Papers of Adrienne Rich, 1927-1999

The papers of Adrienne Rich include poems, stories, and plays written by Rich as a child; typescripts of later poems, essays, and translations; papers written by Rich while attending Radcliffe College and at Oxford; diaries, commonplace books, account books; correspondence with parents, friends, publishers, and other writers; published reviews by Rich; typescripts and galleys from W.W. Norton & Co; book reviews of Rich's works; drafts of speeches; material re: Rich's readings; and files concerning her teaching and workshops. Papers documenting her involvement in the women's movement cover such topics as international feminism, feminist publishing, motherhood, violence against women, and women in prison. There are pamphlets and issues of poetry magazines containing poems by Rich or poems by other writers with inscriptions to her, audiotapes of readings and interviews.

Folders containing Rich's unpublished writing may not be copied without permission of the Adrienne Rich literary trust; these folders are explicitly marked as such in the inventory. When sending material to the Schlesinger, Rich noted which files were to be open to research and which were to be closed, either until 2020 or 2050. In March 2011, Rich reviewed the papers and opened some previously closed items, while lengthening the closure on others. She expressly wished to protect the privacy of those writing to her. Some teaching files in Series IV contained student grades or records; Schlesinger staff separated and closed those materials upon receipt.

Folder headings appearing in quotation marks are Rich's; others were created by archivists. The collection was initially processed in 1999 and contained material Rich sent to the Schlesinger between 1984 and 1999. It was known by call number "84-M141--99-M136." In 2021, the collection was reboxed and the call number updated to MC 1120. Folder numbers remain the same. Additional description was also added to the finding aid at this time.

In 1979, Rich donated some papers to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York, New York. They contain galley proofs for books that are not in this collection, including Snapshots, Nightwatch, Necessities of Life, Leaflets, etc.; research notebooks for Of Woman Born; etc. (see folder #1 for complete list).

There is some overlap among the various series. Transcriptions by Rich of passages she read will be found both in the commonplace books (#50v-53) as well as the notebooks (#63-68). Material concerning her time at Oxford will be found both in the notebooks as well as in a folder of essays (#69). Material about awards and honorary degrees is filed in Series I, although related material can be found in general correspondence in Series II (#129-135). While correspondence can be found throughout the collection, most is grouped in Series II. There are few photographs in the collection and those that exist are scattered throughout.

Series I, Biographical and personal (#1-88), is organized into the following main groups: Interviews, Childhood writings; Diaries; Commonplace books (or "reading notebooks" as Rich called them); Radcliffe papers; Notebooks; Account books; and Awards. Interviews consist of published and unpublished articles, pamphlets, and an audiotape; childhood writings is a loose term that covers a wide assortment of Rich's early works and includes drawings, poems, plays, music composition books, etc. Rich kept two different types of diaries; the pre-printed diaries that usually cover one calendar year and a journal-entry style. The two types often overlap. Radcliffe papers are primarily typescript syllabi, some with Rich's handwritten annotations, and notes. Notebooks are re: readings, travel expenditures, names and addresses, notes, some diary entries, etc. Awards encompasses awards, honorary degrees, certificates, etc.

Series II, Correspondence (#89-171), is divided loosely into the following sections: Family, filed chronologically; Letters to Sumner Powell, a former fiancé; Alphabetical, mainly with friends and other writers; Publishers, which is arranged chronologically, Magazines; Women's publications; and Response mail, which contains letters from fans about Rich's writing.

Series III, Published writings (#172-351v), is divided into three major sections: Published works by Rich, Critical works re: Rich's poetry, and Poetry by others. Published works consists mainly of pamphlets, small press volumes and periodicals containing Rich's poetry and prose. The latter are filed alphabetically by name of periodical. Pamphlets or volumes containing Rich's prose are filed chronologically. This first section also contains a small group of foreign volumes containing (or about) Rich's work.

The largest section under published works are the folders of Norton's "dead matter" (#222-276, commonly referred to as foul matter). A fairly complete set of publishing states for two of Rich's books has been retained; see Atlas, #251-255, and What is Found There, #267-276 (neither of these sets contain "paste-ups" or "blues"). States of "blues" or "paste-ups," which generally contain no manuscript alterations or only minor copyediting marks, have been discarded. Samples of "paste-ups" exist for Fact of a Doorframe (see #225); of "blues" for Fact of a Doorframe (#229), Your Native Land (#246), and Time's Power (#249). Also discarded were photocopies of various states with no manuscript or copyediting alterations. Pages of later states, such as "master sets," with no manuscript alterations, or very minor copyediting marks only were also discarded. In these instances, pages with manuscript revisions were kept and a note placed in the appropriate folder stating that some pages were discarded. What Norton refers to as "master sets" are prints or copies made from the "paste-ups."

Folders with critical works re: Rich's poetry contain periodicals, pamphlets, two unpublished theses, articles and reviews. The last section, Poetry by others, consists mostly of small press volumes, periodicals of poetry and prose, most of which are inscribed by the author to Rich.

Series IV, Readings, speeches, workshops, teaching (#352-425), is divided into three sections: Speeches and lectures, containing typescript drafts of speeches; Readings, containing audiotapes, a phonograph record, scrapbook, pamphlets, itineraries, and a series of flyers and posters; Teaching and workshops arranged chronologically by school, containing lecture notes, reading assignments, course descriptions, and readers. Student biographies, correspondence and grades are closed until 2050.

Series V, Subject files (#426-450), contains Rich's files on topics she was interested in, most related to political activism in some way. Folders are arranged alphabetically by subject, primarily using Rich's headings, and contain clippings, flyers, mailings, and correspondence.