Guide to the Gerald Stern Papers, 1920s-2012 SC.2007.04

Arrangement

Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Gerald Stern Papers
Creator
Stern, Gerald
Collection Number
SC.2007.04
Extent
60.25 Linear Feet (57 boxes)
Date
1920-2012
Abstract
Gerald Stern, the first Poet Laureate of New Jersey and Chancellor of the American Academy of American Poets, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 22, 1925 to Polish and Ukrainian immigrant parents. He received degrees from the University of Pittsburgh (BA in Political Science 1947) and Columbia University (MA in English 1949). He was the author of over fifteen books of poetry, two collections of essays, a one verse play, and in 2014 he published a book of his drawings. In addition, he received a number of nationally recognized awards, including the 1998 National Book Award for This Time: New and Selected Poems.The collection consists of manuscripts of Stern's poems and essays, including associated material, as well as correspondence, drawings, photographs, and audio and video recordings, making it a valuable resource in understanding Stern's creative process, influences in his life and his impact on national culture. Mr. Stern died on October 29, 2022 in Bronx, New York
Language
English .
Author
Debora A. Rougeux in 2009 and Jennifer Needham in 2015.
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Business Number: 412-648-3232 (Thomas) | 412-648-8190 (Hillman)
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Gerald Stern on November 27, 2007. Additional materials acquired in January 2014.

Arrangement

The collecton is organized into twelve series, as described below:

Series I. Poetry and Other Works

Series II. Articles, Essays, Lectures, Workshops and Other Projects

Series III. Drawings

Series IV. Correspondence

Series V. Publicity

Series VI. Readings

Series VII. General Activities

Series VIII. Poems, Essays, etc. for and about Gerald Stern

Series IX. Manuscripts by Others

Series X. Published Works

Series XI. Photographs

Series XII. Media Material

Biography

Gerald Daniel Stern was born February 22, 1925 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents, Harry and Ida Barach Stern, were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine and Poland, respectively, who lived on Wylie Avenue in the city's Hill District, but later moved to an apartment on Beechwood Boulevard in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill. The second of two children, Stern was deeply affected by the death of his older sister, Sylvia, from cerebrospinal meningitis when he was eight years old. Stern attended Pittsburgh public schools, graduating from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1942. He was then admitted to the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in English and was a member of the Men's Debating Association and Men's Glee Club. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pitt in 1947 and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1949. He did post-graduate study at the Université de Paris (1949-1950) and at Columbia University (1950-1952), but never completed the coursework necessary for a Ph.D. On September 12, 1952, Stern married Patricia Miller, with whom he has two children, David and Rachel. Stern and his wife divorced in the late 1980s.

Stern served in the United States Army Air Corps in 1946 and 1947. From 1951 to 1953, he was an English teacher and later principal at Lake Grove School, Long Island, N.Y. In 1954, during a tour of Europe with his wife Pat, he taught at Victoria Drive Senior Secondary School in Glasgow, Scotland. Upon returning to the United States in 1956, Stern accepted the position of instructor in Temple University's English Department, where he taught until 1963. From 1963 to 1967, he served as an assistant professor in the English Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and from 1968 to 1982 he was a professor at Somerset County (later known as Raritan Valley) Community College in Somerville, N.J. During this latter period, he also conducted poetry workshops at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., (1975-1978) and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. (Spring 1977), as well as serving as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh (Fall 1978) and Columbia University (1980). Stern also acted as literature consultant to both New Jersey's and Pennsylvania's Council of the Arts, as well as coordinator of the Pennsylvania Poetry in the Schools Program (1974-1978).

In 1982, Stern joined the faculty at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he held the position of senior poet until 1995. He continued his visits to other universities, serving as Chairman of Creative Writing at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (1984); Fanny Hurst Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. (1985); Visiting Professor at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. (1988); Holder of Bain Swiggert Chair at Princeton University (1989); Visiting Professor at New York University (1989); and Poet-in-Residence at Bucknell University (1994). In 2002, Stern co-founded the New England College's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program in Poetry with friend and former student Chard deNiord, and served as one of its inaugural faculty members. Most recently, Stern became a Distinguished Poet-in-Residence for the MFA Program in Poetry at Drew University, Madison, N.J., in January 2009.

Gerald Stern is the author of over fifteen books of poetry, two collections of personal essays, a one verse play, and a book of drawings. His first major published work was a long poem entitled "The Pineys," which first appeared in the Journal of the Rutgers University Library in 1969, when Stern was 44. Since then, he has given countless poetry readings and lectures throughout the United States and Europe and conducted several poetry workshops. He has been awarded numerous prestigious honors and prizes for his work. Among these are:

National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Master Poet of Pennsylvania Grant, 1973-1975; NEA Creative Writing Grants, 1976, 1981, 1987; 1977 Lamont Poetry Selection Award for Lucky Life; 1978 Nominee, National Book Critics Circle Award for Lucky Life; 1979 Pennsylvania Creative Writing Grant; 1980 Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts; 1980 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; 1980 Bess Hokin Award for Poetry; 1981 Paris Review's Bernard F. Connor Award; 1982 Melville Caine Award from the Poetry Society of America for The Red Coal; 1984 Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; 1992 Paterson Poetry Prize from Passaic County (N.J.) Community College for Bread Without Sugar; 1993 Fellow of the Academy of American Poets; 1996 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement; 1998 National Book Award for Poetry for This Time: New and Selected Poems; 2000-2002 Poet Laureate of New Jersey; 2005 Wallace Stevens Award; 2005 National Jewish Book Award for Poetry; 2006 Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets; 2012 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; 2012 recipient of the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress; 2014 winner of the Frost Medal.

Copyright

The University of Pittsburgh holds the property rights to the material in this collection, but the copyright may still be held by the original creator/author. Researchers are therefore advised to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that go beyond what is allowed by fair use.

Previous Citation

Gerald Stern Papers, 1920-2012, SC.2007.04, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh

Preferred Citation

Gerald Stern Papers, 1920-2012, SC.2007.04, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Debora A. Rougeux in October 2009. A subsequent addition was processed between 2014-2015 by Jennifer Needham.

Scope and Content Notes

The Gerald Stern Papers consist of manuscripts of his poems, essays, drawings, correspondence, publications in which his works appeared, photographs, and audio and/or video recordings of many of his readings, lectures and interviews. It is a valuable resource in understanding Stern's creative process, influences in his life, and his impact on national culture. The collection covers Stern's life from his early years through his writing and teaching career.

New materials were added to the collection in 2015. These materials are identified at the end of each applicable series or subseries as "2015 Addition."

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • W.W. Norton & Company
    • Harper & Row, Publishers
    • Spring Church Book Company
    • Houghton, Mifflin and Company
    • New England College. MFA Program in Poetry
    • Iowa Writers' Workshop
    • Columbia University
    • University of Pittsburgh
    • University of Pittsburgh. Press

    Personal Names

    • Orlovitz, Gil
    • Pinsker, Sanford
    • Barnstone, Aliki
    • Hall, Mary Anne
    • Rosenberg, Liz
    • Buckley, Christopher
    • DeNiord, Chard
    • Van Brunt, Lloyd
    • Keys, Kerry Shawn
    • Schwartz, Lynne Sharon
    • Somerville, Jane
    • Moss, Howard
    • Hall, James
    • Davis, Christopher
    • Hillringhouse, Mark
    • Daniels, Guy
    • Irwin, Mark
    • Costanza, Jerry
    • Barber, Al
    • Robbins, Doren
    • Anderson, Maggie
    • Stricker, Meredith
    • Del Vecchio, Gloria C.
    • Murray, Joan
    • Levine, Philip
    • Hazley, Richard
    • Vogelsang, Arthur
    • Gilbert, Jack
    • McHugh, Heather
    • Roberts, Len
    • Digges, Deborah
    • Schulman, Grace
    • Lee, Li-Young
    • Hoagland, Tony
    • Mitchell, Susan
    • Sadoff, Ira
    • Barnstone, Willis
    • Berg, Stephen
    • Solataroff, Ted
    • Stern, Gerald
    • Stern, Ida Barach
    • Stern, Harry
    • Stern, David
    • Stern, Rachel
    • Stern, Patricia Miller
    • Macari, Anne Marie
    • Summers, Robert
    • Moyers, Bill D.
    • Galassi, Jonathan
    • Ochester, Ed
    • Smith, Carol Houck

    Geographic Names

    • Lambertville (N.J.)
    • Easton (Pa.)
    • Pittsburgh (Pa.)
    • Iowa City (Iowa)
    • New York (N.Y.)

    Genres

    • Drawings (Visual works)
    • Photographs
    • Slides (Photographs)
    • Negatives (Photographic)
    • Notebooks
    • Correspondence
    • Manuscripts (Documents)
    • Typescripts
    • Audiotapes
    • Audiocassettes
    • Videocassettes
    • Clippings (Information artifacts)
    • Cartoons (Humorous images)
    • Caricatures

    Other Subjects

    • Personal papers
    • College teachers -- United States
    • Universities and colleges -- United States -- Faculty
    • Poetry -- Competitions
    • Poetry -- Publishing
    • Poetry -- Study and teaching -- United States
    • Poets as teachers -- United States
    • Poets, American -- 20th century
    • New England Review
    • New Yorker (New York, N.Y. : 1925)
    • American Poetry Review

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