University of Deleware Library
Literature Special Collections Department
Cid Corman. Journal #1 1955 Sep 15 - 1956 Feb
24. Typescript and manuscript entries, with items laid in.
"Paris, 29 Quai D'Anjou, Paris 1VC."
In 1951, American poet Cid Corman founded and edited the
literary quarterly Origin, which published the
work of new or little-known authors. The magazine printed works
by several poets from the Black Mountain community, including
Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan. In addition to
promoting the works of many American poets, including Corman
himself, Origin published several poems in
translation. The magazine would eventually go through five
series, the last ending in 1986.
The Cid Corman Journals acquired by the Library in 2000 span the
dates 1955-2000, representing a forty-five year period of nearly
uninterrupted daily entries. The seventy-nine volumes are
extensively interleaved with news clippings, letters, poems,
photographs, and other ephemera. The content of the early
journals, such as the 1955 volume kept during the year of his
Fulbright fellowship in Paris, reflects Corman's work as a poet,
translator, and the editor of Origin. In the mid-
to late-1950s Corman was traveling, working, and living in
Europe before finally settling in Japan, and the dominant themes
of this period include observations on literature, art, and the
foreign cultures that he encountered. From 1958-1966, Corman
taught in Kyoto, Japan, at Kyoto Joshidai, Ryukoto University,
and Doshisha University. He and his wife, Shizumi Konshini, have
lived primarily in Kyoto ever since, where they run a successful
business, Cid Corman's Dessert Shop.
from the Cid Corman Journals
Melva B. Guthrie Fund
