The Register of
United Artists (New York, N.Y.) Records
1977 - 1983

MSS 0012

Mandeville Special Collections Library
Geisel Library
University of California, San Diego

Extent: 3.60 linear feet (9 archives boxes)

Abstract

Records of a publishing company established by poets Lewis Warsh and Bernadette Mayer in 1977. Successor to Angel Hair magazine and Angel Hair Books, United Artists published works of contemporary poets and writers, including Ted Berrigan, Clark Coolidge, Alan Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, and Bill Berkson. Correspondence with these and other United Artist contributors can be found in the collection. Also included are typescripts of works submitted and materials used for production of United Artists publications.

Historical Background

Established by Lewis Warsh and Bernadette Mayer in 1977, United Artists press was located in New York City until it went out of business in at the end of the 1980s. Typically, the press published four titles a year, generally with a run of 750 copies each. While they provided a venue for artists who could not publish with mainstream presses, Warsh and Mayer also published established writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, and Gregory Corso, all of whom had secured contracts with trade publishers.

The forerunner of United Artists was Angel Artist (magazine) and Angel Hair Books, a press which Warsh co-founded and co-edited from 1966 to 1977. Many of the contributors to United Artists, such as Ted Berrigan and Clark Coolidge, had previously been associated with Angel Hair Books. Both presses were dependent on sales-generated income combined with the support offered by grants and awards. Warsh was a recipient of National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1966 and 1979, and he received a Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines award in 1981.

Scope and Content

Accession Processed in 1988

The papers relate to the professional and personal lives of persons associated with United Artists. Many of the artists that Warsh and Mayer dealt with were also friends, and, as a result, the correspondence is often a mix of both literary and private matters. Although a few items date from the middle 1970s, the bulk of the papers date from 1977 to 1983. The collection is organized into three series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE; 2) TYPESCRIPTS, GALLEYS, AND PAGE PROOFS OF UNITED ARTISTS BOOKS; and 3) TYPESCRIPTS SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED ARTISTS MAGAZINE.

The largest portion of the collection is comprised of CORRESPONDENCE from various writers to United Artists editors Mayer and Warsh. The series is arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's name, and the letters of each correspondent are in chronological order. Unless the correspondent addressed Mayer or Warsh individually, only the name of the writer is listed.

The successive stages of production for each book project can be surveyed in the TYPESCRIPTS, GALLEYS, AND PAGE PROOFS OF UNITED ARTISTS BOOKS series. They are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.

The TYPESCRIPTS SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED ARTISTS MAGAZINE series contains original typescripts of published and unpublished work. This section includes the work of Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, and Allen Ginsberg. It is also arranged alphabetically by the name of the author.

Finding aid generated: 2005-10-31