The Robert Duncan collection comprises over 100 linear feet of manuscript material, correspondence, artwork, ephemera, audio visual material, and printed material related to Robert Duncan’s (1919-1988) life and work, including a significant amount of material related to his partner, Jess (1923-2004), a visual artist who often collaborated with Duncan. The majority of this collection came from Duncan and Jess’s home shortly before and after Duncan’s death and reflects a shared life created to support their literary, artistic, and spiritual pursuits. This manuscript collection is complemented by Duncan and Jess’s shared personal library of approximately 9,000 volumes, also housed in the Poetry Collection, the arrangement preserved to reflect that of its original organization within their house.

Consisting of numerous acquisitions over three decades, the Robert Duncan collection contains over 17 linear feet of Duncan’s manuscript material, with over 75 notebooks. The Correspondence series forms the largest part of the collection, at 23 linear feet in 55 boxes. Nearly equal in size is the series on Manuscripts by others which includes work by Helen Adam, Robin Blaser, Larry Eigner, Madeline Gleason, Jerome Rothenberg, Jack Spicer, and many others. The Professional Work series documents Duncan’s work as a writer, teacher, and speaker: Included are correspondence, contracts, and other information related to the publication of his work as well as speaking engagements and teaching positions. Personal records and photographs provide an intimate look into Duncan’s life, which he detailed thoroughly, from his genealogy to his partnership with Jess—legal and financial documents that represented a relationship that was a marriage in every way except recognized by law.

This collection tells the story not only of Duncan’s life and work, but of the world he created, radiating out from his and Jess’s household in the Mission District: It represents the circle around them and their closest friends and collaborators. Beyond Duncan’s role in the world of poetry, this collection reflects his influence as an out gay man at a time when it was deeply unsafe and often unacceptable even to fellow artists. Duncan was not closeted or even coy: He declared his sexuality to the military when drafted in 1941, resulting in a dishonorable discharge, and his 1944 essay “The Homosexual in Society” predates any organized gay rights movement in the United States.

This collection also tells the story of 30 years of the Poetry Collection: In addition to Robert Duncan materials, former curator Robert Bertholf sought and acquired items and collections that supplemented and expanded upon Duncan’s circle, including extensive collections on Helen Adam and Paul Mariah, the Jargon Society Collection, and smaller collections of personal papers. The Poetry Collection also holds Lisa Jarnot’s papers, which include her research in writing the biography, Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus. This collecting history makes it possible to read both sides of correspondence between a number of writers, to follow the careers of writers publishing in small and independent presses, and to envision the complex and organic network of writers and artists creating work outside the mainstream—creating their own avenues of publication, performance, and education—and maintaining personal relationships that supported their work.