1985 Guide to the Modern Literature Collection
[click here to go to the Revised 2003 edition]Robert Sward
Papers, 1951-1971
ca. 13,000 items
Access: Open
Robert Sward emerged as a promising young American poet in the late 1950's. A Chicago native, Sward was educated at the University of Illinois (BA, 1956), Middlebury College, and the University of Iowa (MA, 1958). After graduating from the Iowa Writers' Program, Sward spent a year in England on a Fulbright Fellowship and upon his return joined the English Department at Cornell University.
While he was at Cornell, Sward's collegues included the poet, A.R. Ammons, who helped promote Sward's poetry. It was Cornell University Press, in fact, that brought Sward's work to the attention of the academic community by publishing his two early collections, Kissing the Dancer and Other Poems (1964) and Thousand Year Old Fiancee and Other Poems (1965). Another poet who helped promote Sward's work was William Meredith. He wrote the introduction to Kissing the Dancer and Other Poems and had taught with Sward at Connecticut College.
Sward left Cornell in the mid-1960's and spent much of the remaining decade traveling extensively in the United States and England teaching poetry workshops and giving readings. His work appeared regularly in most of the important little magazines and he developed friendships and correspondence with numerous authors of his generation, notably Carol Berge, Paul Blackburn, Robert Cohen, Larry Lieberman, Ann Quin, and Margaret Randall.
In 1969 Sward took a position at Writer-in-Residence at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. It was here that he launched Soft Press, a small press that he operated for nearly ten years which became the primary publishing outlet for his work in the 1970's. Sward eventually became a landed immigrant in Canada and lived in Toronto where he became an active member of that city's literary scene. He read and performed regularly in Canada until 1985 as one of the "Three Roberts" (Sward, Robert Zend, Robert Priest). In 1985, he returned to the United States and now lives in California. A major collection of poetry was recently published by Coffee House Press in Minneapolis, Four Incarnations, New and Selected Poems, 1957-1991 (1991). An earlier collection, Half a Life's History: Poems New and Selected, 1957-1983 (1983), was published by Aya Press in Toronto.
The Robert Sward Papers are one of the largest and most diverse manuscript collections among Washington University's holdings. They include an extensive correspondence with literary figures, little magazine editors, small press publishers, family members, and friends. Thousands of pages of Sward's heavily revised worksheets and journals are also present and serve as excellent examples of the poetic process at work. A large collection of little magazines, small press publications and literary ephemera is also housed in the Sward Papers and helps further document not only the life and career of Robert Sward, but also the American poetry scene during the 1960's and 1970's.
Bibliography
Unpublished bibliographic information available.
Sward, Robert, 1933- American author L1721 C ca.4865 J45 Abbe, George, 1911- American author L4 Abramson, Doris E., 1925- American author L1 Adams, Phoebe Lou, 1918- American author L1 Allen, Donald M., 1912- American author L1 Amabile, George, 1936- American author L2 Ames, Louis, 1931- American author M27 L7 Ammons, A.R., 1926- American author L4 Anania, Michael, 1939- American author L12 Anderson, Jon, 1940- American author L1 Andrews, Lyman, 1938- American author L1 Angoff, Charles, 1902-1979. American author L1 Appleman, Philip, 1926- American author L1 Ballard, J.G., 1930- British author L1 Baumbach, Jonathan, 1933- American author L17 Bax, Martin C.O., 1933- British author L48 M1 Bell, Charles G., 1929- American author M1 Bell, Marvin, 1937- American author L6 Beveniste, Asa, 1925- British author L1 Berge, Carol, 1928- American author L71 M28 Berry, Wendell, 1934- American author L1 Beum, Robert Laurence, 1929- American author L1 Birney, Earle, 1904- Canadian author L1 Blackburn, Paul, 1926-1971. American author L25 M34 Bly, Robert Elwood, 1926- American author L6 Bogan, Louise, 1877-1970. American author L6 Booth, Philip E., 1925- American author L2 Boyle, Kay, 1903- American author L2 Browne, Michael Dennis, 1940- American author L25 M1 Burnshaw, Stanley, 1906- American author L4 Byrd, Bobby, 1942- American author L3 M1 Carroll, Paul, 1927- American author L8 Carruth, Hayden, 1921- American author L2 Cassill, R.V., 1919- American author L1 Childs, Barney, 1926- American author & composer L1 Ciardi, John, 1916- American author L16 Clark, Thomas, 1941- American author L2 Cogswell, Fred, 1917- Canadian author L8 Cohen, Robert David, 1945- American author L65 M12 Colombo, John Robert, 1936- Canadian author L3 Creeley, Robert, 1926- American author L4 Crews, Judson, 1917- American author L4 Cunningham, J.V., 1911-1985. American author L1 Curley, Daniel, 1918- American author & editor L1 Dacey, Philip, 1939- American author L2 Davison, Peter, 1928- American author L1 C3 Delbanco, Nicolas, 1942- American author L1 Deutsch, Babette, 1895-1982. American author L1 Di Palma, Ray, 1943- American author L12 M8 Dickey, William, 1928- American author L22 Drew, Elizabeth, 1935- American author L2 Eaton, Charles Edward, 1916- American author L1 Eberhart, Richard, 1904- American author L3 Eckman, Frederick, 1924- American author L33 M4 Elliott, George P., 1918-1980. American author L1 Ellison, Harlan, 1934- American author L1 Engle, Paul, 1908- American author L8 Etter, Dave, 1928- American author L1 Feldman, Irving, 1928- American author L1 Farlinghetti, Lawrence, 1919- American author L1 Finkel, Donald, 1929- American author L17 Fitts, Dudley, 1903-1968. American author L2 Garrett, George P., 1929- American author L4 M1 Garrigue, Jean, 1914-1972. American author L2 Georgakas, Dan, 1938- American author L2 Ginsberg, Allen, 1926- American author L1 Griffith, E.V., 1927- American author L3 Guthrie, Ramon, 1896-1973. American author L4 M2 Hall, Donald, 1928- American author L11 Halpern, Daniel, 1945- American author L2 Herschberger, Ruth, 1917- American author L12- Hicks, Granville, 1901-1982. American author L1 Hine, Daryl, 1936- American author L1 C1 Hitchcock, George, 1914- American author L7 Hollo, Anselm, 1934- Finnish author L4 M1 Honig, Edwin, 1919- American author L1 Horovitz, Michael, 1935- British author L1 Howard, Richard, 1929- American author L1 Hugo, Richard, 1923-1982. American author L3 Ignatow, David, 1914- American author L9 Ingalls, Jeremy, 1911- American author L1 Jerome, Judson, 1927- American author L39 M17 Johnson, Diane, 1934- American author L31 Johnson, Ronald, 1935- American author L2 Justice, Donald, 1925- American author L6 Katz, Steve, 1935- American author L8 Kearnes, Lionel, 1937- Canadian author L1 Kenndey, X.J., 1929- American author L11 Kessler, Jascha, 1929- American author L4 C3 Kessler, Milton, 1930- American author L1 Kinnell, Galway, 1927- American author L3 Kizer, Carolyn Ashley, 1925- American author L13 Klappert, Peter, 1942- American author L2 Knights, L.C., 1906- British author L4 Knoepfle, John, 1923- American author L1 M1 Kroetsch, Robert, 1927- Canadian author L9 Kunitz, Stanley, 1905- American author L2 Laughlin, James, 1914- American author & publisher L3 Leary, Paris, 1931- American author L2 Legler, Philip, 1928- American author L3 M1 Levertov, Denise, 1923- American author L6 Lieberman, Larry, 1935- American author L67 M29 Lish, Gordon, 1934- American author Ll2 Logan, John, 1923- American author L9 Lowell, Robert, 1917-1977. American author L9 Lowenfels, Walter, 1897-1976. American author L3 Lurie, Alison, 1926- American author L7 Malanga, Gerard, 1943- American author L2 Malin, Irving, 1934- American author L4 Meredith, William, 1919- American author L73 M14 Morgan, Frederick, 1922- American author L1 Moss, Howard, 1922- American author L18 Nathan, Leonard, 1924- American author & educator L1 Newman, Charles, 1938- American author L7 Nims, John Frederick, 1913- American author L1 Novick, Julius, 1939- American author L1 Offen, Ron, 1930- American author L26 Olsen, Tillie, 1913- American author L1 Olson, Toby, 1937- American author M6 Oppen, George, 1908- American author L2 Ostroff, Anthony, 1923-1978. American author L1 Pudney, John, 1909-1977. British author L1 M1 Purdy, Al, 1918- Canadian author L5 Quin, Ann, 1936-1973. British author L57 M8 Rago, Henry, 1915-1969. American author & editor L57 Rahv, Philip, 1908-1973. American author L3 Randall, Margaret, 1936- American author L23 M2 Ray, David, 1932- American author L36 M6 Rosenthal, M.L., 1917- American author L10 Rubin, David, 1939- American author L69 M8 Sanders, Ed, 1939- American author L2 Sarton, May, 1912- American author L10 Schevill, James, 1920- American author L10 Schwartz, Howard, 1945- American author L1 Segal, Lore, 1928- American author L2 Settle, Mary Lee, 1918- American author L1 Shapiro, Karl Jay, 1913- American author L7 Skelton, Robin, 1925-1997 Canadian author L3 Skinner, Knute Ramsey, 1929- American author L19 M1 Smith, William Jay, 1918- American author L1 Sorrentino, Gilbert, 1929- American author L5 Stafford, William Edgar, 1914- American author L11 Starbuck, George, 1931- American author L20 M1 Stefanile, Felix, 1920- American author L2 Stoloff, Carolyn, 1927- American author L3 Strand, Mark, 1934- American author L4 Stryk, Lucian, 1924- American author L22 Swallow, Alan, 1915-1966. American author & publisher L1 Swenson, May, 1919- American author L3 Taggart, John, 1942- American author L2 Targ, William, 1907- American author L1 Tate, James, 1943- American author M1 Tedlock, E.W., 1910- American author L6 Thayler, Carl, 1933- American author L1 M1 Thurston, Jarvis A., 1914- American editor L1 Tomlinson, Charles, 1927 British author L5 Trask, Willard, 1900?-1980. American author & translator L1 Trivett, Daphne Harwood, 1940- American author L2 Untermeyer, Jean Starr, 1886-1970. American author L1 Untermeyer, Louis, 1885-1977. American author L1 Urdang, Constance, 1922- American author L14 Vander Molen, Robert, 1947- American author L1 Van Duyn, Mona, 1921- American author L11 Vas Dias, Robert, 1931- British author L9 Vaughan, Robert, 1931- American author L9 Viereck, Peter, 1933- American author M12 Wagoner, David, 1926- American author L4 Wain, John, 1925- British author L1 Walsh, Chad, 1914- American author L4 Weber, John, 1918-1978. American author L3 Weiss, Theodore Russell, 1916- American author L22 Wells, Arvin R., 1927- American author L1 Whittemore, Reed, 1919- American author L13 Widdemer, Margaret, 1884-1978. American author L8 Wilbur, Richard, 1921- American author L1 Wild, Peter, 1940- American author L1 Wildman, Eugene, 1938- American author L1 Williams, Heathcote, 1941- British author L6 Williams, Jonathan, 1929- American author L2 Wilson, Keith, 1927- American author L36 M29 Woessner, Warren, 1944- American author L2 Wolfe, Michael, 1917- American author L17 M12 Woods, John, 1926- American author L6 Yates, J. Michael, 1938- Canadian author L3