Black Mountain College Writers & Artists in Printed Word
A new Special Collections Research Center exhibit, “Black Mountain College Writers & Artists in Printed Word,” provides just a glimpse of the numerous rare publications in Special Collections by writers and artists associated with Black Mountain College, which operated from 1933 to 1957 in the Swannanoa Valley of North Carolina. Items on display are part of the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection and the Rare Books and Manuscripts units, with a special focus on books collected by F. Whitney Jones and Paul Carroll. The exhibit, located in the 4th floor atrium of Belk Library and Information Commons, runs from January to July 2018.
Black Mountain College attracted faculty and lecturers that included America’s leading visual artists, poets and influential writers, musical composers, dancers, and designers. Many students of the college become well-known and extremely influential individuals and artists in their own rights in the latter half of the 20th century. The exhibit includes the works of Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Jonathan Williams, Fielding Dawson, M.C. Richards, John Cage, and Joseph Fiore. Also on display are issues of The Black Mountain Review, a literary journal started in 1954 that contained many of the subsequently known “Black Mountain Poets.”
The Black Mountain Review (catalog link: http://wncln.wncln.org/record=b1694938~S2) Photo by Mandi Burnison
The items displayed draw from publications given to the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection from F. Whitney Jones, coordinator of the Black Mountain College Festival at St. Andrews College in 1974, and president of the Board of Directors of the Jargon Society, Inc., a small-press founded by Jonathan Williams and David Ruff in 1951. The Jones book collection includes the works of Robert Creeley, Fielding Dawson, Charles Olson, and Jonathan Williams, among others. Jones’ manuscript collection, the F. Whitney Jones Papers, is also available for research.
The Yin & Yang Radio Repair Man by Fielding Dawson (catalog link: http://wncln.wncln.org/record=b4827221~S2) Photo by Mandi Burnison
The display also includes volumes from the Paul and Maryrose Carroll Beat Collection. Writer, editor, professor, and publisher, Paul Carroll helped to publish Beat poets in the 1950s through his founding and editorship of Big Table, a literary journal. The Carroll collection includes the works of Robert Creeley, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Jonathan Williams.
In the Field at the Solstice by Jonathan Williams (catalog link: http://wncln.wncln.org/record=b4827444~S2) Photos by Mandi Burnison
All books displayed are available for use in Special Collections Research Center, Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. An appointment is recommended. These and related texts are available in the Library catalog. For more information or to make an appointment, contact us at spcoll@appstate.edu or 828–262–4041.
The exhibit was curated by Kelsey Wagner and Greta Browning. Student assistants Jonah Inestroza and Mandi Burnison helped with installation. Photographs are by Mandi Burnison.
This exhibit is part of the Black Mountain College Semester. For more about the semester, please visit https://cas.appstate.edu/black-mountain-college and https://appcenter.appstate.edu/node/22.
Contributed by Greta Browning, Reference and Instruction Archivist
Books by Charles Olson and Robert Creeley
