Robert Sward, 1933-. American author
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Finding-Aid for the Robert Sward Papers [00110]Collection Description
Papers, 1951-197113,000 items
Access: Open
Robert Sward emerged as a promising young American poet in the late 1950’s. A Chicago native, Sward was educated at the University of Illinois (BA, 1956), Middlebury College, and the University of Iowa (MA, 1958). After graduating from the Iowa Writers’ Program, Sward spent a year in England on a Fulbright Fellowship and upon his return joined the English Department at Cornell University. While he was at Cornell, Sward’s colleagues included the poet, A. R. Ammons, who helped promote Sward’s poetry. It was Cornell University Press, in fact, that brought Sward’s work to the attention of the academic community by publishing his two early collections, Kissing the Dancer and Other Poems (1964) and Thousand Year Old Fiancée and Other Poems (1965). Another poet who helped promote Sward’s work was William Meredith. He wrote the introduction to Kissing the Dancer and Other Poems and had taught with Sward at Connecticut College. Sward left Cornell in the mid-1960’s and spent much of the remaining decade traveling extensively in the United States and England teaching poetry workshops and giving readings. His work appeared regularly in most of the important little magazines and he developed friendships and correspondence with numerous authors of his generation, notably Carol Berge, Paul Blackburn, Robert Cohen, Larry Lieberman, Ann Quin, and Margaret Randall. In 1969 Sward took a position at Writer-in-Residence at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. It was here that he launched Soft Press, a small press that he operated for nearly ten years which became the primary publishing outlet for his work in the 1970’s. Sward eventually became a landed immigrant in Canada and lived in Toronto where he became an active member of that city’s literary scene. He read and performed regularly in Canada until 1985 as one of the “Three Roberts” (Sward, Robert Zend, Robert Priest). In 1985, he returned to the United States and now lives in California. An earlier collection, Half a Life’s History: Poems New and Selected, 1957-1983 (1983), was published by Aya Press in Toronto. Recent volumes include: Four Incarnations, New and Selected Poems, 1957-1991 (1991) and Rosicrucian in the Basement: Selected Poems (2001).
The Robert Sward Papers are one of the largest and most diverse manuscript collections among Washington University’s holdings. They include an extensive correspondence with literary figures, little magazine editors, small press publishers, family members, and friends. Thousands of pages of Sward’s heavily revised worksheets and journals are also present and serve as excellent examples of the poetic process at work. A large collection of little magazines, small press publications and literary ephemera is also housed in the Sward Papers and helps further document not only the life and career of Robert Sward, but also the American poetry scene during the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Selected Names
Abbe, George, 1911-. American author.Ammons, A. R., 1926-2001. American author.
J. G. Ballard, 1930-. British author.
Berge, Carol, 1928-. American author.
Bogan, Louise, 1877-1970. American author.
Boyle, Kay, 1903-1993. American author.
Ciardi, John, 1916-1986. American author and translator.
Creeley, Robert, 1926-. American author.
Deutsch, Babette, 1895-1982. American author.
Elliott, George P., 1918-1980. American author.
Ellison, Harlan, 1934-. American author.
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence, 1919-. American author and publisher.
Finkel, Donald, 1929-. American author.
Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997. American author.
Hall, Donald, 1928-. American author.
Hine, Daryl, 1936-. American author.
Howard, Richard, 1929-. American author and translator.
Hugo, Richard, 1923-1982. American author.
Justice, Donald, 1935-. American author.
Kunitz, Stanley, 1905-. American author.
Laughlin, James, 1914-. American author and publisher.
Levertov, Denise, 1923-1997. American author.
Lish, Gordon, 1934-. American author.
Lowell, Robert, 1917-1977. American author.
Lowenfels, Walter, 1897-1976. American author.
Lurie, Alison, 1926-. American author.
Malanga, Gerard, 1943-. American author and photographer.
Meredith, William, 1919-. American author.
Moss, Howard, 1922-1987. American author and editor.
Sanders, Ed, 1939-. American author.
Sarton, May, 1912-1995. American author.
Shapiro, Karl, 1913-2000. American author.
Smith, William Jay, 1918-. American author.
Stafford, William, 1914-1993. American author.
Starbuck, George, 1931-1996. American author.
Strand, Mark, 1934-. American author.
Sward, Robert, 1933-. American author.
Swenson, May, 1919-1989. American author.
Thurston, Jarvis A., 1914-. American author.
Untermeyer, Jean Starr, 1886-1970. American author.
Untermeyer, Louis, 1885-1977. American author.
Van Duyn, Mona, 1921-. American author.
Wagoner, David, 1926-. American author.
Whittemore, Reed, 1919-. American author.
Wilbur, Richard, 1921-. American author.