Tom Clark, 1941- . American author 

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Collection Description

Papers

4 items

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Tom Clark, a native of Chicago, attended the University of Michigan where he became a student of the poet Donald Hall. Upon being awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1963, Clark left for England to study at Cambridge and later, Essex University. When Hall resigned his position as Poetry Editor of The Paris Review in 1964, he recommended his former student as his replacement and Clark, a 22 year-old who had yet to publish a book, found himself an editor for one of the most important literary magazines of the day. Clark quickly demonstrated his good instincts by printing early work by many of the poets who would later be associated with the New York School. While at Essex, Clark edited and printed his famous Once series of mimeographed magazines. He was also co-founder and editor with the young British poet, Andrew Crozier, of the short-lived but important Wivenhoe Park Review . 

On returning to the U.S. in 1967, Clark settled in New York and became an integral part of the poetry scene then emerging on the Lower East Side. Clark had printed the work of many of these poets--Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Bill Berkson, John Ashbery, Anne Waldman, Joe Brainard, and others--in The Paris Review , The Wivenhow Park Review , and the Once series. In the early 1970's, Clark was the first of many poets to migrate to Bolinas, California. During his residencies in New York and Bolinas, Clark produced nearly 50 books, chapbooks, broadsides, as well as two books on baseball, Champagne and Baloney (1976) and No Big Deal (1977), and a biography, The World of Damon Runyan (1978). 

Clark moved to Boulder, Colorado where he joined the Boulder Monthly as Senior Writer from 1978-1979. He later served as editor of the magazine. While on the Boulder Monthly staff, Clark became involved on an investigation of the Naropa Institute out of which he produced two books and a number of magazine articles. Currently residing in California, Clark remains an active writer producing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In 1991, he published a biography of Charles Olson, one of his poetic mentors, entitled Charles Olson: The Allegory of a Poet’s Life (Norton: 1991).

Washington University's collection of Tom Clark's Papers is a unique assemblage of material from two different periods in the career of this versatile figure. The first group consists of correspondence, manuscripts, and editorial material relating to Clark's second book The Sand Burg (London: Ferry Press, 1966). The heart of the collection is 84 letters from 1964-1966 written by Clark to Andrew Crozier who operated the Ferry Press. In these letters Clark discusses the contemporary poetry scene, his editorial work, his own writing, and personal matters. Taken together, these letters are a fascinating glimpse at an emerging poet learning his craft and developing as a writer. 

This small collection includes three signed, undated, poemcards: “Dream,” “2 AM,” and “Time rotates but there is only one season.”  There is also a broadside announcement, “Kerouac,” by Tom Clark with a poem, “Vanity of Duluoz,” on the verso.

Bibliography 

Selected Names

Clark, Tom, 1941- . American author 
 

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Special Collections