Manuscript Register

This document describes a collection of materials held by the
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu

Posted to Internet: September 2003

Acquisition Note: This collection was a gift of Tom Gatten in 2003.

Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research.

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

Copyright:  Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials"

Use of Collections:  The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.

Scope and Contents

This collections consists of fifty-six letters and post cards written to Tom Gatten by noted persons in the literary field.

Inventory created by Tom Gatten and transcribed by Diana Selwyn, October 2003.

Item Inventory

Alberti, Rafael
June 9, 1971
From Spanish surrealist poet and writer Rafael Alberti, granting permission to publish English translations and his Spanish poems

Ashbery, John
July 30, 1965
The poet and editor of Art and Literature, an international review published in Lausanne, writes about a story submitted to the review

Awoonor, Kofi
May 24, 1978
The poet, writer, and former ambassador of Ghana to Brazil, Cuba, and the UN; author of The Breast of the Earth, a survey of the history, culture, and literature of Africa south of the Sahara; This Earth My Brother; Ride Me Memory , etc., writes to inform of book completion

Awoonor, Kofi
February 25, 1981
Invitation to Africa

Awoonor, Kofi
June 15, 1983
As ambassador to Brazil. Personal letter

Awoonor, Kofi
March 10, 1986
Attending the Congress of P.E.N., thank-you letter for February 28, no problem with African character being from Ghana

Awoonor, Kofi
July 8, 2002
Looks forward to getting the novel The Kojo Hand

Awoonor, Kofi
August 12, 2002
Sorrow at hearing of the death of old friend Jack Thompson

Awoonor, Kofi
December 9, 2002
Receipt of novel, wife visiting in the US

Bly, Robert
January 15, 1968
The poet writes on receiving three poems. Comments about Stony Brook

Bly, Robert
February 18, 1968
Written on Sixties Press letterhead. Notes about some poems sent by Tom Gatten

Bly, Robert
September 1, 1968
On sending some translations to Hardie St. Martin for comments or consideration in an anthology he was considering or working on

Bly, Robert
May 5, 1968
On traveling in Europe. On Gatten’s Alberti translations and other translators

Bly, Robert
Spring 1965
On translating Alberti

Bly, Robert
Fall 1968
Receipt note

Bly, Robert
Summer 1970
Note on Seventies Letterhead

Burke, Kenneth
April 30 -- May 8, 1973
Writer, literary critic, and poet. Sends “As I was Saying,” reprinted from the Michigan Quarterly Review; an article answering Renee Wellek’s essay in The Sewanee Review on Burke’s Counter-Statement and other work

Burke, Kenneth
April 30 -- May 8, 1973
Humorous note

Chapin, Sandy
November 1, 1975
The poet, songwriter, and author of the song “Cat’s Cradle” sends a letter resulting from a meeting with her and her husband Harry Chapin on a screenplay that he was writing

Cimino, Michael
January or June 1964
The writer, producer, and director of “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” “The Deer Hunter” (academy award), “Heaven’s Gate” writes about writing, the artistic vision, the writer having to be tough, and writes a poem as well

Cimino, Michael
September 17, 1975
Two newspaper clippings about the writer’s films are folded in with the letter -- they are from a later date, but relevant to the writer

Cimino, Michael
August 6, 1974
Writing

Cimino, Michael
March 28, 1966
Writing

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
1965
The beat poet sends a rejection note from City Lights Books.

Gerber, Dan
August 8, 1990
The author of Grass Fires and many other works writes about his work, Jim Harrison’s work, and his friends' drinking.

Gerber, Dan
March 23, 1989
His work, Jim Harrison’s work, and how they try to get away once a year to play Buzz and Todd from Rte 66

Gerber, Dan
December 12, 1988
A note about publishing

Gerber, Dan
October 25, 1988
Publishing

Gerber, Dan
January 22, 1984
A personal note accompanying a gift book of the writer

Gerber, Dan
December 17, 1983
Personal note, photocopies of the writer playing baseball, “Merry Christmas”

Gerber, Dan
April 3, 1974
A thank you note for the recipient’s book of poems, a note about the death of the writer’s father

Harper, Michael
September 6, 1980
The poet, anthologist and longtime professor of English at Brown University writes a personal note and comments on Amiri Baraka and Ralph Ellison

Harper, Michael
March 16, 1970
Thank-you letter to Tom and Sandy Gatten for hospitality for a stay during a poetry reading at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Comments on travel

Harrison, Jim
February 1974
Notes for a “blurb” for book cover

Kinnell, Galway
April 1, 1969
The poet and translator has won numerous awards and prizes and writes about travel expenses for a poetry reading at Stony Brook, a softball game, and Bob Mezey

Kinnell, Galway
March 13, 1966
About some Alberti translations, translating in general in the U.S., and James Laughlin, publisher of New Directions

Laughlin, James
March 25, 1966
The publisher of New Directions sends a response to a publishing query, offering various names and giving useful advice way beyond the requirements of a response to an ordinary query letter from an unknown writer

Levertov, Denise
May 4, 1966
The poet writes about trying to place a review of Jim Harrison’s Plain Song

Levertov, Denise
November 30, 1965
About trying to place a review of Jim Harrison’s Plain Song

Mezey, Robert
February 7, 1974
The poet and anthologist and winner of Lamont Poetry Prize, The Poet’s Prize, and other awards who was also a teacher at Fresno State University, University of Utah, and Claremont sends notes for a “blurb” for book cover

Mezey, Robert
June or July 1968
A typewritten poem, an acrostic spelling Thomas Gatten, inscribed and signed. Included is a copy of Bob Mezey's The Door Standing Open in which the poem appears.

Montague, John
May 15, 1969
The poet who wrote A Chosen Light and other books writes about a visit to Stony Brook for a poetry reading that was cancelled owing to anti-Vietnam War demonstrations on campus. Refers to Louis Simpson, the poet, who was teaching at Stony Brook, and George Quasha, a student poet at the time

Randall, Margaret
September 20, 1967
The poet, translator and editor of El Corno Emplumado in Mexico sends a letter accepting some translations for this publication

Reed, J.D.
Fall 1963 or Spring 1964
The poet, novelist, writer, and senior editor for Sports Illustrated and Time magazine writes about writers and writing

Reed, J.D.
April 5, 1974
About receiving Mapper of Mists and memories of times past, mostly in East Lansing

Smith, A.J.M.
March 24, 1974
The distinguished Canadian poet, critic, and anthologist, e.g., Seven Centuries of Verse, English and American; Poet Laureate of Canada and Poet in Residence at Michigan State University sends a note on recipient’s book of poems

Smith, A.J.M.
February 10, 1974
Notes for a “blurb” for book cover

St. Martin, Hardy
March 8, 1971
The poet and translator sends a letter about contacting Rafael Alberti for permission to publish translations of his poems and publish the original Spanish poems as well

Stewart, John
November 18, 1996
The writer and anthropologist sends a letter on his accompanying gift of the paperback edition of his novel Last Cool Days

Stewart, John
June 18, 1969
A letter from Mexico concerning his recent marriage, travel plans, and his book in progress Last Cool Days

Stewart, John
October 17, 1979
Recent travels, hearing Sterling Brown read his poems, what stress does to the spirit

Stewart, John
July 10, 1979
About a visit to Connecticut and advice about what to do with an essay

Stewart, John
August 23, 1976
Summer travels. Discusses old friends in Fresno, Gene Bluestein and Phil Levine