Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- The Poetry Collection
- Abstract:
- The Alcheringa Collection spans the entire history of the magazine, including approximately 100 manuscript items representing a broad range of the poetry, articles, and reviews that were published; approximately 200 letters and 46 postcards from internationally known poets, anthropologists and folklorists including Michael Corr, Robert Creeley, Ted Enslin, Jerome Rothenberg, Gary Snyder, Nathaniel Tarn, and Dennis Tedlock; approximately 1,219 items of business records including subscription lists, permissions, budget reports, advertising information, copyrights, requisitions, correspondence with other magazines, and other related documents; and miscellaneous photographs and peripherals.
- Extent:
- 33.5 Linear Feet and (39 clamshell boxes, 1 map case drawer)
- Language:
- Collection material in English.
- Preferred citation:
[Description and dates], Box/folder number, PCMS-002, Alcheringa Collection, 1970-1980, Poetry Collection, State University of New York at Buffalo.
See the Special Collections' preferred citations instructions for additional information.
Background
- Scope and Content:
The records in the Alcheringa Collection span the entire history of the magazine, including approximately 100 manuscript items representing a broad range of the poetry, articles, and reviews that were published; approximately 200 letters and 46 postcards from internationally known poets, anthropologists and folklorists including Michael Corr, Robert Creeley, Ted Enslin, Jerome Rothenberg, Gary Snyder, Nathaniel Tarn, and Dennis Tedlock; approximately 1,219 items of business records including subscription lists, permissions, budget reports, advertising information, copyrights, requisitions, correspondence with other magazines, and other related documents; and miscellaneous photographs and peripherals.
- Biographical / Historical:
Presented as "A First Magazine of the World's Tribal Poetries," Alcheringa, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Dennis Tedlock, was an important publication dedicated to the study of ethnopoetics. Focusing on the intersections of poetry, poetics, anthropology, performance, translation, and issues of orality, the magazine included both innovative English translations of ancient and modern "oral/tribal" poetry from across the globe as well as contemporary experimental writing of an orally performative nature. As the masthead of later issues defines it, the word Alcheringa "comes from the Arunta of Australia" and "refers to dreams, to the mythic past, and to moments when a new song makes itself heard through a singer." Contributing editors included David Antin, Robert Kelly, Simon Ortiz, Gary Snyder, and Nathaniel Tarn. Issues 1 though 5 were published from Fall 1970 to Spring-Summer 1973, followed by a New Series of 8 issues published by Boston University from 1975 to 1980 and titled Alcheringa: Ethnopoetics. Several issues have as inserts discs of recordings ranging from a Zuni performance by Andrew Peynatsa to a poetry reading by Anne Waldman. New Series Volume 2, Number 2 is a special issue edited by Michel Benamou and Jerome Rothenberg featuring papers from Ethnopoetics: A First International Symposium.
- Acquisition information:
- Donated to the Poetry Collection by Dennis Tedlock, SUNY Distinguished Professor and James H. McNulty Chair of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in December 1989.
- Processing information:
Collection processed by Poetry Collection staff.
- Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in five series: I. Manuscripts (15 boxes alphabetized), II. Business records (9 boxes semi-sorted by issue), III. Letters (15 boxes alphabetized), IV. Photographs (2 boxes unsorted), and V. Peripherals (1 box unsorted).
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using local best practices.
Indexed Terms
- Subjects:
- Poetry -- Publishing
American poetry -- 20th century
Poets, American--20th century
Poets, American -- 20th century -- Interviews
Poetics
Publishers and Publishing -- Correspondence
Poetry -- Translating
Beat generation
Periodicals -- Folk poetry - Names:
- The Poetry Collection
State University of New York at Buffalo. Archival resources
Access
- RESTRICTIONS:
-
The Alcheringa Collection, 1970-1980, is open for research.
- TERMS OF ACCESS:
-
Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Poetry Collection before requesting photocopies and/or publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Once permission is obtained, most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.
- PREFERRED CITATION:
-
[Description and dates], Box/folder number, PCMS-002, Alcheringa Collection, 1970-1980, Poetry Collection, State University of New York at Buffalo.
See the Special Collections' preferred citations instructions for additional information.
- LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
- CONTACT:
-
716-645-2917lpo-poetry@buffalo.edu