William F. Claire Collection on Mark Van Doren, 1940-1987

(Autograph Manuscript Signed. (1999). 21 lines in the author's holograph on a single 8-1/2 x 11 in. sheet. A fine copy. This poem, to Mark Van Doren was supposed to have been published in the "Voyages" Mark Van Doren issue but arrived too late to be included. Not sure if it has been published)

(Two pages on quarto musical composition paper, text and music written in pencil. (ca 1973). Not signed.

This puts to music the first stanza of the poem by Mark Van Doren. The first page of this was reprinted in the 1973 Mark Van Doren tribute issue of the magazine "Voyages" . The piece was performed by Brubeck at the memorial service for Mark Van Doren in New York City)

(17 lines in holograph on a PAX magazine stationary.

A poem that was probably written for the Mark Van Doren issue of "Voyages" but did appear there. Unpublished? A convert to Roman Catholicism, the American poet Robert Lax (1915-2000), was a friend of the Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton. A student of Mark Van Doren, he and Thomas Merton were also influenced by their friend Ad Reinhardt. In his later years Robert Lax chose to live as a hermit on the island of Patmos in Greece where, in a quest for simplicity, he became a leading figure in literary minimalism)

(Typed Manuscript (unsigned).17 lines (Page 3 only, edges of sheet chipped))

(Autograph Manuscript (unsigned). (ca 1973). 15 lines in holograph on this paper. This poem that was written for the Mark Van Doren issue of "Voyages" (Issue 14/15, 1973) and appeared on page 48)

(Typed poem: 13 lines (December 14, 1972-thinking of my great teacher Mark Van Doren))

(1 page with holograph title, some ink corrections in the text. [ca 1973]. 19 lines, with 3 ink corrections.

Accompanied by a holograph note, in full: "3/22/73 | Dear Bill | Here's the review, with | a brief introduction | There will be many | pages about Mark in the | book I am writing. | yrs. | A. T." These were directed to editor and poet William Claire whose magazine "Voyages" published a tribute issue to Mark Van Doren in 1973. The Manuscript here listed was printed on page 23 of the special issue and was followed by a reprinting of Tate's review of "Very Much At Ease in Formal Attire" Van Doren's collected poems. The two pieces are here offered together

John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 -- February 9, 1979) was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944. He began attending Vanderbilt University in 1918 where he met fellow poet Robert Penn Warren. Warren and Tate were invited to join a group of young Southern poets under the leadership of John Crowe Ransom; the group were known as the Fugitive Poets and later as the Southern Agrarians. Tate contributed to the group's magazine The Fugitive and to the agrarian manifesto I'll Take My Stand published in 1930 and this was followed in 1938 by Who Owns America? Tate also joined Ransom to teach at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Some of his notable students there included the poets Robert Lowell and Randall Jarrell. Lowell's early poetry was particularly influenced by Tate's formalist brand of Modernism)

(TMS, with holograph corrections and additions, 18 pages (photocopy))

(TMS, with holograph corrections and additions, 25 pages (photocopy))

(Typed manuscript, with holograph notes on the cover by Dorothy Van Doren and Charlie Van Doren, 15 pages)

(TMs mock-up, with corrections throughout, 23 pages (With accompanying annotated envelope))

(Scirpt for radio. Telecast Chapter T-101 NBC network)