Skip to main content

Molly Peacock papers

 Collection
Identifier: BUSC-2003-001

Scope and Contents

The works and related materials of Molly Peacock span the years 1955 - 2017 and deal primarily with the publication of her books and manuscripts, as well as personal correspondence.  However, the majority of the collection is concentrated between 1970-1997.  The collection is contained in 71 boxes and 10 map case drawers.

Dates

  • Creation: 1955 - 2017
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1970 - 1997

Biographical Note

Molly Peacock is a poet and biographer whose multi-genre literary life has taken her from New York City to Toronto, from poetry to prose, from lyric self-examination to curiosity about the lives of others. Her latest poetry collection is The Widow’s Crayon Box (W.W. Norton), a book-length sequence of poems that affirms the vast variety of emotional colors in loss and rejuvenation, charting widowhood in the twenty-first century.

Peacock is the author of eight books of poetry, including The Analyst: Poems and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems, as well as A Friend Sails in on a Poem, about a 47-year friendship in poetry. Her poetry appears in leading literary journals, among them The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review, and in Canada, The Walrus. Her works include A Friend Sails in on a Poem, a memoir with poems about her half-century friendship in poetry with poet Phillis Levin; a book about reading poetry, How to Read a Poem and Start a Poetry Circle, a memoir about her choice to be childfree; Paradise Piece by Piece; and a one-woman staged monologue in poems, The Shimmering Verge.

She is the co-founder of Poetry in Motion on New York’s subways and buses, a former President of the Poetry Society of America, the founder of The Best Canadian Poetry series and the creator of The Secret Poetry Room at Binghamton University, of which she is an alumna, class of ’69. Awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Canada Council, and the Leon Levy Center for Biography, Peacock is also a memoirist and biographer, author of two books about creativity in the lives of women artists Flower Diary and The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, named a Book of the Year by Booklist, The Economist, The Globe and Mail, The Irish Times, The Kansas City Star, The London Evening Standard, MacLean’s, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette and The Sunday Telegraph. Peacock is featured in two documentary films about women's choices not to have children, "A Life Outside Convention," and "My So-Called Selfish Life" by Therese Shechter.

Molly Peacock was born in Buffalo, New York in 1947 and graduated with a B.A. magna cum laude from Binghamton University and M.A. with honors from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, as a Danforth Foundation Fellow.

Peacock has been Poet-in-Residence at Bucknell University, University of California, Riverside, Western University, Canada, and the American Poets’ Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. For a decade she mentored graduate students at the Spalding University Brief Residency MFA Program. Modeling her work on the private teaching of music, she has worked privately with poetry students for forty years.

Extent

71 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Molly Peacock papers contains personal and literary related correspondence, manuscript drafts and revisions of this American poet's prose and poetry works, publications, teaching materials, and photographs. The collection also contains artwork such as paintings by Molly Peacock and by other artists, as well as posters, particularly posters from Poetry in Motion on New York’s subway and buses, advertisements, and costumes for poetry readings and other events. The Binghamton University Libraries has a collection of monographs from her personal poetry library and all of her published works.

Arrangement

Box 1 - 16: Literary Activities

Box 17 - 45: Manuscripts

Box 46 - 55: Correspondence

Box 55 - 59: Photographs

Box 60: Ephemera

Box 61 - 64: Audio / Visuals

Box 65 - 68: Publicity

Box 69 - 70: Publications

Box 71: Ephemera

Drawer 01 - 10: Map Cases

Processing Information

The Molly Peacock papers were arranged and described in 2011 by Kyle Johnson, undergraduate Student Assistant, and Beth Turcy Kilmarx, Curator of Rare Books.

Title
Guide to the Molly Peacock papers
Status
Under Revision
Author
Kyle W. Johnson and Beth Turcy Kilmarx
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Binghamton University Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Binghamton NY 13902 USA