Scope and Contents
The collection consists of material created and accumulated by Clayton Eshleman in the course of his activities as a poet, author, translator, and editor, and primarily documents Eshleman's literary career from circa 1992 to 2008 and the publication of Sulfur magazine from circa 1990 to 2000. Material includes notes, drafts, and manuscripts for Eshleman's works of poetry and prose (published after 1994) and for works translated by Eshleman; proofs for issues 28-45/46 of Sulfur, as well as correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, and other production material; correspondence with family, authors, poets, and colleagues, including Eshleman's wife, Caryl Eshleman, and Herbert Lust; notebooks; computer media; and other papers.
Dates
- 1920 - 2018
- Majority of material found within circa 1990-2015
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Boxes 50, 85, 87 (born digital): Restricted fragile materials. Access copies of digital files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 86 (audiovisual materials): Restricted fragile. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Clayton Eshleman Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Ken Lopez Bookseller on various funds, 2005, 2009, 2015, 2018, and 2019. For further information consult the appropriate curator.
Arrangement
Organized into five groupings: December 2005 Acquisition, June 2009 Acquisition, July 2015 Acquisition, December 2018 Acquisition, and December 2019 Acquisition.
Material within this collection has been organized by acquisition reflecting the fact that the collection has been acquired in increments over time.
Researchers should note that material within each acquisition overlaps with and/or relates to material found in other acquisitions. For instance, correspondence and writings can be found in both groupings. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each acquisition described in the Collection Contents section.
Researchers should also note that similar material can be arranged differently in each acquisition, depending on how the material was organized when it was received by the library.
Extent
91.21 Linear Feet (101 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection consists of material created and accumulated by Clayton Eshleman in the course of his activities as a poet, author, translator, and editor, and primarily documents Eshleman's literary career from circa 1992 to 2008 and the publication of Sulfur magazine from circa 1990 to 2000. Material includes notes, drafts, and manuscripts for Eshleman's works of poetry and prose (published after 1994) and for works translated by Eshleman; proofs for issues 28-45/46 of Sulfur, as well as correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, and other production material; correspondence with family, authors, poets, and colleagues; notebooks; computer media; and other papers.
Clayton Eshleman
Clayton Eshleman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1935. He earned a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in creative writing, both from Indiana University. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry and prose, including Under World Arrest (1994), Companion Spider (2002), An Alchemist with One Eye on the Fire (2006), andReciprocal Distillations (2007), and has translated the work of César Vallejo and Aimé Césaire, among others. He founded and edited the literary magazines Caterpillar (1967-1973) and Sulfur (1981-2000).
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, and competing priorities. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization, upon acquisition. Further organization and description was carried out in 2011. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below and titled according to month and year of acquisition.
Descriptive information found in the Collection Contents section is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This collection includes material formerly classed as Uncat MSS 836 and Uncat MSS 1193.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American literature -- 21st century
- American literature -- 21st century
- American poetry -- 20th Century
- American poetry -- 21st century
- Born digital
- Electronic documents
- Eshleman, Caryl
- Eshleman, Clayton
- Lust, Herbert C., 1926-
- Poetry -- Translations into English
- Poets
- Poets, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Poets, American -- 21st century -- Archives
- Sulfur (Pasadena, Calif.)
- Translators
- Title
- Guide to the Clayton Eshleman Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Jennifer Meehan, Annalise Hennessey
- Date
- 2007-05-16. Revised: January 2023
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.