Manuscripts
Department of Special Collections
Washington University Libraries
Washington University in St. Louis

Finding-Aid for the Michael McClure Collection (WTU00265)

Finding aid prepared by:
Special Collections Staff

Summary Information

Title: Michael McClure Collection
Creator: McClure , Michael , 1932- , American author.
Extent: 14 items
Call number: WTU00265
Call number: [Accession: 1247]
Language: English

Access and Use:

Source:

Gift, 1971

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open to research.

Processing Information:

Processed: January, 1971, by HH

Biography

For information on McClure's published works, see `A catalog of works by Michael McClure, 1956-1965', compiled by Marshall Clements (Phoenix Book Shop, 1965). McClure wrote of himself in 1967: "I was born in the wheat and oil state of Kansas on October 20th, the same day as Rimbaud, in 1932. I grew up in Seattle on black beaches of the Pacific Ocean and returned to Wichita Kansas and blossomed in a Kansas college in an aura of jazz, William Blake, Swedenborg, and the Visionary Surrealists. I made trips to New York and spent a year in Arizona. I am an atheist who believes in Jesus and the Greek poet of joy, Anacreon. I am fascinated by Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow. In the nine years I've lived in San Francisco I've made a trip to the Orient (as marchant seaman), flights to New York, reading tours through the U.S., and two trips to Mexico (once to the mountains of Oaxaco to take films of the sacred mushroom). My poems and prose have appeared in The Nation, Evergreen Review, Yugen, Poetry, Big Table, City Lights Journal and Kulchur. I have an unpublished novel of a boy's 17th year titled The Mad Cub. My eyes are intense dark brown and sometimes insane. I believe in LIBERTY, BEAUTY, FREEDOM, AND THE CREATION OF MY SOUL AND HELPING OTHERS IN THE CREATION OF THEIRS through poetry." (Cover, Ghost Tantras, 1967). See Miscellany Collection folder for further information.

Allen Ginsberg: "McClure's poetry is a blob of protoplasmic energy." (Big Table)

Collection Scope and Content Note

Scope and Contents Note

Letters, Michael McClure to Henry Wenning, American book dealer and publisher, 1961-1965, ALsS, TLsS [12 items] Written from San Francisco, Tucson. Henry Wenning to Michael McClure, 1964, 1 ts.[carbon] Unsigned letter. Marshall Clements, American book dealer, to Henry Wenning, Sept. 10, n.y. 1 ALS.

Contents List

		Title
box-folder   5/McClure		1961: Dec. 9. Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 5 pp.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1961] Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 2 pp.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1962: Jan. 8] Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ACS)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1962: Sept. 13] Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 1 p.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1962: Nov. 14] San Francisco. Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. Thanks him for broadside received. (A.postalcardS.)
box-folder   5/McClure		1962: Nov. 27. Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (TLS, 2 pp.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		1963: Aug. 16. Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (TLS, 1 p.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1963] Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 1 p.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1963: Aug. 26] Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 1 p.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		1964: May 29. Michael McClure to Henry Wenning (ALS, 1 p.)    Scope: San Francisco.
box-folder   5/McClure		1964: June 2. Henry Wenning to Michael McClure (Ts. [carbon] Unsigned.)    Scope: New Haven.
box-folder   5/McClure		[1965] San Francisco. Michael McClure to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 1 p.)    Scope: Mentions Poisoned Wheat [collection of poems], The beard [play] a copy of which he hopes Wenning will forward to Beckett. Pleads ignorance of ways of directors and producers. Remarks that Ginsberg elected King of the May at Prague Youth Festival.
box-folder   5/McClure		1965: Aug. 4. (ALS, 2 pp.)    Scope: Tucson.
box-folder   5/McClure		[n.y.] Sept. 10. Marshall Clements, American Book dealer, to Henry Wenning. (ALS, 1 p.)    Scope: New York.