Lucie Brock-Broido Papers, 1965-2017, bulk 1981-2013
Collection context
- Creator:
- Brock-Broido, Lucie
- Abstract:
- Lucie Brock-Broido (1956-2018) was an American poet and educator. She authored four volumes of poetry A Hunger (1988), The Master Letters (1995), Trouble In Mind (2004), and Stay, Illusion (2013). The papers contain production material related to each book, drafts, manuscripts, personal and professional correspondence, teaching material, personal and biographical documents, printed resources, childhood mementos, books owned by Brock-Broido, and editions of Brock-Broido's books.
- Extent:
- 34.5 Linear Feet 22 record storage cartons (boxes 1-21); 2 small flat boxes (boxes 22-23); manuscript box (box 24); 9 CMI book boxes (boxes 25-33)
- Language:
- English .
- Scope and content:
-
Lucie Brock-Broido followed a consistent process to complete her four volumes of poetry. The collection contains handwritten drafts of poems in notebooks, printed typescript drafts of poems, initial arranged manuscripts, and multiple manuscript drafts with annotated revisions, all of which developed into each book.
The collection also includes editorial correspondence between Brock-Broido and Harry Ford while editing A Hunger (1988) and The Master Letters (1996) and some editorial correspondence between Brock-Broido and Deborah Garrison related to Trouble in Mind (2004) and Stay, Illusion (2013). The collection also contains contracts, setting copies, proofs, material related to the books' publicity, copies of reviews in magazines and journals, post publication correspondence, and book cover options.
The collection also contains Brock-Broido's early literary projects from the 1970s and 1980s, a small number of completed prose pieces, and several drafts of presumably unpublished poems, which she identified as "Stillborn Poems."
Brock-Broido was known as a beloved, committed teacher and her inventive approach to poetics left an impression on a generation of poets and educators. The collection contains a significant amount of Brock-Broido's course material. There are also routine department memos and correspondence from both Harvard and Columbia University, which includes appointment notices, salary reports, invoices, and schedules. In some of the departmental correspondence, Brock-Broido describes her specific goals for Columbia's writing program as director of the poetry concentration.
Brock-Broido maintained long term correspondence with several notable American literary figures: Stanley Kunitz, Richard Howard, Charles Simic, Franz Wright, and others. The collection contains these letters, as well the intimate correspondences that further detail Brock-Broido's emotional life. The papers also contain exchanges regarding writing, relationships, and literature between Brock-Broido and her close friend, the literary critic Helen Vendler. The collection includes outgoing correspondence written by Brock-Broido, including multiple revisions of some significant letters.
The collection includes professional materials such as job applications, adjunct teaching appointments, and invoices and invitations for speaking engagements. There is also a significant amount of acceptances, rejections, and solicitations from editors at various publishing venues. The papers contain Brock-Broido's detailed applications to many grants and fellowships, fellowship acceptances and rejections, as well as her allocation of funds from the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.
The personal and biographical materials contained in this collection illuminate Brock-Broido's interests, habits, and emotional life. The collection contains several notes written by Brock-Broido, the majority of which describe her personal relationships and developments in therapy. Brock-Broido also kept several astrological charts with related commentary.
Medical records, name change documents, and routine planners and address books are also located here. The collection contains materials concerning Brock-Broido's cats, particularly the illness and death of her longtime pet William Ernest Winkler. The collection includes eulogies written by Brock-Broido for her mother, Virginia Greenwald, and the poet Liam Rector. The collection includes extensive documentation of Brock-Broido's home renovation and decor purchases.
The collection contains a range of printed material meticulously saved and stored by Brock-Broido. Brock-Broido often marked particular phrases in pieces of journalism to later use in poetry. An assortment of newspaper and magazine clippings, complete issues of magazines, and printed images organized and annotated by Brock-Broido are located here. The papers also include some printed copies of annotated literary texts, encyclopedic entries, and ephemera accumulated by Brock-Broido.
The collection contains an unpublished manuscript inscribed to Brock-Broido by the poet Bruce Smith. It also contains Franz Wright's annotated copy of Brock-Broido's book Stay, Illusion, identified as "one of Lucie's most treasured objects." Brock-Broido's annotated copy of The Master Letters of Emily Dickinson is located here. There is also a significant amount of books annotated by Brock-Broido, as well as books inscribed to Brock-Broido by colleagues and friends. The collection contains Brock-Broido's copies of her own books.
The collection contains some materials from Brock-Broido's childhood and adolescence. There is one scrapbook, school records, some personal notebooks, and a handmade prayerbook.
The collection contains material related to Brock-Broido's father, David Broido, including photographs, correspondence, and his obituary. The collection also contains letters received by Brock-Broido while attending the Chautauqua Institution in 1970, as well as several letters received from 1971 to 1974, which may provide insight into Brock-Broido's personal life in the years following her father's death in July, 1968.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Lucie Brock-Broido was born on May 22, 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the younger of Virginia (Ginger) Brock and David Broido's two daughters. Her parents divorced in 1959 and Brock-Broido's mother, Virginia, married Jerry Greenwald the following year, on June 1, 1960. According to an unpublished autobiographical essay, a half-sister, Melissa Greenwald, was born four hours before Brock-Broido's twelfth birthday in 1968. Later that summer, Brock-Broido's biological father, David Broido, died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 43.
Shortly after her father's death Brock-Broido decided to become a poet. She wrote her first poems in high school. Brock-Broido eventually enrolled in the writing program at John Hopkins University, where she studied with Cynthia Macdonald and Richard Howard, writing hundreds of pages of poetry and prose each year. Brock-Broido earned a Master's degree from John Hopkins in the spring of 1979. The following fall, she moved from Baltimore to New York City to complete an M.F.A. in Poetry at Columbia School of the Arts. She was a student of Stanley Kunitz, who would remain an influence and mentor.
Though Brock-Broido was prolific at Columbia, her struggles with anorexia became more severe during that period. In 1981, the summer after completing her M.F.A, Brock-Broido was briefly committed to Western Psychiatric Institute in Pittsburgh.
In March of 1984, Brock-Broido legally changed her first name from Lucie to Lucia, though she continued to publish under the name Lucie Brock-Broido.
After seven years of sending drafts to then poetry editor Alice Quinn, Alfred A. Knopf decided to publish Brock-Broido's first book in 1986. With her first book still in production, Brock-Broido was offered a five year Briggs-Copeland Lectureship in poetry at Harvard. A rare opportunity for a poet yet to publish a full length collection. She taught there from 1988-1993, and received the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award in 1989 and 1990 and the Harvard-Danforth Award for Distinction in Teaching in 1991.
When the distinguished poetry editor Harry Ford took over Quinn's position at Knopf, Ford became the editor of Brock-Broido's first two books A Hunger (1988) and The Master Letters (1996). Reviewed by The New Yorker, Poetry, Harvard Book Review, and elsewhere, both books attracted critical attention and established Brock-Broido as a truly original poet of femininity, sexuality, mysticism, and personae. Her style is often considered part of a "school of one."
Brock-Broido taught writing and was head of the poetry concentration at Columbia School of the Arts from 1993 to 2018. She constructed a famed teaching "Anthology" of over 300 pages of poetry, which became a somewhat iconic, cult object among poets.
Brock-Broido lived alone for all of her adult life, dividing her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York City, New York. She was particularly committed to the style of her two homes and the lavish interiors of these apartments were characteristic of the poet's unique allure.
Brock-Broido published two more collections of poetry with Knopf, Trouble in Mind (2004) and Stay, Illusion (2013). Her last collection, Stay, Illusion, received wide critical acclaim and was nominated for a 2013 National Book Award.
According to her most recent editor, Deborah Garrison, Brock-Broido had written several poems after the publication of her last book and was working toward another collection before her death in 2018.
Brock-Broido died on March 6th, 2018, from an untreatable brain tumor found in late 2017.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Materials in box 24 are restricted until the date specified. This collection has no other restrictions.
This collection is located on-site.
- Terms of access:
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
- Preferred citation:
-
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Lucie Brock-Broido Papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
- Location of this collection:
- Before you visit:
- Researchers interested in viewing materials in the RBML reading room must must book an appointment at least 7 days in advance. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to 5 items per day.
- Contact:
- rbml@library.columbia.edu