The papers of Leland Hickman, actor, American poet, and editor. The bulk of the material dates from 1979 to 1989 and is related to the publication of the literary magazines Bachy, Boxcar, and Temblor, including extensive correspondence, original submissions, paste-ups, and edited galleys. Also included are typescripts and manuscripts of Hickman's major verse work Tiresias; a sound recording of Hickman reading Great Slave Lake Suite; original plays; juvenilia; photographs; and other recordings.
Leland Hickman Papers, 1950-1991 (MSS 186)
Extent: 15.4 Linear feet (34 archives boxes, 1 oversize folder, 3 card file box)
Leland Hickman was born on September 15, 1934, in Santa Barbara, California. He moved with his family to Bakersfield, lived on a farm in Carpinteria, and returned to Santa Barbara where he attended high school. In addition to acting in high school plays, Hickman performed in local theatre productions of the Children's Theatre of Santa Barbara and the Group L Theatre Workshop. He graduated from high school in June 1952. Hickman attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and later studied at Berkeley, where he played with the Berkeley Drama Guild.
After a tour in the Army, he moved to New York City to continue his career in theatre. Hickman toured nationally with the Bishop's Company in 1957, worked in the Canal-Fulton Summer Theatre in Ohio in the summer of 1958, and performed with the Equity Library Theatre in New York City. He subsequently studied on scholarship at the New York Academy of the American Shakespeare Festival. In 1961, Hickman returned to California to play at the Equity Library Theatre West in Los Angeles. He remained in Los Angeles for three years, then returned to New York. In 1969, Hickman moved again to Los Angeles, then to San Francisco briefly, and finally settled back in Los Angeles in 1971.
Leland Hickman's literary career began in the middle 1960's. In 1967, The Hudson Review published "Lee Sr Falls to the Floor," an introductory poem to Hickman's major work, Tiresias, his "ongoing long-poem" about his feelings for mankind, poetics, and America. Hickman continued to write poetry through the 1970's. A section of Tiresias entitled The Great Slave Lake Suite was published in book form by Momentum Press in 1980. Additionally, portions of Tiresias have been published in Manhattan Review, Trace, Momentum, Bachy, New American Review, Newletters, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Rara Avis, Little Caesar, Invisible City, Box Car, and the anthology The Streets Inside: Ten Los Angeles Poets.
Hickman worked as the poetry editor for the Los Angeles literary magazine Bachy, published by Papa Bach Bookstore, from 1977 to the spring of 1981. He edited issues nine to eighteen. In 1981, he co-founded with Paul Vangelisti the magazine Boxcar: A Magazine of the Arts. Only two issues were published. In 1985, Hickman began editing and publishing Temblor, which continued for ten issues. Temblor is noted for the publication of many east and west coast language-related poets. Hickman's editorial and publishing activities brought the work of many established and emerging poets into the public view.
Leland Hickman died in Los Angeles in 1991.
The papers of Leland Hickman, actor, American poet, and editor. The bulk of the material dates from 1979 to 1989 and is related to the publication of the literary magazines Bachy, Boxcar, and Temblor, including extensive correspondence, original submissions, paste-ups, and edited galleys. Also included are typescripts and manuscripts of Hickman's major verse work Tiresias; a sound recording of Hickman reading Great Slave Lake Suite; original plays; juvenilia; photographs; and other recordings.
Accession Processed in 1991
Papers relating mainly to his activities as a poet and poetry editor. They primarily document the West Coast contemporary poetry scene and his relationship to it; materials documenting Hickman's own work as a poet are less well represented. Arranged in eight series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE; 2) PUBLICATIONS; 3) THEATRE MATERIALS; 4) WRITINGS BY HICKMAN; 5) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS; 6) WRITINGS OF OTHERS; 7) AUDIO AND VIDEO RECORDINGS, and 8) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
Accession Processed in 1996
Contains correspondence (1990-1991), writings, photographs and miscellaneous materials. Arranged in four series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) PHOTOGRAPHS, 3) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, and 4) WRITINGS.
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