• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Ransom Center Magazine

  • Sections
    • Art
    • Books + Manuscripts
    • Conservation
    • Exhibitions + Events
    • Film
    • Literature
    • Photography
    • Research + Teaching
    • Theatre + Performing Arts
  • Archive
  • Print Edition

Jack Kerouac

Cold War culture

May 9, 2018 - Leigh Hilford

Erik Mortenson discusses his book Ambiguous Borderlands and the pervasiveness of shadow imagery in Cold War materials.

Ambiguous Borderlands: Shadow Imagery in Cold War American Culture (Southern Illinois University Press, 2016) investigates the role shadows play in Cold War literary and popular texts. Informed by research at the Ransom Center, it examines Beat literature, postwar photography, film noir, Twilight Zone episodes, and more to explain why shadow imagery had such a hold on American imaginations in the mid-twentieth century. [Read more…] about Cold War culture

Filed Under: Featured1, Research + Teaching Tagged With: Allen Ginsberg, Beats, Cold War, Dorot Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Jewish Studies, Fellowships, Jack Kerouac, literature, poetry

Meet the Staff: An interview with new Curator of Art Tracy Bonfitto

October 18, 2017 - Leigh Hilford

Tracy Bonfitto has joined the Ransom Center as the new curator of art. She has worked at the Getty Research Institute, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She was previously a lecturer in the Art History Department at UCLA. [Read more…] about Meet the Staff: An interview with new Curator of Art Tracy Bonfitto

Filed Under: Art, Meet the Staff Tagged With: Art, art curator, Art History, Curator, curator of art, Fowler, India, Jack Kerouac, news, Sanskrit, South Asia, staff, staff profile, Tracy Bonfitto, UCLA, visual materials

Beat Generation poet Peter Orlovsky’s archive acquired

June 12, 2013 - Jennifer Tisdale

Peter Orlovsky’s notebook titled Rolling Thunder, Oct. 29, 1975.
Peter Orlovsky’s notebook titled Rolling Thunder, Oct. 29, 1975.

The Harry Ransom Center has acquired the archive of American poet Peter Orlovsky (1933–2010), an important figure in the Beat Generation.

Orlovsky was the companion of fellow poet Allen Ginsberg for more than 40 years, and his papers reflect significant aspects of their relationship. Orlovsky’s collection comprises manuscripts, journals and notebooks, correspondence, tape recordings, photographs, and other personal documents, including unpublished poetry and prose works.

Around the time that Orlovsky met Ginsberg, he began to keep a journal, filling more than 140 notebooks before his death. Some of Orlovsky’s published poems appear in the journals, yet none of the journals have been published.

Correspondence in the collection highlights Orlovsky’s many connections with other poets, authors, and artists. There are more than 1,600 letters written to Orlovsky and/or Ginsberg, including 165 letters written by Ginsberg himself. Some notable correspondents include Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ken Kesey, and Robert LaVigne. Orlovsky also wrote regularly to his parents and siblings, and more than 65 of his letters are included in the archive.

The collection features more than 2,650 photographs taken by or of Orlovsky, documenting the years between 1970 and 2010. Also included are eight reel-to-reel tapes from the 1960s and more than 120 audiocassettes made by Orlovsky during the 1970s and 1980s, some recording conversations with Ginsberg.

The Ransom Center has extensive collections of Beat Generation writers, including materials related to William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Corso , Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac.

The Orlovsky materials will be accessible once processed and cataloged.

Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Research + Teaching Tagged With: acquisition, Acquisitions, Allen Ginsberg, Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Neal Cassady, Peter Orlovsky, Robert LaVigne, William S. Burroughs

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Archive

Tags

acquisition Alice's Adventures in Wonderland archive archives Art Books Cataloging Conservation Council on Library and Information Resources David Foster Wallace David O. Selznick digitization exhibition Exhibitions Fellows Find Fellowships Film Frank Reaugh Frank Reaugh: Landscapes of Texas and the American West Gabriel Garcia Marquez Gabriel Garcia Marquez archive Gone with the Wind I have seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America Lewis Carroll literature Magnum Photos Manuscripts Meet the Staff Nobel Prize Norman Bel Geddes Norman Mailer Performing Arts Photography poetry preservation Publishing Research Robert De Niro Shakespeare theater The King James Bible: Its History and Influence The Making of Gone With The Wind Undergraduate What is Research? World War I

Recent Posts

  • Fellowships Awarded to 52 Scholars
  • Winners Announced for 2023 Schuchard Prize
  • BOOK EXCERPT: Designs on Film
  • Lois Kim Appointed Chief Development Officer for the Harry Ransom Center
  • The Knickerbocker Theatre Collapse

Before Footer

Sign up for eNews

Our monthly newsletter highlights news, exhibitions, and programs.

Connect With Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About

Ransom Center Magazine is an online and print publication sharing stories and news about the Harry Ransom Center, its collections, and the creative community surrounding it.

Copyright © 2023 Harry Ransom Center

Web Accessibility · Web Privacy