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Bunting Pickard collection

 Collection
Identifier: PCMS-0018

Scope and Content Note

The Bunting Pickard collection contains approximately 1,000 volumes from Basil Bunting's personal library, many signed, inscribed, and/or with notes; the notebook manuscript of Briggflatts; 64 letters from Bunting to Tom Pickard; manuscripts and typescripts of works by Pickard; Pickard's letters to Bunting from 1976 onward; letters to Pickard from Robert Bly, Robert Creeley, Ed Dorn, Robert Duncan, Eric Mottram, and many others; materials relating to the Morden Tower reading series; cassette recordings of Bunting; and miscellaneous photographs.

Dates

  • 1929-1985
  • 1929-1985

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English.

Terms of Access

The Bunting Pickard collection, 1929-1985, 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

Born in Northumberland, England, Basil Bunting (1900-1985) was a modernist poet writing in the tradition of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky. Imprisoned for refusing the draft in World War I, Bunting later left England in 1923, living for periods of time in Paris, Rapallo (near Pound), the United States, and Iran, where he worked for British Intelligence. Although Bunting appeared in Zukofsky's An "Objectivists" Anthology (1932) and Pound's Active Anthology (1933), he published little during the 1950s and experienced decades of relative obscurity before the publication in 1966 of Briggflatts, a long autobiographical poem written in a Northumbrian dialect. A fellow Northumbrian, Tom Pickard (1946 – ) is a poet, novelist, radio and documentary filmmaker. From 1964 to 1972 he ran the Morden Tower Book Room, organizing readings by British and American poets including Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, and Ed Dorn. In 1963 Pickard met Bunting and was instrumental in re-energizing the older poet's career.

Extent

11.25 Linear Feet (45 boxes)

11.25 Linear Feet (45 boxes)

Abstract

The Bunting Pickard collection contains approximately 1,000 volumes from Basil Bunting's personal library, many signed, inscribed, and/or with notes; the notebook manuscript of Briggflatts; 64 letters from Bunting to Tom Pickard; manuscripts and typescripts of works by Pickard; correspondence; materials relating to the Morden Tower reading series; cassette recordings of Bunting; and miscellaneous photographs.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in four series.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Tom Pickard and paid in three installments, 1986-1988.

Since the original acquisition of the archive from Tom Pickard, other smaller collections of Bunting letters have been purchased.

Accruals and Additions

No further accruals are expected to this collection.

Processing Information

Collection processed by Poetry Collection staff.

Source

Title
Finding aid for the Bunting Pickard collection
Author
Finding aid prepared by James Maynard and revised by Marie Elia.
Date
2010
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

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