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Anthony Ostroff collection

 Collection
Identifier: PCMS-0009

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The Anthony Ostroff collection contains all of the poet's published and unpublished poems, plays, short stories and articles in manuscript and published form, with thousands of corrections in the poet's hand; the complete records for The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

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.

Source

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

Contact:
420 Capen Hall
Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
716-645-2917
716-645-3714 (Fax)