Add MS 88998/2/12

29 communications from William Corbett.

• (1). Boston, Massachusetts, 6 June 1971. Typed aerogramme (1 sheet). Has received Harwood's Landscapes and The Sinking Colony. 'I ran into Ashbery in Harvard Sq. in April. He now has long hair and a Buffalo Bill moustash, and I didn't recognize him for a minute.'
• (2). Boston, Mass., 20 January 1975. Typed letter (1 sheet), with envelope. 'Paul [Evans] and Ingrid are here on the couch [...] and I thank you for sending them along.' On the verso of the letter, a short autograph letter from Evans to Harwood: 'Back in N.Y. tomorrow. See you next week, probably.'
• (3). 21 January 1980. Typed letter (1 sheet). News of friends and publications, including the latest book from Ashbery, As We Know, 'which many people have been tripping over their tongues trying to make sense of in particular an 80 or so page long poem "Litany" in two columns meant to be read simultaneously.'
• (4). 11 January 1983. Autograph postcard (Poetry Comicard #12). 'Fairfield Porter retrospective opens tomorrow and that ought to be the event of this brownish winter.'
• (5). 15 April 1984. Autograph letter (1 pink filing card). Including news of a party for Frank and Elizabeth Prince. Prince has just completed his appointment at Sana'a University, North Yemen ('a decent library, solitude and undemanding teaching') and has asked after Harwood: 'He's eager to hear from you.'
• (6). 12 August 1992. Typed letter (1 sheet). 'We're already listening for your nimble tread and steady hand on our doorbell.' Corbett has just finished his Memoir on Philip Guston and invites Harwood's comments. On the verso of the letter, various comments (autograph, pencil) by Harwood.
• (7). 4 June 1994. Autograph postcard, with obituary for Joe Brainard (photocopy, 1 sheet) and typed poem by Corbett (1 sheet, dated 11 June 1994) written the day after Brainard died.
• (8). Greensboro, Vermont. 15 June 1996. Typed letter (2 sheets), with envelope. Revising his Guston memoir. 'Last Sunday we went to Kenward's [Kenward Elmslie] and walked up to the pasture where Joe's [Joe Brainard] ashes are scattered [...] in which Kenward had a round white quartz boulder placed.'
• (9). Boston, Mass., 8 September 1996. Typed postcard (Duchamp), with envelope.
• (10). Boston, Mass., 19 November 1996. Typed letter (1 sheet), with envelope. News of poets and publications. 'Can you track down the novels of Iain Sinclair. My friend Gerrit Lansing is very interested in him, has made me interested and there's not a drop of the man to drink in these parts. Is he a friend of yours? Did I meet him?' Refers to Seamus Heaney being at Harvard: 'We've had a few good times together including a tour of Concord - he'd never been to Walden before - and I'll miss him. He gave the whole scene a lift.'
• (11). 22 January 1997. Typed letter (1 sheet). Thanks Harwood 'for the Sinclair' and would like to walk around London with him: 'The interviewer doesn't seem to know that "light out for the territory" is from the end of Huckleberry Finn. It is Huck who wants to "light out", to get away from civilization to the wild west, the Dakota Territories, perhaps, which had yet to become states.'
• (12). Boston, Mass., 26 February 1997. Typed letter (2 sheets, with envelope), enclosing postcard invitation to a poetry reading celebrate the publication of Nathan Kernan (ed.), The Diary of James Schuyler. Poets reading include Corbett and Ashbery.
• (13). 10 April 1997. Typed letter (3 sheets). 'I've been reading your beautiful new poems again this morning [....] I know I'll find something in the batch for Grand Street.' Corbett's 'memoir was officially published on April Fool's Day, and the joke has been on it and me since' (few reviews). Refers to the death of Allen Ginsberg.
• (14). 18 June 1997. Autograph postcard.
• (15). New York, 2 October 1997. Autograph letter (1 sheet, Grand Street headed paper), with copy of typed blurb (1 sheet) for Harwood, Morning Light (1998) sent to Slow Dancer Press (publisher).
• (16). Boston, Mass., 21 October 1997. Autograph postcard. 'Turned 55. Next day flew to San Diego in search of my father's ghost. Found out almost more than I wanted to know & wrote it up for a San Diego paper.'
• (17). 30 November 1997. Typed letter (1 sheet), typed on the verso of a flyer promoting 'A Tribute to James Laughlin' (Harvard University). 'I may see fellow blurbster John Ashbery this week for launch. If I do we'll drink to your health.'
• (18). 18 January 1998. Typed letter (1 sheet). Refers to the death of James Laughlin, and to Corbett's projected book on the history of New Directions ('Norton would not do the book and threatened, the cherry on the top, to come after my advance if I did not agree never to publish the over 200 pages I'd written in whole or in part'). Currently working on preparing an edition of James Schuyler's letters.
• (19). 27 January 1998. Autograph postcard.
• (20). Boston, Mass., 2 March 1998 (postmark). Publisher's advertisement (photocopy, 1 sheet) for Corbett, New York Literary Lights (1998). With typed poem, 'Late August Letter to Eddie B--' (5 sheets). With envelope front.
• (21). 5 May 1998. Autograph postcard. 'Lee: Your book shines like the sun!'
• (22). 3 June 1998. Autograph postcard.
• (23). Greensboro, 5 June 1998. Typed letter (3 sheets), with envelope. Includes comments on Ashbery.
• (24). Greensboro, 9 July 1998. Typed letter (2 sheets), with three typed poems (3 sheets). With envelope.
• (25). Greensboro, 3 August 1998. Autograph postcard (a photograph by Ben E. Watkins), with typed poem (2 sheets). With envelope.
• (26). 11 October 1998. Autograph postcard.
• (27). 27 October 1998. Autograph postcard.
• (28). 5 November 1998. Autograph postcard.
• (29). 13 December 1998. Autograph postcard.