Anthony Ostroff collection
Scope and Content Note
The Anthony Ostroff collection contains all of the poet's published and unpublished poems, plays, short stories and articles in manuscript and published form, with thousands of corrections in the poet's hand; the complete records for The Contemporary Poet as Artist and Critic (1964), including all manuscripts (many with corrections), contracts, and lengthy correspondence with such poets as Richard Eberhart, Theodore Roethke, W. H. Auden, John Crowe Ransom, Marianne Moore, John Berryman, Richard Wilbur, Robert Lowell, and Muriel Rukeyser; miscellaneous personal correspondence with poets including Elizabeth Bishop, Babette Deutsch, Stanley Kunitz, and Dylan Thomas; tape recordings prepared by Ostroff, including the series he directed for the national Association of Educational Broadcasting; Ostroff's photographs of other poets; and miscellaneous peripheral items.
Dates
- 1955-1978
Creator
- Ostroff, Anthony (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection material in English.
Terms of Access
The Anthony Ostroff collection, 1955-1978, 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
Anthony Ostroff (1923-1978) was born in Gary, Indiana and educated at Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, the Sorbonne, and the University of Grenoble. Beginning in 1949 he taught for twenty years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he gained a reputation for speaking out against the Vietnam war. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at Vassar, and during the summer of 1958 taught two courses on modern poetry at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Ostroff published poetry and short fiction in such magazines as Harper's, The Paris Review, Atlantic Monthly, Kenyon Review, and Poetry, and received a grant by the National Association of Educational Broadcasting to produce a series of broadcasts on American Poetry. He edited The Contemporary Poet as Artist and Critic (1964), a collection of eight symposia in which poets comment critically on the work of other poets. In 1969 he became dean of faculty and vice president at Lewis and Clark College. Ostroff died in 1978 from a heart attack suffered after hang-gliding on the coast of Oregon. His published books of poetry and fiction include Imperatives (1962), A Fall in Mexico (1977), Islander (2000), and To Build a House (2003).
Extent
19.75 Linear Feet (79 boxes)
Abstract
The Anthony Ostroff collection contains all of the poet's published and unpublished poems, plays, short stories and articles in manuscript and published form, with thousands of corrections in the poet's hand; the complete records for The Contemporary Poet as Artist and Critic (1964), including all manuscripts (many with corrections), contracts, and correspondence; tape recordings prepared by Ostroff, including the series he directed for the national Association of Educational Broadcasting; Ostroff's photographs of other poets; and miscellaneous peripheral items.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in six series.
Acquisition Information
Donated to the Poetry Collection by Miriam Ostroff in 1980.
Accruals and Additions
No further accruals are expected to this collection.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Poetry Collection staff.
- Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973
- Berryman, John, 1914-1972
- Eberhart, Richard
- Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972
- Poets, American--20th century--Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Ransom, John Crowe
- Wilbur, Richard
Source
- The Poetry Collection (Repository, Organization)
- Title
- Finding aid for Anthony Ostroff collection
- Status
- In Progress
- 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
- Finding aid written in 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