GREGORY CORSO
LETTERS AND POEMS
1958 – 1963
Manuscript Collection Number 99 F748
Accessioned: Purchase, August 2005
Extent: 19 items
Content: letters, postcard, and poems
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processed: October 2005 by Karalee Kopreski
Biographical Note
Born in New York City, American poet Gregory Corso (1930-2001), spent his early years in and out of prison. During his five year sentence for robbery at Dannemora prison in upstate New York, he learned to read and developed a passion for Percy Bysshe Shelley and Homer. When he was released from prison in 1950, he moved to Greenwich Village and developed close frienships with Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. In 1954, Corso moved to Cambridge, Massachusettes, and became a fixture of the literary underground. A group of Harvard students and intellectuals were so impressed with his poetry that they paid for the publication of his first collection, The Vestal Lady on Brattle. Corso’s literary reputation was established in 1960 when he was included in the Grove Press Anthology The New American Poetry 1945-1960. By 1963, however, Corso’s career was beginning to falter because of his addiction to heroin and alcohol. Although he published two more collections of poetry (Elegiac Feelings American in 1970 and Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit in 1981), his career never regained the momentum of his great period in the 1950s.
Corso’s personal life was never as successful as his literary career. He abandoned and eventually divorced four wives and several children. From 1992 until his death, Corso was supported financially by a wealthy Japanese artist, Hiro Yamagata. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999, Corso died in 2001 and his ashes were buried next to the grave of Percy Bysshe Shelley in Rome.
Source:
American National Biography. 24 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Scope and Content Note
Gregory Corso Letters and Poems contains nineteen items spanning the dates 1958-1964 (with one poetry manuscript possibly signed in the 1970s). The collection includes a group of letters from Corso to Ted Wilentz between 1962-1964, a 1962 postcard sent to Anselm Hollo, and a 1962 letter to the bookseller U. Grant Roman. Also included is a typescript letter and contract for Corso from Donald Allen regarding Corso’s inclusion in his anthology of modern American poetry from 1948 to1958-59. The collection also contains a typescript, signed copies of “Hedgeville,” “For Ignorance,” and an untitled poem about Lawrence Ferlinghetti with handwritten additions and corrections. Five short untitled poems are also included, as well as a small notebook with the beginnings of a poem entitled “A Gift.”
Folder -- Contents
F748 I. Letters (10 items)
“As you know, I am compiling … ”
Typescript letter and contract from Donald M. Allen, New York, for Corso’s inclusion in his Anthology of Modern American Poetry (1948 to 1958-59), signed and dated by Corso October 6, 1958. 2 pp.
“Dear Otto”
Typescript letter signed, Gregory Corso to Otto, 27 Apr [1959]. 2 pp.
With holograph postscript by Irving Rosenthal, “editor of Big Table.” Corso advises 17-year old Otto to “stick Mulenberg [sic] out” and spend the time reading; Rosenthal counters Corso and advises the youth to leave.
“Dear Anselm- I am in Paris … ”
Postcard signed, Gregory Corso, Paris, to Anselm Hollo, London, 25 Aug 1962.
“Dear Sir- I would like the fare home … ”
Autograph letter signed, Gregory Corso, Paris, to U. Grant Roman, Roman Books, Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 14 Oct 1962. 2pp. w env.
Letter to the bookseller requesting fare home to the States in exchange for sale of his manuscripts; verso of the letter includes Corso’s recollection of “these two poems”: “On Mozart’s Unmarked Grave” and “Sea Chanty.”
Letters to Theodore (Ted) Wilentz, 1962-1964 (6 items)
Typed letter signed, Corso, Paris, to Wilentz, New York, 26 Nov 1962. 1 p. w env.
Autograph letter signed, Corso, Paris, to Wilentz, New York, 12 Dec 1962. 2 pp. w env.
Autograph letter signed, Corso, London, to Wilentz, New York, 5 Jan 1963. 1 p. w env.
Written while recovering at Cromwell Nursing Home.
Postcard signed, Corso, Capoke Falls, New York, to Wilentz, New York, 20 Jun 1963.
Typed letter signed, Corso, New York, to Wilentz, New York, 8 Jan 1964. 1 p. w env.
Birth announcement, Mrs. Sally Corso, New York, to Wilentz, New York, 13 Mar 1964. Printed announcement w env.
Announcing the birth of Miranda November Corso.
F748 II. Poems (9 items)
“For Ignorance”
Typescript (copy) with autograph notes, signed “G.C.,” [1975?]. 1 p.
Note in corner reads “from G.C. 8/20/75”
“Hedgeville”
Typescript manuscript signed, undated. 1 p.
From Elegiac Feelings American, the early version of his “Last Night I Drove a Car” from Gasoline. First appeared in “Combustion” in 1956. Probably from the broken-up typescript of Elegiac.
“The Sons of Italy / like Ferlingetti ... ”
Typescript and holograph draft of poem, undated. 1 p.
“When that which is not / results in a dot … ”
Holograph draft of poem, undated. 1 p.
“Before me where I’m sitting … ”
Typescript manuscript poem, undated. 1 p.
“Seated in a Georgetown house … ”
Holograph manuscript of poem, undated. 1 p.
“The poet in man … ”
Holograph draft of poem, undated. 1 p.
“The poet in man … ”
Typescript poem with holograph corrections, undated. 1 p.
Bears stamp “New Directions / 333 Sixth Ave. / New York 14, N.Y.”
Small notebook with short holograph drafts: “A Gift,” “You don’t know my life …. ,” and “Poetry like psychiatry …” [fragment]