Most Irish poet's papers are held in the US. Boston College and Texas have
huge holdings. It's a shame that the Irish universities, amidst our recent
economic success, did not secure more of them for our own researchers.
Instead we have a huge steel spike on O'Connell Street to remind us of the
heroin problem amongst our economically displaced. Can't really blame the
poets for selling to the highest bidder; it's not like their poetry sales
provided them with huge salaries. Most, like Kinsella, spent a good part
of their lives teaching in the US (Temple and Illinois).
I'm in the final stages of a PhD thesis on Kinsella. Would love to chat to
you more back-channel if your interested.
Andrew
> _______________
>
>
> The Papers of the Irish poet Thomas Kinsella have gone to the MARBL
> Library at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
>
> For a detailed inventory of the Papers of Thomas Kinsella, go to
> http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/content.php?id=kinsella774_1010913
>
> Amazingly, the MARBL Library at Emory also holds the Papers of the
> Irish poets Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, Peter Fallon/The Gallery
> Press Collection, Ted Hughes, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Medbh
> McGuckian, Charles Montieth, Paul Muldoon, Edna O'Brien, Desmond
> O'Grady, Frank Ormsby, Tom Paulin, and James Simmons as well as other
> more or less contemporary Irish poets. Most of these manuscript
> collections have been purchased by Emory.
>
> For an index of Irish literary collections,
> mostly at the MARBL Library of Emory University, go to
> http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/browse.php
>
> Amazing! that the National Library of Ireland would not have acted
> more decisively to keep these manuscript collections (of literary and
> historic importance) in Ireland!
>
> Or, is it not so amazing after all? given the back-of-the-hand
> treatment to most Irish authors in the past and present.
>
> For information about the Irish
> Literary Collections Portal, go to
> http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/
>
> In 1985, in Duluth, Minnesota, I was privileged to introduce Thomas
> Kinsella at his reading before an audience of 400 people. I enjoyed
> several days of lengthy conversations with Kinsella. I learned quite
> a lot from him about the varieties of innovative and not-so-innovative
> approaches to contemporary poetry. Indeed, it is NOT Seamus Heaney
> but Thomas Kinsella that I see as the grand old man of contemporary
> Irish poetry!
>
> At that time, on his visit in 1985, Kinsella was very interested to
> learn of Lady Augusta Gregory's reaction to the city of Duluth. In
> February of 1914, Lady Gregory came to Duluth to participate in the
> founding of the Little Theatre, a breakaway from the commercial
> theatre of that day. (Bernard Shaw was also involved in the founding
> of this Little Theatre.) As Lady Gregory arrived on the scene, the
> harbor and the western end of Lake Superior were filled with ice. And
> further east on the great lake, in motion, there were huge ice floes.
> Lady Gregory said she had never before seen "icebergs"! Throughout
> her time in Duluth, she kept talking about the "icebergs," and the
> "beauty" of the "icebergs"!
>
> Regards, from the icebergs of Lake Superior,
>
> Séamas Cain
> http://alazanto.org/seamascain
> http://seamascain.writernetwork.com
> http://www.mnartists.org/Seamas_Cain
>
> _______________
>
--
Andrew Browne, AA(Pen. Coll.), BA(DCU), MPhil(DU)
IRCHSS Government of Ireland Research Scholar
Department of English
National University of Ireland, Galway
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