Archival & Manuscript Collections

Overview Helen Adam (1909-1993) was a poet and visual artist of the San Francisco Renaissance. Born in Scotland, she garnered acclaim at a young age for her collection of poems titled The Elfin Peddlar. After attending Edinburgh University for two years Helen and her sister and frequent collaborator Pat Adam worked as journalists in London before moving to the United States with their mother in 1939. The family made their way to San Francisco, at the beginning of what...

Overview

The Robert Duncan collection comprises over 100 linear feet of manuscript material, correspondence, artwork, ephemera, audio visual material, and printed material related to Robert Duncan’s (1919-1988) life and work, including a significant amount of material related to his partner, Jess (1923-2004), a visual artist who often collaborated with Duncan.

Overview Poet, essayist, editor, translator, and teacher Denise Levertov was an important voice in the American avant-garde and was particularly involved in anti-war and anti-nuclear activism, co-initiating Writers and Artists Protest against the War in Vietnam. She served as poetry editor of the Nation (1961-1962) and Mother Jones (1976-1978) and taught at a number of universities, including City College (CUNY); University of California, Berkeley; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Tufts...