Papers of Susan Griffin, 1914-2015 (inclusive), 1943-2015 (bulk)

The papers of Susan Griffin document her writing and creative projects; her relationship with other literary and artistic feminist figures of the 20th century; and her activism and participation in feminist, environmental, and anti-war causes. Materials include correspondence with artists and writers, family, and friends; multiple drafts of manuscripts; publicity materials; notes; research materials, including clippings and brochures; audiovisual materials; and memorabilia, including t-shirts and buttons. When the collection arrived at the library, the papers were mostly filed in labeled folders although there was some overlap in content and duplication between folders. Original folder titles have been maintained; titles in brackets were created by the archivist. Griffin often attached Post-It notes to the papers with descriptive information about the content. These notes have been retained in the folders.

Series I, BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL, 1943-2014 (#1.1-10.2, E.1), includes materials related to Griffin's childhood, education, and family, including family correspondence; published interviews and writings about Griffin; awards and diplomas; calendars; and address books. Also included are cards, fliers, and brochures, as well as clippings, and other printed materials related to friends and fellow artists' works, as well as memorial programs commemorating the lives of various friends and family. Correspondence and additional information about artistic projects by friends can be found in Series II. Other materials of interest include notebooks of personal, biographical writings Griffin created while attending a Quadrinity Process workshop, a multi-day personal therapy development course (1978), and photographs of scenes and a script for Griffin's film critical of capital punishment which she completed as a high school student in 1960. Certain early writings included here were identified by Griffin as "juvenilia" and were mostly completed for school assignments in high school and college. Additional early writings can also be found in Series V-VII. Also included is Griffin's web site, which is being captured periodically as part of Schlesinger Library's web archiving program. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series II, CORRESPONDENCE, 1957-2015 (#10.3-17.16), contains personal and professional correspondence, including with literary figures such as Adrienne Rich, Judy Chicago, Rita Mae Brown, Honor Moore, Michelle Cliff, Kay Boyle, and June Jordan, regarding writing, careers, the creative process, feminism and motherhood. This series also contains correspondence with fans, colleagues, scholars, artists, students, publishers (see also Series IV for additional publisher correspondence), friends, and lovers. Content relates to life events, work and relationships, responses to Griffin's writings, and her public appearances. Publisher correspondence (#14.10-15.7) also includes with editors and literary agents and relates to publishing, and reprinting or submitting works for publication in magazines, journals, and anthologies. Also included with publisher correspondence are some publicity materials, publishers agreements, permissions forms, etc., regarding Griffin's articles, poetry, plays, such as Voices, and books, such as Pornography and Silence and Woman and Nature. Additional materials found here include postcards; invitations; birthday, holiday and greeting cards from friends and former lovers; letters from friends providing updates on their lives, their writing and other creative work, and relationships. This series also contains some printed materials, clippings, notes, manuscripts and other writings by Griffin's friends and colleagues. Many of these writings were sent to Griffin for her comments or review. See Series I for family correspondence. This series is arranged alphabetically (files may be listed by last name of correspondent or by topic).

Series III, JOURNALS AND NOTEBOOKS, 1960s-2004 (#17.17-23.1), contains Griffin's personal diaries and daily notebooks. Content includes notes, personal reflections, writing fragments, contacts and to-do lists, and notes related to research and regarding writing projects. Additional notebooks related to Griffin's writings can be found in Series IV-VII. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series IV, BOOKS, 1914-2015 (#23.2-79.2, 109CB-111CB, FD.1-FD.2, E.2), contains materials related to the development, creation, publication, and publicity of Griffin's books of critical and creative prose, anthologies, fiction, and non-fiction, and includes published and unpublished titles. Many of Griffin's books weave together personal narratives with social and historical accounts and critiques. Included are book proposals; multiple annotated typescript drafts; handwritten drafts; notes; research materials, such as clippings and articles; reviews and publicity; correspondence related to research, and with publishers and contributors; and associated projects, such as a film script based on The Book of the Courtesans and plans for an opera based on Woman and Nature. Most of the drafts in each subseries are partial and are not dated so the arrangement of the drafts is not necessarily in chronological order. For materials related to poetry anthologies, see Series VI. For additional correspondence and notes regarding Griffin's books, see Series II and III. For additional drafts and information related to essays in anthologies, such as Made from this Earth and The Eros of Everyday Life, see Series VII. Series VIII contains materials related to promotional events for her books and public readings. This series is arranged in ten subseries by title of work and listed chronologically by publication date. The last subseries contains various unpublished titles.

Subseries A, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her (1978), 1975-2012 (#23.2-27.9, 109CB.1), contains materials related to one of Griffin's most influential works. In this book Griffin explores the connection between feminism and ecology, and the correlation between society's degradation of women and destruction of the environment. The subseries contains research materials, proposals, annotated typescript drafts, handwritten drafts, and published reviews. Also included are materials related to the development of an opera based on Woman and Nature, which was never produced (#27.5). This subseries is arranged by type of content: research materials, notes and outlines, drafts, related projects, and publicity.

Subseries B, Rape: The Power of Consciousness (1979), 1970-1979 (#27.10-28.5), contains research materials, notes, draft manuscripts, and publishers' notes relating to this work where Griffin explores the causes of and attitudes towards rape, how the women's movement affected those attitudes, and the long term psychological effects of rape. This subseries is arranged by type of content: research materials, notes, proposals, draft manuscripts.

Subseries C, Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature (1981), 1958-1989 (#28.6-34.4, 109CB.2), contains research materials, notes, written and typed manuscripts, correspondence, publisher's notes, and articles related to the publication of Pornography and Silence, which explores how pornographic books, movies, and magazines affect the relationship between men and women and how pornography suppresses freedom of expression. The subseries is arranged by type of content: research, notes, outlines, preliminary articles on the book written by Griffin, drafts of the prologue, acknowledgements, dedication, chapters, segments, and footnotes.

Subseries D, Made from this Earth: An Anthology of Writings (1983), 1980-1982 (#34.5-35.3), contains research materials, notes, and written and typed draft manuscripts of this anthology, which contains poems and essays on the subjects of motherhood, rape, lesbians and literature, and writing and the creative process. Included in the book are partial transcripts of interviews with women who underwent illegal abortions. For additional transcripts of interviews with women relating their experiences undergoing illegal abortions, see #77.9.

Subseries E, A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War (1992), 1914-2005 (#35.4-49.7, 110CB, FD.1), contains research materials, which include clippings, notes, and printed materials; drafts; speaking engagement materials, including notes and fliers; and correspondence relating to the development and publication of the book. A Chorus of Stones explores how people's personal lives play a role in the causes and effects of war. Griffin weaves her own narrative with other personal histories and explains how they relate to several violent events of the twentieth century. A Chorus of Stones is part of a series with What Her Body Thought entitled This Common Body: A Social Autobiography. A selection of published materials relating to nuclear power, war, and the military, and newspaper clippings regarding aspects of war and environmental disasters (1987-1991) were removed. See also Series IX for additional research materials of audiotape interviews with survivors of war and radiation disasters (#T-508.11-T-508.54). The subseries is arranged by type of content: research, notes, drafts and edits, and reviews, and chronologically within each group.

Subseries F, The Eros of Everyday Life: Essays on Ecology, Gender and Society (1995), 1990-1995 (#49.8-52.8), includes research materials, notes, and drafts related to Griffin's anthology which contains essays on Western thought, feminism, ecology, religion, etc. This subseries is arranged by type of content: research, notes, drafts, publicity.

Subseries G, What Her Body Thought: A Journey into the Shadows (1999), 1983-2015 (#52.9-62.6), includes numerous partial drafts, which are heavily annotated, and correspondence with Griffin's publisher regarding creative freedom in shaping the focus of the book. In What Her Body Thought Griffin addresses her experience with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) as well as more broadly addressing larger issues relating to illness. Griffin notes that the publisher HarperSan Francisco had wanted her to rewrite the book as a personal, spiritual journey through sickness and healing, but she preferred to keep it as written retaining a more social and political perspective. This work is part of a series with A Chorus of Stones entitled This Common Body: A Social Autobiography. Griffin's original title for this work and one she preferred was Sustenance (1996-1998?); another earlier title was Knowledge of the Body: Democracy and Communion in a Time of Illness (1998). This subseries is arranged by type of content: research, drafts, references to the work.

Subseries H, The Book of the Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues (2001), 1990-2007 (#62.7-67.1, 111CB), includes drafts and notes relating to Griffin's work where she discusses the lives of famous courtesans, erotic companions of wealthy and powerful patrons, throughout history, and discusses their relationship to feminism and their unique place in Western culture. This subseries also includes materials related to an unpublished article on courtesans and a proposal, correspondence, and script related to a film production of the work which was never completed. This subseries is arranged by type of content: research, notes, drafts, book party, related projects.

Subseries I, Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen (2008), 1961-2008 (#67.2-72.2, 109CB.3), contains research materials and multiple drafts related to Griffin's book which explores democracy through personal memoir and social and cultural history. Griffin's earlier title for this book was Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: The Autobiography of an American Citizen. Also included in this subseries is a redacted copy of Griffin's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file which she received in 2006, and which covers the FBI's surveillance of her activities as a young woman, including during and after her time at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a member of the staff of Ramparts magazine. A selection of clippings relating to world and national crises and events (2000-2007) that Griffin used for research were removed. This subseries is arranged by type of content: research, notes, drafts, publicity.

Subseries J, Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World (2011), 1986-2015 (#72.3-77.3, E.2), includes correspondence with contributors, drafts of proposals and essays, poems, notes, and research materials. Co-edited by Susan Griffin, Transforming Terror is a collection of essays and poetry, prayers and meditations by various contributors, including Griffin, on the exploration and experience of terror, and breaking the cycle of violence. Research materials include brochures, correspondence, notes, drafts, and articles and clippings. A selection of clippings relating to war, violence, and terrorism that Griffin used as research were removed. The Transforming Terror web site is being captured periodically as part of Schlesinger Library's web archiving program. This subseries is arranged by type of content: research, notes, correspondence with contributors, drafts, publicity and related.

Subseries K, Other Titles, 1969-ca.2008 (#77.4-79.2, FD.2), includes book proposals, manuscript drafts of unpublished works, notes, correspondence, and research materials. There are extensive drafts of two unpublished titles, Devastation and Light: The Creative Spirit in Our Time where Griffin challenges the conventional notion of creativity, focusing on the creativity of "ordinary people" and those who have been marginalized in society; and The Ice Dancer's Tale, which is a work of fiction related to ice skating, indigenous wisdom, and climate change. Of note in this subseries are a book outline and transcripts of interviews with women relating their experiences undergoing illegal abortions. Some of this material was published in Made from this Earth (see Subseries D). This subseries is arranged chronologically.

Series V, PLAYS, 1960-2005 (#79.3-85.8, FD.3), contains working drafts, play proposals, notes, research materials, and correspondence regarding Griffin's produced and unproduced plays. This series includes drafts and production materials related to one of Griffin's earliest plays, The Everlasting Reich, as well as drafts of its previous incarnations, Bones and Sheep in Wolf's Clothing (1960s); early drafts and production materials for the play Thicket, a one-act play about death written in the late 1980s for the actor, Ruth Zaporah, who contributed suggestions throughout the writing and rehearsal; and drafts of Griffin's award-winning play Voices (1978). Voices features five women narrating and assessing their life stories. The play was originally produced under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and was subsequently staged as part of the Women's Theater Project of The Lunchbox Theater and performed at several colleges and universities throughout the San Francisco Bay area. It was filmed by KQED and shown on public television many times. The play was awarded an Emmy award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences San Francisco chapter in 1975. See Series VIII for materials regarding promotional events and readings. See Series IX for audiovisual materials related to many of these works, including Voices, Thanksgiving, and Thicket. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series VI, POETRY, 1950s-2002 (#85.9-92.6), includes handwritten and typed manuscripts, drafts, notes and journals containing drafts of poems, and correspondence for Griffin's published and unpublished poetry. Included are manuscript drafts of her published anthologies, Like the Iris of an Eye (1976), Unremembered Country (1987), and Bending Home (1998). Oftentimes, Griffin arranged drafts, typescripts, and edited poems in groups by years. Different drafts of the same poem can be found in multiple folders. Additional journals with poetry can be found in Series III. See Series VIII for materials regarding promotional events and readings. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series VII, OTHER WRITINGS, 1960s-2014 (#92.7-98.15), includes essays and articles, fiction and non-fiction, prefaces and forewords Griffin wrote for other books, short stories, reviews of books, etc., There are unpublished works, works in progress, and some essays which had been published in anthologies, journals, and magazines. Included are drafts; notes; final versions of manuscripts; correspondence with publishers and editors; publishing agreements; and related research materials, such as fliers and clippings. Griffin addresses many topics in these writings, including explorations of women's lives and experiences, motherhood, feminist analyses of rape and reproductive rights, and the art of writing. Included is a handwritten essay on the birth of Griffin's daughter; reviews for Ramparts magazine and the Los Angeles Times; stories and articles for Utne Reader and Orion magazine; essay and introduction for the artist Lenke Rothman's exhibition at the Jewish Museum; and essay for the catalogue of an exhibition by Jim Hodges at the Dallas Museum of Art. Many of the essays in this series found their way into anthologies, including Griffin's own work, such as The Eros of Everyday Life and Made from this Earth. This series also includes some general research files containing clippings, typescripts, and printed materials. See Series VIII for materials regarding promotional events and readings. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series VIII, SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, TEACHING, AND EVENTS, 1970s-2012 (#98.16-108.15, FD.4, OD.1), contains materials related to Griffin's participation in conferences, symposia, readings, festivals, literary and political events, workshops, and classes, as an activist, writer, and consultant. Files contain printed materials, such as fliers, posters, brochures, clippings, and programs, as well as notes, itineraries, contracts, and correspondence with event organizers and fellow participants regarding planning, logistics, and acknowledgments. Folders related to teaching and workshop materials include lecture notes, course summaries, syllabi, research materials, course evaluations, course proposals, and correspondence with students regarding classes. Some of the workshops in this series were proposed or taught by Griffin, including Women in Literature, Gender and Nature, and Ecology and Social Justice. Many of the files in this series Griffin titled "Lectures: correspondence, brochures." These folders contain not only materials related to Griffin's lectures, but also include other events and speaking engagements, including conferences, symposia, workshops, readings and book promotions, and consultations. This series also includes printed materials for conferences and lectures where it is unclear if Griffin participated. Of note are materials related to Griffin's activities with the peace organization, CodePink, including Griffin's speech protesting the Iraq war at a CodePink rally in 2003 (#104.7, 104.9, 107.8, 108.4). For information regarding the book tour of Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy, see also Series IV, Subseries I. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series IX, PHOTOGRAPHS AND AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS, ca.1960-2011 (#PD.1-PD.3, E.3, CD-105.1-CD-105.7, DVD-110.1-DVD-110.4, MP-77.1-MP-77.7, T-508.1-T-508.139, Vt-272.1-Vt-272.5), includes publicity photographs, audiocassettes, videotapes, DVDs, CDs, and film. The audiovisual content covers all subject areas found in other series, including interviews of Griffin; poetry and book readings; presentations at conferences; lectures; classroom instruction; and readings and productions of Griffin's plays, including Voices, Thicket, and Thanksgiving. Of note is an 8 mm film made by Griffin when she was a teenager about capital punishment. Also of interest are audiocassettes of recorded interviews Griffin made as she was preparing research for A Chorus of Stones. Subjects of these interviews include survivors of the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima, and veterans and civilians who recount their wartime experiences. She also interviewed individuals who suffered nuclear radiation poisoning or who were involved in the nuclear energy industry. The interviews largely consist of personal stories and often touch upon issues of sexism and gender role expectations. This series is arranged by format, and chronologically within: photographs, compact discs, DVDs, film, audiocassettes (including reel to reels), and videotapes.

Series X, MEMORABILIA, 2006, undated (#108.16m-108.17m, Mem.1-Mem.3, F+D.1m), contains two University of California at Irvine bookstore shopping bags which include small portraits of writers, including Griffin; nine buttons advertising progressive groups and causes, including CodePink buttons and a button for An Unreasonable Woman, an organization which preceded and inspired the foundation of CodePink. Another button advertises Heyday books, an independent, nonprofit publisher and cultural institution in California. Also included are t-shirts for CodePink and a Decca and the Dectones t-shirt. Decca and the Dectones is a cowbell and kazoo orchestra headed by Griffin's friend, the late Jessica Mitford, an author, journalist, civil rights activist, political campaigner, and one of the famous Mitford sisters. Series is arranged by type: bumper stickers, buttons, t-shirts, shopping bags.

Some of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.