Kim Stafford is a writer from the
Pacific Northwest. His poetry and essays focus on the relationship of people
with nature and social custom. Stafford places great value on folklore and
bases much of the research for his own writing on the study of folk custom and
oral history. He has taught and served as an artist-in-residence throughout the
state of Oregon and in Washington, Idaho, and California. He regularly offers
poetry readings and writing workshops and is active as a printer. The majority
of the collection of Kim Stafford’s work encompasses books and other printed
material, including periodicals and newspapers. Also included are photographs,
videos, broadsides, and printed flyers.
Repository:
University of Oregon Libraries
Special Collections & University
Archives
Funding for encoding this finding
aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Biographical Note
Kim Robert Stafford was born on October 15, 1949 in Portland, Oregon,
one of four children of Dorothy and William Stafford, who was also a poet.
Stafford’s interest in nature dominates his poetry and essays, which focus on
the relationship of people with nature and social custom.
Kim Stafford has spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest,
particularly in Oregon. He received his college and graduate education at the
University of Oregon where he obtained his B. A. in 1971, his M. A. in 1973,
and his Ph.D. in Middle English Literature in 1979. In addition to a fellowship
for graduate study at the University of Oregon from 1971-1974, Stafford
received creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
in 1976 and 1984.
During the 1970s Stafford began an intense study of printing in Port
Townsend, Washington, where he assisted Graywolf Press in the production of
printed works of several poets. He has made a practice of regularly issuing
postcard editions of his poems from his own press, Ashwood Press.
Stafford places great value on folklore and bases much of the research
for his own writing on the study of folk custom and oral history. He served as
an oral historian for the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum in Florence, Oregon, in 1975.
Stafford’s interest in folk literature led to his regular attendance and
support of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, held annually in Elko, Nevada. In
January 1990 he gave the Gathering’s keynote address.
Kim Stafford has steadfastly pursued his creative work in Oregon. He
has taught and served as an artist-in-residence throughout the state of Oregon
and in Washington, Idaho, and California. He was an artist-in-residence in
Burns, Oregon (1975) and Wallowa, Oregon (1978). Stafford taught at Pacific
Lutheran University (1980), Idaho Sate University (1981-1982), and the
University of California at Davis (1983-1984). He began teaching in 1978 at
Lewis and Clark College, and became director of the Northwest Writing Institute
(Oregon Writing Project).
A steady contributor to many literary journals, Stafford describes
himself as a “professional eavesdropper,” and relies on his daily journal as a
source for his writing projects. In 1976 he published a collection of his own
poetry,
A Gypsy’s History of the World, and
contributed to a collection of poetry by his father,
Braided Apart. Stafford continues to
publish collections of his poetry and prose. His collection of essays,
Having Everything Right, won a special
award in 1986 from the Western States Arts Foundation.
Stafford has contributed to many Northwest as well as national poetry
and literary journals. In Oregon, his work frequently appears in
The Oregonian supplement of
Northwest Magazine in the poetry section
as well as in feature articles. He regularly offers poetry readings and writing
workshops and is active as a printer.
Content Description
Given the variety and rarity of Stafford’s publications, this
collection is remarkably complete to date (September, 1990). All of the books
in this collection have been removed from the manuscript collection but are
available in Rare Books.
Stafford has produced several books, including two for which he shares
authorship with his father William Stafford:
Braided Apart (1976) and
That Meeting Place: Poems (1979). The
collection also includes Stafford’s award-winning collection of essays,
Having Everything Right (1986), as well as
his latest collection of poems about local character,
Places and Stories. Within this category
are also two books which present some of Stafford’s ideas and examples about
teaching writing:
Twenty-three Ways of Holding Still and
Thirty-Seven Ways of Holding Still: Poems Written
at Wallowa School and Assignments as Given (1978), which contain
exercises for grade school students supplementing the examples of the work of
Stafford’s students from Idaho and eastern Oregon primary and secondary
schools.
Books containing contributions by Kim Stafford date from 1983 through
1988. These include Stafford’s introduction to a collection of essays in honor
of his advisor and Middle English scholar Stanley Greenfield,
Modes of Interpretation in Old English
Literature (1986). Also included is
Idaho Place Names (1988) by Lalia Boone,
which contains a poem by Stafford as the frontispiece.
Stafford is a prolific contributor to national and Northwest literary
journals, many of which have had short lives on the market. The collection of
journals with Stafford’s poetry includes 47 journals, some with several issues
containing Stafford’s work. These range from well-know journals such as the
Atlantic Monthly,
Poetry Northwest, and the
South Carolina Review, to rare issues of
Permafrost,
Mister Cogito, and other ephemeral
periodicals. The earliest published poem in the collection dates from 1971-1972
(
Northwest Review), with the majority of
entries dating from 1975-1980.
The section containing Stafford’s essays, articles, and reviews is
represented by a collection of 15 periodicals. These include short stories and
reviews, as well as articles about others, such as “He Found This Great
Strength,” the
Idaho Foxfire Network, which describes the
last days of Lloyd Reynolds, scholar, artists, and friend of Stafford. This
category also contains an interview with Kim Stafford about his writing (
Mossy Creek Journal, 1988).
James Henry kept a cross-reference index of all of Stafford’s poems
and essays. Henry’s file is kept in the Special Collections Reading Room.
As an artist-in-residence, Kim Stafford often collected and published
the work of his students in booklets. These are represented in the category of
work edited by Kim Stafford and include rare copies of the poetry by students
at Lewiston, Idaho (1975); Enterprise, Oregon (1978); Lincoln Junior High,
Burns, Oregon (1980); Redmond, Oregon (1980); and Washington High School,
Portland, Oregon (1981).
Three programs contain work by Kim Stafford.
Cityfolk (1981) and
Cowboy Poetry Gathering (1987 and 1989)
feature Stafford’s essays.
Newspapers containing poetry and essays by Kim Stafford were collected
by the donor. The majority of Stafford’s works are represented here in issues
of
The Oregonian or its supplement,
Northwest Magazine, together with
Stafford’s contributions to the
Elko Daily Free Press and
Fresh Weekly (
Willamette Week) dating from 1980 to 1989.
Because the donor had Kim Stafford autograph nearly every entry of the
collection, the original newspapers have been preserved and kept in a separate
box at the end of the collection.
Whenever James Henry could not find original issues of journals or
publications containing Stafford’s work, he obtained photocopies. Many of these
copies duplicate original issues in the collection. The copies are represented
in 21 titles and numerous issues.
Also included in the collection are undated press catalogues and
flyers, as well as advertising postcards for Stafford’s own work or books and
periodicals to which he contributed.
As director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis and Clark
College in Portland, Oregon, Stafford contributed regularly to the institute’s
newsletter. In addition to newsletters from 1988 through 1990, the collection
also contains flyers advertising workshops and events at the Institute from
1987 to 1989.
A few newspaper articles about Kim Stafford also appear in this
collection and feature Stafford’s work as a judge in the Young Writers Fiction
Contest (1988), as head of a conference on writing (1989), his award for
Having Everything Right (1986), as well as
other events in which Stafford participated.
James Henry and Kim Stafford began corresponding in March 1981 when
Henry began a serious collection of Stafford’s work. Their correspondence
currently includes letters through November 1989 and reveals the wide-ranging
interest, activities, and jobs that Kim Stafford took on during this period,
and the slow process of assembling the materials for this collection which
required Henry’s persistence. A selection of James Henry’s letters to Kim
Stafford, which were photocopies from Stafford’s files, is also included. This
correspondence highlights the effort involved by the collector as well as the
firm friendship and respect between Stafford and Henry in their struggle as
writers.
Also included among the correspondence are James Henry’s replies from
publishers to his requests for copies of their journals. These have been
arranged according to publishers rather than by addressee to coordinate them
with the publications in the collection. The inventory identifies the names of
all correspondents.
Numerous photographs of Stafford appear throughout the journal and
newspaper articles of this collection. Also available is one autographed 8 by
10 inch photograph of Kim Stafford and his father.
During the 1970s the Oregon Humanities Foundation produced a
television series on Northwest Writers. A video featuring Kim Stafford as part
of the Visiting Writers Series is included in this collection. An audiocassette
recording of Stafford’s keynote address to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering at Elko,
Nevada in January 1990 is also included.
Some of Stafford’s poetry has been printed in limited editions by
others. The largest (18” x 24”) in the collection is the Breakwater Broadside
Series I, which included Stafford’s “The Bears” (1980). “The Rocking Chair”
(1980) and “A Woman and a Bear” (1985) also include illustrations.
Kim Stafford’s father, William Stafford, is a nationally acclaimed
post whose work James Henry began collecting before he began collecting Kim
Stafford’s work. Some of the periodicals include poems by William Stafford who
has autographed most of them. These are listed in a separate category, although
the publications may be found within he appropriate category of Kim Stafford’s
work.
The works donated to this collection by Thelma Greenfield are of a
personal nature, most dating from Stafford’s frequent contact with the
Greenfields when he was a student at the University of Oregon. The one piece of
correspondence, a letter dated June 13, 1989, contains a draft of one of
Stafford’s essays. The remaining items, made during the early 1970s, include
several broadsides and a small handmade book which features Stafford’s poetry
and photographs taken by Stafford.
Other Descriptive Information
The major portion of this collection of works by Kim Stafford is one
of three collections donated to the University of Oregon Library by James Henry
during 1989 and 1990. Thelma Greenfield donated additional materials for
inclusion in the collection in 1990. This introductory section provides
information regarding the donors James Henry and Thelma Greenfield; other
sections include a biography of Kim Stafford, a scope and content note, and a
box-by-box inventory of the collection.
James Henry was born in Oakland, California on July 26, 1908 and spent
most of his youth in the oil country of southern California. In 1927 he went to
work at the Shell Oil Refinery in Martinez, California where he remained until
1941. During the second World War, Henry served in the Air Force as an airplane
and engine mechanic. At the conclusion of the war, Henry continued to work as
an airplane mechanic at the San Francisco and Oakland Airports. He retired in
1968 and has lived in The Dalles, Oregon since 1979.
Over the years, Henry’s activities have ranges from touring California
by motorcycle to long distance running, but by far his deepest and most
compelling interests are the English language, modern literature, and book
collecting. Henry has written on Thomas Wolfe and Jack London, and he had done
extensive research on colloquial American English. An avid book collector,
Henry had put together outstanding collections on such writers as George
Sterling, Jack Kerouac, Herbert Gold, and William and Kim Stafford.
In assembling these book collections, Henry has shown himself to be an
adept sleuth and a fine scholar in compiling publication histories. Many times
he has ferreted out materials long considered lost by their authors and
publishers. Henry has demonstrated his respect for writing and scholarship by
donating these assembled collections to libraries in California and Oregon
where they can be read and enjoyed by a wide audience.
James Henry first became interested in Kim Stafford’s work in 1980
while assembling a collection of materials by William Stafford, Kim’s father.
Over the years, through correspondence with publishers and Kim Stafford and
careful searching, Henry has put together an important collection of materials
produced by Kim Stafford. During this time Henry took an active interest in Kim
Stafford and his creative endeavors. The two men have been in frequent contact
since 1980 and have developed a close friendship. Henry donated this collection
to the University of Oregon Library during 1989 and 1990.
In 1979 Kim Stafford received his doctorate in Middle English
literature from the University of Oregon. His advisor Stanley Greenfield and
Greenfield’s wife, Thelma, became good friends with Kim Stafford during the
course of his studies at the University of Oregon. In 1990, Thelma Greenfield
donated gifts of broadsides, a book, and correspondence (which includes the
draft of an essay) to add to this collection.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access :
Collection is open to the public.
Collection must be used in Special Collections & University
Archives Reading Room.
Restrictions on Use :
Property rights reside with Special Collections & University
Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators
of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the Manuscripts Librarian in
Special Collections & University Archives. The reader must also obtain
permission of the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation :
[Identification of item], Kim Robert Stafford Collection, Coll. 206,
Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries,
Eugene, Oregon.
Administrative Information
Arrangement :
Collection is organized by category of publication or production format into the following series, which are arranged in alphabetical order by title:
Series I: Books by Kim Stafford or containing work by Kim Stafford
Series II: Periodicals containing articles, essays, and reviews by Kim Stafford
Series III: Programs containing essays by Kim Stafford
Series IV: Newspapsers containing poems and essays by Stafford
Series V: Photocopies of poems and essays by Kim Stafford
Series VI: Works edited by Kim Stafford
Series VII: Works printed by Kim Stafford
Series VIII: Northwest Writing Institute flyers and newsletters
Series IX: Press catalogues, flyers, and advertising postcards
Series X: Northwest Writing Institute flyers and newsletters
Series XI: Letters from Kim Stafford to James Henry
Series XII: Photocopies of selected letters from James Henry to Kim Stafford
Series XIII: Letters from publishers to James Henry (unless otherwise noted)
Series XIV: Photographs
Series XV: Video and sound recordings
Series XVI: Broadsides
Series XVII: Ephemera
Series XVIII: Printed material, flyers,
and catalogues with work by William Stafford (many signed by William Stafford)
Series XIX: Thelma Greenfield addendum, including broadsides, books and correspondence
Separated Materials :
Books in this collection have been cataloged and removed to the Rare Books Collection.
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in
the collection.
Braided Apart: Poems, by Kim
Robert Stafford and William Stafford; Confluence Press
1976
The Granary: Poems,
Carnegie-Mellon University Press
1982
A Gypsy’s History of the World,
Copper Canyon Press
1976
Having Everything Right,
Confluence Press
1986
The Middle English Pearl and the Art of
Translation, Typescript of dissertation
1979
Places and Stories,
Carnegie-Mellon University Press
1987
That Meeting Place: Poems, by
William Stafford and Kim Robert Stafford; Gypsy Press
1979
Thirty-seven Ways of Holding Still:
Poems Written at Wallowa School and Assignments as Given, Gypsy
Press
1978
Twenty-three Ways of Holding Still:
Poems Written at Wallowa School, Gypsy Press
1978
Books containing articles,
essays, or reviews by Kim Stafford
Idaho Place Names, by Lalia
Boone; University of Idaho Press; frontispiece poem by Kim Stafford
1988
James Welch, by Ron McFarland;
Confluence Press
1986
Modes of Interpretation in Old English
Literature: Essays in Honor of Stanley Greenfield; Phyllis Brown, et.
al. eds.; University of Toronto Press; foreword by Kim Stafford
1986
Present Tense, by Magic Circle
Dance Theatre; program notes by Kim Stafford
June 1988
Rain in the Forest, Light in the
Trees, Owl Creek Press
1983
The Spider Anthology; Arachne’s
Muse Foundation
1983
Three Rivers, Ten Years,
Carnegie-Mellon University Press (University of Pittsburgh Press)
1983
The Truth About the Territory:
Contemporary Nonfiction from the Northwest; Rich Ives, ed.; Owl Creek
Press (two copies: hardback and paperback)
1987
Writer’s Northwest Handbook,
written and edited by Media Weavers, 2d ed., “Some Remedies for Writer’s
Block,” by Kim Stafford
The Trout Laker, “Hallelujah for
the Thumb,” Vol. 1, No. 2
Summer 1988
5
Western American Literature,
Book Review: Words for the Wind: The Collected Verse of Theodore Roethke,
University of Washington Press, 1981; Vol. 17, No. 2
Series V: Photocopies of poems and essays by
Kim Stafford
Container(s)
Description
Dates
Box
Folder
6
3
Arts Review, “The Bears,” Vol. 1,
No. 2
Winter 1984
6
3
The Atlantic Monthly, “Feather
Bag, Stick Bag”
April 1976
6
3
Christian Science Monitor, “Five
Views of Concord”
November 27, 1977
6
3
Christian Science Monitor,
“Mountains: The Stars Were So Close, So Clean”
March, 10, 1986
6
3
The Dragonfly, “The Pilgrim
Martyred (from Jung),” No. 9
undated
6
3
Hudson Review, “The Lighthouse,”
Vol. 32, No. 1
Spring 1979
6
3
James Welch (Ron McFarland, ed.),
“At the Only Bar in Dixon”
undated
6
3
Luckiamute, “San Jan Batista,” No.
1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “Earth Mercy,” No.
1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “Tehuacan,” No.
1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “The Reason for Snow,”
No. 1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “Drift,” No.
1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “Abandoned Sounds,”
No. 1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “Utah Winter,” No.
1
1972
6
3
Luckiamute, “Central Oregon
Storm,” No. 4
1975
6
3
Luckiamute, “Yarrow,” No.
4
1975
6
3
Modes of Interpretation in Old English
Literature: Essays in Honor of Stanley Greenfield, University of
Toronto Press, Phyllis Brown, et al., eds; forward by Stafford
6
3
The Midwest Quarterly, “Nana,”
Vol. 17, No. 1
1975
6
3
The Nation, “John Clare,” Vol.
230, No. 6
February 16, 1980
6
3
New York Times Book Review, Review
of The Paradise of Bombs by Scott Russell Sanders
May 24, 1987
6
3
The North American Review, “Root
and Feathers,” Vol. 261, No. 2
Summer 1976
6
4
Oregon East, “Poetry at Wallowa
School,” Vol. 7
1977-1978
6
4
Oregon English, “The Power of
One,” Vol. 8, No. 1
Spring 1986
6
4
Oregon Rainbow, Two photographs by
Kim Stafford, Vol. 1, No. 3
Autumn 1976
6
4
Oregon Rainbow, “Villanelle for
the Spiders,” Vol. 1, No. 3
Autumn 1976
6
4
Outside, “The Desert Sage and
Silence,” Vol. 12, No. 9
See also “Being the one You Are,"
Northwest Magazine, April 9, 1989
(same essay).
September 1987
6
4
Outside, “The Desert Sage and
Silence,” Vol. 12, No. 9
September 1987
6
4
Poetry Northwest, “The Rocking
Chair,” Vol. 20, No. 4
Winter
1979-1980
6
4
Poetry Northwest, “Heartwood,”
Vol. 20, No. 4
Winter
1979-1980
6
4
Sequoia, “Shed This”
[1973]
6
4
Sequoia, “raccoon”
[1973]
6
4
The Small Farm, “Putting Hand-set
Type Away,” Nos. 11 and 12
Spring 1980-Fall
1980
6
4
The Virginia Quarterly Review,
“Mr. Epp’s Garden in Aurora,” Vol. 56, No. 1
Winter 1990
6
4
The Virginia Quarterly Review,
“Back Home in the Shopping Center,” Vol. 60, No. 4
Autumn 1984
6
4
The Virginia Quarterly Review,
“Indian Languages,” Vol. 60, No. 4
Autumn 1984
6
4
The Virginia Quarterly Review, “In
Photograph, My Grandmother, Re-Shingling the Roof Pretends to Be Departing for
Heaven,” Vol. 62, No. 1
Winter 1986
6
4
The Virginia Quarterly Review,
“Under an Oak in California,” Vol. 62, No. 1
Winter 1986
6
4
The Virginia Quarterly Review,
“Walking to the Mailbox,” Vol. 62, No. 1
Winter 1986
6
4
West Coast Review, “Indian
Graveyard Central B. C.,” Vol. 11, No. 2
October 1976
6
4
West Coast Review, “Be Warned:
Read This in a Private Place Alone,” Vol. 11, No. 2
Stories, Songs, and Opinions of the Idaho
Country, first published by Rendezvous in 1982; second
printing
1987
6
5
Faces in the Crowd: An Anthology of
Washington High School Student Poetry and Fiction 1981, Centrum
Foundation; (eds. Carol Bangs, Sam Hamill, Kim Stafford)
1981
6
5
Kids Are Poets Too: Poems from Lincoln
Junior High, Lincoln Junior High School (Burns, Oregon)
1980
6
5
A New Face Full of Surprise
(Redmond, Oregon)
[February 1980]
6
5
Reachin' for the Moon: Student
Writings and Images from Wallowa Valley (Enterprise, Oregon); published by
Chieftain and Wallowa School
1978
6
5
Echoes of the Wind: Poems for Idaho
Children Grades 3-4-5 (Lewiston, Idaho)
Salal Series V, Eight poets in a
Postcard Edition, “Crow Feather,” (two copies)
1976
6
6
“The Cove,” postcard-flyer for
A Gypsy’s History of the World (two
copies)
November 1976
6
6
“The Yew,” postcard
1980
6
6
“The Yew,” small paperback
book, Ashwood Press
1980
6
6
“October in Idaho,”
postcard
December 10,
1983
6
6
“Sleeping in the Barn,”
postcards (two copies)
December 1982
6
6
“The Good Life,”
postcard
December 10,
1983
6
6
“The Family at Lost Lake,”
postcard advertising
Limberlost Review (two copies)
June 1984
6
6
“Night Work in June,”
postcard
December 21,
1984
6
6
“Smallest Day at Dark,”
postcard
December 21,
1985
6
6
“After All These are Elemental
Things,” Brooding Heron Press
Double-sided broadside with “Nights You Row” by Jawbone Press
1982 on reverse side.
1985
6
6
“Rosemary at Four,”
postcard
December 21,
1986
6
6
Two untitled poems by Rosemary
Stafford – “The Sun Doesn’t Come Up”
December 21,
1987
6
6
“The Life and... Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe”
undated
6
6
“Reflections on Courtship and
Marriage”
undated
6
7
Books
Box
Folder
6
7
Dream of Dying, poems by William
Logan, published by Graywolf Press, Port Townsend, Washington (Kim Stafford was
typesetter)
1974
6
7
Eight Poems by Linda Gregg,
published by Graywolf Press, Port Townsend, Washington (Kim Stafford was press
assistant)
1982
6
7
Journey from Essex, Poems for John
Clare (ed. By Sandra McPherson), published by Graywolf Press, Port
Townsend, Washington (Kim Stafford was publishing assistant)
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online
catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or
places should search the catalog using these headings.
