Abstract

Literary papers and artwork of Gerald Burns (b. 1940), "postmodern" poet, critic, artist, and editor. Included are typescripts of Burns' untitled poetry collection; galleys for Burns' critical books TOWARD A PHENOMENOLOGY OF WRITTEN ART (1979) and PROSE (1982); page proofs of Robert Trammell's EPICS, for which Burns set the type; and "Southwest Review" reprints of three of Burns' critical essays. Also included are Burns' travel journal, "Paintings Statues Books"; a book of diaristic commentary, "My Leatherette Reminder"; miscellaneous sketches; correspondence with Leland Hickman (poet and editor of "Boxcar"); and a review of Burns' A BOOK OF SPELLS. The collection is arranged into two series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE and 2) WRITINGS.

Biography

Gerald Burns was born in 1940 in Detroit, Michigan. He was educated at Harvard, Trinity College (Dublin), and taught at Southern Methodist University and New York University. In 1975 Burns moved to Dallas. In 1985, he was awarded an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship for poetry. In addition to practicing as an amateur conjurer in his spare time, Burns is an artist. He has illustrated several of his own books as well as designed many of their covers (most notably, BOCCHERINI'S MINUET and PROSE).

Burns' books include: LAUGHTER IN THE GALLERY (1966), a book of light verse and the nucleus of the unpublished SONNETS FROM THE MIDDLE ENGLISH; BOCCHERINI'S MINUET (1972); THE MYTH OF ACCIDENCE (ca. 1973); A BOOK OF SPELLS (1975); LETTERS TO OBSCURE MEN (1979); TOWARD A PHENOMENOLOGY OF WRITTEN ART (1979); PROSE (1982); A THING ABOUT LANGUAGE (1989); and SHORTER POEMS (1993), which was the winner of the 1992 National Series Poetry Competition. In addition to his poetry and prose volumes, Burns has also published widely in magazines such as: "The Southwest Review", "L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E", "American Poetry Review", "Another Chicago Magazine", "Exquisite Corpse", "Fine Madness", "Temblor", "Sagetrieb", "Dallas Arts Review", and "Harvard Magazine".

Burns is considered a leading practitioner of long-lined, thickly-textured verse. His wide reading and close observation of a panoramic range of subjects allows his poetry to bridge formal and expressive gaps between the 19th- century Romantics, early 20th-century Modernism, and later 20th-century language-oriented writing.

Scope and Content

Accession Processed in 1995

The Gerald Burns Manuscripts and Other Documents contain typescripts and photocopies of poet, artist, and critic Gerald Burn's work. Also included are travel and journal writings, a review of Burns' A BOOK OF SPELLS, and correspondence with poet and editor of BOXCAR magazine, Leland Hickman. The collection is organized into two series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, and 2) WRITINGS.

SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE

This series contains a letter from Scott Bowdan to Leland Hickman along with Bowdan's submission to "Boxcar", "Quest/Questions". Also included are two letters from Burns to Hickman.

SERIES 2: WRITINGS

This series is divided into four subseries: 2A) Poetry, 2B) Prose/Literary Essays, 2C) Art, Travel Writing, Journals, and 2D) Reviews of Gerald Burns. Subseries 2A contains an untitled collection of Burns' poetry in two successive drafts, and a galley copy of Robert Trammell's EPICS for which Burns did the typesetting "as a Christmas present to Bob".

Subseries 2B contains much of Burns' critical and theoretical prose: two page proofs for Burns' PROSE as well as a galley version of his TOWARD A PHENOMENOLOGY OF WRITTEN ART, and three reprints from "The Southwest Review" of various literary articles.

Subseries 2C includes Burns' art work and diaristic writing. His long travel narrative, "Painting Statues Books" contains the author's sketches of relevant "objets d'art" following the text. Also included is one full-sized sketch of Ezra Pound's head from the travel sketches. Finally, Burns' "My Leatherette Reminder", something of a critical/scholarly diary, is included.

Subseries 2D consists of a review of Burns' A BOOK OF SPELLS by Julie Siegel as it appeared in "The Southwest Review".

CORRESPONDENCE

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11 Bowdan, Scott, letter to Leland Hickman/submission to "Boxcar", 1982. Letter from Scott Bowdan (a Los Angeles based poet) to Leland Hickman, dated December 10. Contains Bowdan's submission, "Quest/Question" to "Boxcar". Typescript with author's editions.
12 Burns, Gerald, two letters to Leland Hickman, 1982 - 1985. First letter dated December 7, 1982, second letter dated June 2, 1985. First letter: holograph, contains photograph also used for initial cover of PROSE. Second letter: typescript.

WRITINGS

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13 Trammel, Robert, EPICS, galleys, 1982. Introductory note and type setting by Burns. A Salt Lick Press Lucky Heart Book.
14 Untitled collection of Burns' poems, 1984 - 1985. Typescript. Two drafts exist for most of the poems. Included are "Homer and Image", "Thought and Extension", "Emerged for Immersed", "Fame in Retrospect", "Written Under German", "Imagining a World", "Concocting the Other", "Named After Days", "Orthodox in Appearance", "Waiting as Dispersion", "Good as Questionable", "Even Chisels Gold", and others.

Prose/Literary Essays

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15 Duration is Destination--Verse in the Eighties, 1980. Reprint from Spring 1980 "Southwest Review". Essay/review of SELECTED POEMS by Donald Justice, THE VENETIAN NESPERS by Anthony Hecht, and GREENWICH MEAN TIME by Adrien Stoutenburg.
16 Magnificence of His Rebuttles, 1979. Reprint from Autumn 1979 "Southwest Review". Essay/review of THE AMERICAN QUEST FOR A SUPREME FICTION: WHITMAN'S LEGACY IN THE PERSONAL EPIC by James Miller, Jr., and JOHN ASHBERY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE POETRY by David Shapiro.
17 PROSE galleys #1, 1981. Earlier version of PROSE. Cover photograph by Burns. Essays included are: "Homage Fromage", "Nations in Public" (a meditation on how to characterize a subject without obliterating it), "Intellectual Slither in the CANTOS", "Conversations with Dahlberg", "How Olson Does Impress", "Best Signed TC" (with sketched reproduced actual size of Tim Coursey's small sculpture), and "A Thing About Language for Bernstein." In this manuscript, Burns continues speculations from TOWARD A PHENOMENOLOGY OF WRITTEN ART on words in art contexts.
18 PROSE galleys #2, 1982. Later version. Frontispiece: painting by Burns of Billy Barton's Cloud Swing Finale.
19 Straddling the Brink, 1978. Reprint from Autumn 1978 "Southwest Review" with author's handwritten notes. Essay/article on WORDS FOR DR. Y. by Anne Sexton, HEARTS OF THE TATTOOED by Jim Hubert, and REFREACTION by Paul Shuttleworth.
110 TOWARD A PHENOMENOLOGY OF WRITTEN ART, 1979. Paste-ups. Treacle Press. The two essays which comprise the book--"The Slate Notebook" and "A Hermetic Journal"--are concerned with the ideas and problems Burns encountered while simultaneously working on long poems: how it matters that written art is written, the relation of medium to creativity, why writing something down makes it more real, how verse might engage the question of magic more directly, and what magic as an activity is.

Art, Travel Writings, Journals

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111 My Leatherette Reminder, 1982. Vinyl-bound typescript journal commenting on all from recent readings to philosophical speculation to dinner menus. At the back of the volume are reprinted lines 573 through 848 of A BOOK OF SPELLS, probably to be read aloud.
112 Paintings Statues Books, a travel journal with sketches, 1985. Typescript with photocopies of drawings. Drawings refer to "objets d'art" referred to in the text.
113 Gaudier Brzeska--Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound, 1985. Full size photocopy of drawing contained in Paintings Sculpture Books.

Reviews of Gerald Burns

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114 Tangible Magic From A Poet Who Cares, 1980. Article by Julie Siegel from Summer 1980 "Southwest Review", appears to have been torn from magazine. Review of Burn's A BOOK OF SPELLS (first third).



Finding aid generated: 2005-10-28