Paul Blackburn, 1926-1971. American author
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Finding-Aid for the Blackburn Papers [00014]Collection Description
Papers, 1966-1967.
15 items
Access: Open
Paul Blackburn was a poet who, inspired an guided by the work and the encouragement of the writers of the previous generation, helped shape the course of American poetry following World War II. He was born and raised in Vermont, but spent his late teens in Greenwich Village with his mother, the poet Frances Frost, where he began writing poetry. While in college in the late 1940's, Blackburn began reading the poetry of Ezra Pound. He corresponded with Pound, receiving considerable encouragement, and even visited him several times. Pound was instrumental in helping to get Blackburn's early work published and in introducing him to the poets who formed the nucleus of the Black Mountain Group -- Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Cid Corman, and others. Although he did not visit the college until 10 years after it closed, Blackburn is closely associated with this group, principally because he published in Black Mountain Review and had two works printed by Robert Creeley's Divers Press.
Blackburn was extremely active in regenerating the New York library scene in the late 1950's and 1960's. He helped organize readings at Les Deux Magots and La Metro Cafe and sponsored readings by many poets who were later associated with the Beat scene and the New York School. Blackburn was also co-founder of the Poetry Project that took place in St. Mark's Church in Manhattan. The last years of his life included a tour of Europe, during which he wrote his Journals, published posthumously in 1975, and teaching at the State University on New York College at Cortland.
Blackburn produced 16 collections of poetry and was an important contributor to numerous magazines and journals including Black Mountain Review , Hudson Review , Partisan Review , and The Nation , on whose staff he worked for a time as Poetry Editor. He was a major translator as well and published translations of the poetry of the Provencal troubadors and Spanish and Brazilian writers, including Garcia Lorca and Cortazar.
Washington University's Paul Blackburn collection is a small one, consisting primarily of correspondence from Blackburn to Walter Hamady of Perishable Press. Hamady published several of Blackburn's works including The Reardon Poems in 1967. The Washington University holdings include letters from Blackburn about this book, proof material, and several typescript drafts of poems by Blackburn with autograph revisions and corrections. In addition to the material in this small collection, Washington University holds extensive Blackburn materials in other manuscript collections.
Bibliography
Woodward, Katharine. Paul Blackburn: A Checklist. (San Diego: Archive for New Poetry, [1980]).
Selected Names
Blackburn, Paul, 1925-1971. American author
Hamady, Walter. American publisher