Kayak collection
Scope and Content Note
The Kayak collection contains manuscript submissions and correspondence sent to George Hitchcock during the life of the magazine (1964-1984).
Dates
- 1964-1984
Language of Materials
Collection material in English.
Terms of Access
The Kayak collection, 1964-1984, is open for research.
Copyright
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.
Historical Note
A teacher, publisher, poet, actor, novelist, and playwright as well as an editor, George Hitchcock produced 64 issues of Kayak in San Francisco and then Santa Cruz, California. Describing itself as being "particularly hospitable to surrealist, imagist and political poems; prose poems and vehement articles on modern poetry," the magazine featured over its twenty-year span a fairly consistent group of writers including Robert Bly, Philip Levine, W. S. Merwin, Charles Simic, David Ignatow, Hayden Carruth, and Wendell Berry, as well as figures like David Antin, Kathleen Fraser, Paul Blackburn, Gary Snyder, and Anselm Hollo who are usually associated with other literary communities. Kayak also published occasional English translations of influential writers such as François Villon, Rafael Alberti, Paul Eluard, and Georg Trakl. Distinguishing the magazine visually are its covers and numerous illustrations featuring eclectic nineteenth-century drawings and engravings as well as contemporary collages. In 1968 Kayak was awarded $10,000 by the National Council on the Arts for its contributions "made in advancing the cause of the unknown, obscure or difficult writer, and in the publication of books visually and typographically distinctive."
Extent
43 Linear Feet (172 boxes)
Abstract
The Kayak collection contains manuscript submissions and correspondence sent to George Hitchcock during the life of the magazine (1964-1984).
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in three series.
Acquisition Information
Purchased by issue from George Hitchcock over the life of the magazine.
Accruals and Additions
No further accruals are expected to this collection.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Poetry Collection staff.
Source
- The Poetry Collection (Repository, Organization)
- Title
- Finding aid for the Kayak collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by James Maynard and revised by Marie Elia.
- Date
- 2008
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Local Best Practices
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the The Poetry Collection Repository
420 Capen Hall
Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
716-645-2917
716-645-3714 (Fax)
lpo-poetry@buffalo.edu