Tom Clark Papers

Collection

Identifier: 1978-0001

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The papers of author Tom Clark contain manuscripts of poetry, fiction, biographies and baseball writing, notebooks and artwork (published and unpublished). Also includes correspondence, research notes and other materials, inteviews and drafts of Clark's Charles Olson: The Allegory of a Poet's Life (New York: Norton, 1991).

Dates

Creation: undated, circa 1965-1990

Access

The collection is open and available for research with the EXCEPTION of box 15 which is restricted.

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from the owner(s) of the copyright.

Biography

Tom Clark is known for his poetry, biographies, plays, reviews, novels, and sports-related materials.

Born in Chicago to parents Arthur Willard and Rita Mary Clark on March 1, 1941, Clark enrolled at John Caroll University from 1959 – 1960, but ultimately obtained his degree from the University of Michigan in 1963. He began writing more poetry while in college where his early influences included Wallace Stevens, Boris Pasternak, Theodore Roethke, and Rainer Maria Rilke. That year, he started as the poetry editor for the renowned Paris Review (which he then held for a decade), thanks to a recommendation from poet and former teacher Donald Hall. Clark received a Fulbright fellowship in 1963, allowing him to earn an M.A. at Cambridge in 1965. He furthered his graduate studies and taught American poetry at the University of Essex from 1965-1967, at which point he also founded and edited his own poetic mimeographed magazine series, Once. Although Clark had no great affinity for many contemporary poets, he became fond of the work of Ezra Pound during his stay in the U.K. While there, he better acquainted himself with Beat poet and fellow hitchhiker Allen Ginsberg while also mingling with poets such as Robert Graves and Gregory Corso.

Clark was recognized for his talent over the years. In addition to the aforementioned Fulbright fellowship, he won prizes from Poetry magazine (1966, 1968), received Rockefeller (1967-1968) and Guggenheim (1970-1971) fellowships, won a Poets Foundation Award (1967), and also obtained funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (1985).

He taught poetics at the New College of California from 1987-2008. Tom Clark died August 17, 2018.

Sources (listed in the order in which they were read):

"Tom Clark." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Mar. 2012. /go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uconn.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1000018417&v =2.1&u=22516&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w>.

"Tom Clark." Contemporary Poets. Gale, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Mar. 2012. /go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uconn.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CK1660000876&v =2.1&u=22516&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w>.

Ring, Kevin. Tom Clark in conversation with Beat Scene editor Kevin Ring. Beat Scene (42): 2002. Print. Accessed online: Jacket Magazine (21): February 2003. Jacketmagazine.com. /jacketmagazine.com/21/clark-iv1.html>.

Extent

38.85 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The papers of author Tom Clark containing manuscripts of poetry, fiction, biographies and baseball writing, notebooks and artwork (published and unpublished). Also includes correspondence, research notes and other materials, inteviews and drafts of Clark's Charles Olson: The Allegory of a Poet's Life (New York: Norton, 1991).

Arrangement

Series I: Inventory (undated, 1965-1989)

Series II: Allegory of a Poet's Life (undated, circa 1987-1990

Acquisition Information

The materials in the collection were purchased from a dealer in 1976 and 1978.

Separated Material

The following materials have been separated from the collection and cataloged:

Hermes to his son Thoth Dodd C1484

Olson Memorial Lectures and Reading: Ed Sanders Dodd

Let me be los: Codebook for Finnegan's Wake Dodd C4675

Verbi-Vovo-Visual Dodd C4865

On the question of Body Tones Dodd