Collection Overview

Summary
Arrangement
Description
Using the Collection

Note: some material may be restricted or offsite

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Subject Headings
History / Biographical Note

Collection Contents

View All
Series I: Correspondence, 1971-2007
Series II: Writings and Notes, Undated, 1986-1996
Series III: Biographical Material, 1945-1992
Series IV: Additions to the Collection

Richard Poirier Collection, 1945-2007, bulk 1986-2007

After clicking 'Submit Request', users will login with their UNI and password (Columbia affiliates) or their special collections account (external users). Appointments are required and will be arranged according to each individual repository's policy.

Series I: Correspondence, 1971-2007

Series I is comprised of personal and professional correspondence received by Poirier, as well as some copies of his outgoing correspondence. The letters relate to his work as a literature professor at Rutgers, his role as editor of Raritan and personal correspondence between Poirier and his friends.

Alphabetical


Box 1 Outgoing, 1949-1955

Box 1 A-Z, 1971-2008, 6 folders

Box 1 Adams, Alice, 1992-1999

Box 1 Brommich, David, 1992-1998

Box 1 Burnshaw, Stanley, 1984-1999

Box 1 Donoghue, Denis, 1992-2000

Box 1 Ferry, David, 1992-2008

Box 1 Hellman, Lillian, 1978-1983

Box 1 Hollander, John, 1993-2004

Box 1 Hyman, Suzanne, 1998-2000

Box 1 Jehler, Myra, 1987-1993

Box 1 Kenmode, Frank, 1992-2007

Box 1 Merrell, James, 1992-2002

Box 1 Said, Edward, 1991-1999

Box 1 Seidel, Frederick and Mae Griswold

Box 1 Vidal, Gore, 1974-1995, 2 folders

Box 1 Weiseltier, Leon, 1987-1999

Topical

Box 1 Offers from Other Universities, 1978-1987

Box 1 Humanities 6 Course at Harvard

Box 1 Harvard Advisory Committee, 1987-1991

Box 1 Lecture Invitations, 1990-1995

Box 1 Letters of Recommendation, 1990-2004

Box 1 Letters Received on the Publication of The Renewal of Literature, , 1987

Box 1 Rutgers Univerity-- Amiri Baraka, 1989-1990

Box 1 Reader's Catalogue, 1987

Box 1 Philip Poirier, 1979

Series II: Writings and Notes, Undated, 1986-1996

The Writings and Notes Series includes research notes and manuscript drafts of many of Poirier's scholarly articles, books, and book reviews as well as some copies of published articles. These files are arranged topically by the subject of a work according to Poirier's own organizational and naming schemes. Therefore, researchers seeking material related to the book The Renewal of Literature, should look under "Emerson, Ralph Waldo" rather than the title of the book.

This series also includes some lecture notes and teaching material, including student essays from a 1986 course Poirier taught at Rutgers. These student papers are restricted until 2056.


Box 2 Unpublished or Uncollected Writings, undated, 1988-1996, 4 folders

Box 2 Aesthetics of Radicalism

Box 2 Balanchine, George

Box 2 Bellow, Saul

Box 2 Eliot, George

Box 2 Eliot, T.S.

Box 2 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 5 folders

Box 2 Frost, Robert, 6 folders

Box 2 James, Henry


Box 3 Joyce, James

Box 3 London Review of Books, 1989

Box 3 Midler, Bette

Box 3 O'Connor, Flannery

Box 3 O'Hara, Frank

Box 3 Pynchon, Thomas, 2 folders

Box 3 Stein, Gertrude

Box 3 Technology and Literary Technique

Box 3 Vidal, Gore

Lecture Notes

Box 3 General

Box 3 Shakespeare

Box 3 Student Papers, 1986

[Restricted until 2056]

Box 3 Reviews of Poirier's Books, 2 folders

Series III: Biographical Material, 1945-1992

The Biographical Material series is comprised of a small amount of biographical material including, notably, some of Poirier's diaries from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Box 3 CV and Resume

Box 3 Diaries, 1973-1982

Box 3 Philip Poirier's Diaries, 1945

Box 3 Modern Language Association Panel on Poirier, 1992

Box 3 Salmagundi Interview with Poirier

Box 3 Raritan Poirier tribute issue, 2010

Series IV: Additions to the Collection

2023:

Correspondence between Garry Watson and Richard Poirier; an open letter by Watson, including copy to Poirier, to Norman Mailor and editors of Dissent responding to David Bromwich; a letter to the TLS criticizing their review of Poirier, and a copy of White Pelican, a small-run journal that includes a review of Poirier's "The Performing Self".


Box 4 Folder 1-6 Correspondence between Poirier and Garry Watson, 1971-1992

Box 4 Folder 7 Richard Poirier to W. Stauffacher, 23 January 1973

Box 4 Folder 8 Garry Watson to The Editor, TLS, 9 February 1972

Box 4 Folder 9 Garry Watson to Norman Mailer, 8 January 1974

Box 4 Folder 10 Garry Watson to David Bromwich, 21 January 1974

Box 4 Folder 11 Garry Watson to The Editors of Dissent, 8 January 1974

Box 4 Folder 12 Garry Watson to Irving Howe, 30 January 1974

Box 4 Folder 13 Garry Watson to David Bromwich, 30 January 1974

Box 4 Folder 14 Irving Howe to Garry Watson, 1 February 1974

Box 4 Folder 15 Garry Watson "An Open Letter to David Bromwich, Norman Mailer and the Editors of Dissent, 8 January 1974

Box 4 Folder 16 David Bromwich "Sex in the Head" (review of Last Tango in Paris in Dissent Vol. XX No 4., fall 1973

Box 4 Folder 17 Garry Watson "The Unbuilding of a Man: Some Notes on Self Expression" (photocopy of essay)