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John Taggart Poetry Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 2014-06

Scope and Content Note

This collection documents the scholarship of John Taggart from 1963-2012. Included are publications with his poems; reviews of his poems; Taggart’s reviews of other artists’ work; and materials related to poetry readings and conferences he attended such as programs, pamphlets, notes, and flyers. The records are arranged in 3 series: 1) Poetry, 2) Reviews and Essays, and 3) Poetry Readings and Conferences. Series 3 contains two subseries to distinguish between reviews of Taggart’s work and non-poetry writings by Taggart. The contents of each series and subseries are arranged chronologically by year. Publications are listed in front to back order in which they appear in each box. Not all volumes have explicit dates. Dates that are estimated are marked with an asterisk. Titles without page numbers listed indicate that the works are not paginated.

Dates

  • 1963 - 2012

Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Reproduction Note

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from Shippensburg University Archives & Special Collections. Contact the archivist for more information.

Administrative History

John Taggart was born in 1942 in Guthrie Center, Iowa. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Earlham College in Indiana, where he studied English Literature and Philosophy. He received his Master’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Chicago, and later completed his doctoral work under Walter Sutton and Abraham Veinus in the Humanities Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Syracuse University where he wrote his dissertation on the poetry of Louis Zukofsky. Taggart is a renowned poet and was Professor of English at Shippensburg University from 1969 to 2001. He has been published widely in literary magazines alongside notable contemporaries such as Allen Ginsberg, Susan Howe, and Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge. He has also been published and spoken internationally in Italy, Portugal, France, and Spain. Influenced by poets Charles Olson and George Oppen, philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, and novelist Herman Melville, Taggart’s writing style is often associated with Objectivist theory. He has authored more than a dozen collections of poetry, including Is Music: New and Selected Poems (2010), Pastorelles (2004), and Dodeka (1979). He also published the literary magazine Maps during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Taggart has received the honors of the Commonwealth Award for Academic Service from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, a Pushcart Prize, the Chicago Review Poetry Prize, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation. After joining the faculty of Shippensburg University in 1969 he continued to write poetry and advised the Reflector, a student literary publication, from 1972-2001. He retired from Shippensburg University in 2001. Today, Taggart continues to write and lives in Pennsylvania. 4 Sources Consulted: “John Taggart.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed October 30, 2015. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-taggart

Extent

8.54 Linear Feet (21 archives boxes)

Language of Materials

English

French

Italian

Portuguese

Custodial History

This collection was received by Archives & Special Collections as a donation from John Taggart.

Accruals

No further accruals are expected.

Related Materials

Record Group 29.2, Box 1. Copies of Reflector, 1969-2001, with gaps. Search the library catalog for monographs containing Taggart’s poetry. Most are held in the Rare Book collection or the library’s SU Authors collection.

Processing Note

The John Taggart Poetry Collection was donated in spring 2015 by John Taggart. The Archives & Special Collections Graduate Assistant, Sheila Joy, arranged the publications by type and in chronological order to create an ease of access for the patron.
Status
Completed
Author
Sheila Joy
Date
2015
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Shippensburg University Archives & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Ezra Lehman Memorial Library room 207
Shippensburg University of PA
1871 Old Main Drive
Shippensburg PA 17257
717-477-1123 x3357