She Means (1978), Hades in Manganese (1981), Fracture (1983), and in 1986, The Name Encanyoned River: Selected Poems, 1960-1985. Eshleman's creative design was now developed fully, imparting to his work quasi-Blakean completeness. In these and later works, written after he studied cave art at Lascaux, Eshleman recovered forms of the paleolithic imagination and practiced a poetics of what he called the lower body.
Eshleman's work as a translator continued throughout this period, resulting in his second major translation of Vallejo, Spain Take This Cup From Me (with Jose Rubia Barcia, 1974). Eshleman also produced translations of Antonin Artaud and Aime Cesaire: Artaud's To Have Done with the Judgement of God (1975), and Artaud the Momo (1976) (both with Norman Glass), and Aime Cesaire: The Collected Poetry (1983, with Annette Smith). Eshleman's best-recognized achievement as translator was his 1978 collaboration with Jose Rubia Barcia on Vallejo's Complete Posthumous Poetry, for which Eshleman received the 1979 National Book Award for Translations.
Eshleman has continued to write poetry and criticism, which appear in numerous magazines and anthologies, as well as his own books such as Antiphonal Swing (1988), Hotel Cro-Magnon (1989), Mistress Spirit (1989), and Novices (1989). He also continues to translate the work of important poets such as Michel Deguy and Pablo Neruda.
Among Eshleman's most important contributions to contemporary American letters has been the editing of Sulfur, an influential journal of contemporary writing and art. Eshleman founded Sulfur in 1981 and edited 46 issues, ending the journal in the year 2000. The journal has disseminated works of canonized modernists like Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Charles Olson, but it is best noted for transgressing boundaries separating isolated groups of American and international writers. Under Eshleman's direction, Sulfur has provided a forum for important arguments among new American writers, extending the field of new American writing to its most articulate, controversial outposts.
Clayton Eshleman has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, two National Endowment for The Arts Poetry Fellowships, and two National Endowment for The Humanities Fellowships. He has held teaching positions at the California Institute of Technology and at UCLA Extension. Eshleman taught English at Eastern Michigan University and became professor emeritus in 2003.
From his interest in paleolithic and somatic experience, Eshleman has led several expeditions to the Dordogne region of France. There he conducts research on paleolithic cave art. He is also an aficionado of the region's cuisine.
A complete listing of Eshleman's publications, as well as autobiographical notes, can be found in the "Personal Papers" series of this collection.
Papers of Clayton Eshleman, American poet, writer, editor and translator. The papers also shed light on the post-war American poetry scene which Eshleman helped to shape. Materials relating to Eshleman's journals Caterpillar and Sulfur are especially valuable in relation to the literary scene ca. 1960-1986.
Accessions Processed in 1987
Arranged in seven series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS, 3) CATERPILLAR MATERIALS, 4) SULFUR MATERIALS, 5) TEACHING MATERIALS, 6) PERSONAL EPHEMERA and 7) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
Accessions Processed in 1995
Arranged in nine series: 8) GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, 9) WRITINGS, 10) BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTS AND EPHEMERA, 11) WRITINGS ABOUT ESHLEMAN, 12) WRITINGS BY OTHERS, 13) CATERPILLAR ANTHOLOGY, 14) SULFUR, 15) PHOTOGRAPHS, and 16) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES
Accession Processed in 1996
Arranged in one series: 17) SUBJECT FILES.
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