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Vern Rutsala collection, 1928–2010 Bulk: 1970–2005

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Rutsala, Vern
Title
Vern Rutsala collection
Dates
1928–2010 Bulk: 1970–2005 (inclusive)
Quantity
22 linear feet, (43 standard document boxes, 3 banker boxes, 1 narrow document box, 1 oversize document box )
Collection Number
OLPb002RUT
Summary
This collection consists of writing drafts, correspondence, publications, and other materials created by poet and educator Vern Rustala.
Repository
Lewis & Clark College, Special Collections and Archives
Lewis & Clark College Special Collections and Archives
Aubrey R. Watzek Library
615 S. Palatine Hill Rd.
Portland, OR
97219
Telephone: 5037687758
Fax: 5037687282
archives@lclark.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Vern Rutsala was born on February 5th, 1934 in McCall, Idaho. He moved to Portland, Oregon in the early 1940s, where he attended Milwaukie High School and played for the school's football team. Rutsala attended Portland State University before transferring to Reed College, where he received his BA in 1956.

Vern was drafted into the military and served for two years before being released from duty in 1958. He then attended the University of Iowa, receiving his MFA in 1960. After stints teaching at the University of Minnesota, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Redlands, Rutsala settled at Lewis & Clark College in 1961, first as a part-time employee and later as a full-time professor of English and creative writing. On campus, he served as Chair of the English Department, helped start Lewis & Clark's creative writing program, and organized readings by various Northwest poets. Rutsala retired from Lewis & Clark College in 2004. He died April 2nd, 2014 in Portland, Oregon.

As a poet, Rutsala published hundreds of poems in various journals and magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, Times Literary Supplement, New Yorker, Midland, Poetry, Harper's, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Chicago Review, Mississippi Review, Nebraska Review, Seneca Review, and New Letters. He published sixteen poetry books during his lifetime: The Window (1964, Wesleyan University Press), Small Songs (1969, Stone Wall Press), The Harmful State (1971, Best Cellar Press), Laments (1975, New Rivers Press), The Journey Begins (1976, University of Georgia Press), Paragraphs (1978, Wesleyan University Press), The New Life (1978, Trask House Books), Walking Home from the Icehouse (1981, Carnegie Mellon University Press), Backtracking (1985, Storyline Press), The Mystery of Lost Shoes (1985, Lynx House Press), Ruined Cities (1987, Carnegie Mellon University Press), Selected Poems (1991, Story Line Press), Little-Known Sports (1994, University of Massachusetts Press), A Handbook for Writers: New and Selected Prose Poems (2004, White Pine Press), The Moment's Equation (2004, Ashland University Press), and How We Spent Our Time (2006, Akron University Press). The Long Haul (2015, Carnegie Mellon University Press) was published posthumously. Rutsala also published a number of chapbooks through The Feral Press, including Aliens (2009), The Girl Who Could Fly (2009), Like a Chaos Just for Me (2010), and New Year Letter (2010).

Rutsala's books—and the poet himself—recieved a number of recognitions. He was awarded two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1974 and 1979, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982, and a Masters Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission in 1990. He won the Northwest Poets Prize in 1975, a Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize in 1988, a Pushcart Prize in 1985, a Duncan Lawrie Prize in 1994, the Kenneth O. Hanson Prize in 2004, the Mississippi Review Poetry Prize in 2009, and the Charles Erskine Scott Wood Distinguished Writer Award in 2014. Selected Poems won the Hazel Hall Award at the Oregon Book Awards in 1992, Little-Known Sports won the Juniper Prize in 1993, and How We Spent Our Time won the Akron Poetry Prize in 2004. The Moment's Equation won the Richard Snyder Prize in 2003 and was a National Book Award finalist in 2005.

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Content Description

This collection consists of drafts of poems, prose, and poetry collections; personal and professional correspondence; visual materials such as drawings and photographs; copies of Rutsala's seventeen published collections available through Watzek Library; and journals, magazines, and other publications that include the poet's work.

Series 1 consists of handwritten and typescript drafts of more than 600 poems and short stories written by Rutsala. The poems and stories are arranged alphabetically by title. When possible, they are additionally identified by date, number of drafts, and place of publication.

Series 2 consists of manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence, page proofs, publicity, and other materials related to Rutsala's published poetry collections. Materials are organized chronologically by the publication date of the relevant collection. The majority of Rutsala's poetry collections are represented, though materials related to Selected Poems, Little-Known Sports, How We Spent Our Time, and The Moment's Equation make up the bulk of the series. Typescripts and materials related to unpublished or unidentified collections appear at the end of the series and are arranged alphabetically by working title.

Series 3 consists of broadsides, chapbooks, magazines, newspapers, journals, anthologies, textbooks, and other publications that include Vern Rutsala's work. The series is organized by type of publication as listed above (ie. broadsides, then chapbooks, then newspapers and magazines, and so on). Journals, anthologies, and textbooks make up the bulk of the series, and are arranged alphabetically by title.

Series 4 contains the majority of Rutsala's correspondence, including personal correspondence with friends and family as well as some correspondence regarding the publication of individual poems and essays. The series is arranged alphabetically by the last name of the correspondent.

Series 5 consists of materials related to Rutsala's career as an educator and poet, excluding drafts of his work. The series is arranged by topic: Rutsala's career as a professor at Lewis & Clark; his off-campus work outside of writing and publishing; his work as an editor and blurb writer for other authors; and his writings and correspondence related to collaborative projects.

Series 6 contains the collection's visual materials. This includes two photographs of Rutsala, a photograph of a stone inscribed with lines of his poetry, and a series of sketches and drawings by Rutsala and other artists.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Watzek Library Special Collections and Archives does not hold copyright to the materials in this collection. Users of Watzek Library Special Collections are expected to abide by all copyright and other intellectual property laws.

Preferred Citation

[item description], Vern Rutsala collection, Lewis & Clark College Special Collections and Archives, Portland, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is organized into six series, arranged by topic and then alphabetically when possible.

Location of Collection

Special Collections Repository 1
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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and Subjects

Subject Terms

  • American poetry--20th century
  • American poetry--Northwest, Pacific
  • Poets, American--20th century

Geographical Names

  • Lewis & Clark College--Portland Oregon

Erin Connelly
2026

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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