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Phoenix collection

 Collection
Identifier: PCMS-0017

Scope and Content Note

The Phoenix collection consists of approximately 5,000 pages of letters and manuscripts underscoring the magazine's literary and political principles. The archive contains significant correspondence from Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Robert Duncan, Michael Fraenkel, Frieda Lawrence, and Derek Savage; material by James Peter Cooney; the working papers, manuscripts, and business records from the life of the magazine; and photographs of Nin, Duncan, Hervey White, and others.

Dates

  • 1938-1984

Language of Materials

Collection material in English.

Terms of Access

The Phoenix collection, 1938-1984 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

Edited by James Peter Cooney (? – 1985), The Phoenix was a pacifist literary magazine founded on the ideas of D. H. Lawrence. Volumes 1 and 2 were published by the Maverick Press in Woodstock, New York from 1938 to 1940. The quarterly began when Cooney and his wife Blanche were living at the Maverick Art Colony, a community of artists founded by Hervey White in the early 1900s. Contributors included White, Henry Miller (who served briefly as European editor), Oscar Williams, Michael Fraenkel, Anaïs Nin, William Everson, Derek Savage, Robert Duncan, Thomas McGrath, and Kay Boyle. After a long hiatus, the magazine resumed publication in 1970 as a dissident response to the Vietnam war, issuing 7 more volumes "as a medium of communion for those who keep faith in mankind and Creation" at the Morning Star Press in Haydenville, MA through 1984. In 1993 Blanche Cooney published In My Own Sweet Time: An Autobiography.

Extent

78 Linear Feet (102 boxes)

Abstract

The Phoenix collection consists of approximately 5,000 pages of letters and manuscripts underscoring the magazine's literary and political principles. The archive contains significant correspondence from Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Robert Duncan, Michael Fraenkel, Frieda Lawrence, and Derek Savage; material by James Peter Cooney; and photographs.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in five series.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Blanche Cooney..

Accruals and Additions

No further accruals are expected to this collection.

Related Resources

Phoenix, Poetry Periodical Collection

Processing Information

Collection processed by Poetry Collection staff.

Source

Title
Finding aid for the Phoenix collection PCMS-0017
Author
Finding aid prepared by James Maynard and revised by Marie Elia.
Date
2008
Description rules
Finding Aid Prepared According To Dacs
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

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)