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Charles Potts Papers, 1910-2019

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Potts, Charles, 1943-.
Title
Charles Potts Papers
Dates
1910-2019 (inclusive)
Quantity
92 boxes, (49.5 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_COLL MSS 486
Summary
This collection contains documents produced and collected by poet, author, and businessman Charles Potts.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.

Languages
English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish
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Biographical Note

Charles Potts was born in Idaho Falls in 1943 and was raised on a ranch in Idaho. By 1963 he was already publishing poetry. He graduated from Idaho State University in 1965 with a degree in English.

Charles Potts founded Temple Bookstore, located literally in an old masonic temple in Walla Walla, Washington where he also sponsored and took part in organizing and producing Walla Walla Poetry Parties, which started in 1990. In addition to the Poetry Parties, the bookstore had regular poetry readings up to twice a week. Finally, the bookstore hosted the Temple School of Poetry. The Temple Bookstore closed in 2002.

Potts also founded a couple of publishing companies. Litmus Inc., he founded in Seattle and Berkeley in the 1960s. At first he only used Litmus Press to publish his Litmus Magazine, a small publication consisting of poetry, but before long he released 18 first edition publications of poets. One of these publications was the 1968 Bukowski collection Poems Written Before Jumping out of an 8-Story Window. In the late 1980s, Potts started Tsunami Inc. which is known for publishing The Temple, Gu Si, El Templo, a quarterly publishing poetry, often containing poetry translated from Chinese and Spanish. It ran until 2002. Like Litmus, this publishing corporation was too devoted to promoting poetry and publishing Potts' books. Potts was also the president and founder of Palouse Management Inc., a real estate company where he worked as a broker.

Next, Potts is a Neuro-Science programmer as well, involved with the Chinese Computer Communication Inc. Between 1988 and 1994; he was the Northwest Representative of the Pinxxiee Corporation and the Chinese Computer Communications, Inc., companies producing word processing systems compatible with Chinese dialects. In the 1990s he also went to Japan in order to study the language and culture.

Finally, Charles Potts is most known for being an author. He has published numerous books containing compilations of his post-modern poetry as well as full length novels and even a screenplay.

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Content Description

The "Published and Unpublished Written Works by Charles Potts" section of the collection contains Potts' diaries, notes, and manuscripts. One part of this section that gives more of an insight into Charles Potts' inner life is a series of annual goals that Potts wrote up for himself. The goals fall under categories such as mental, emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual. Spanning for over a decade, these documents provide a sort of timeline of activities, almost like a diary, that Potts intended to accomplish or had accomplished between 1985 and 1998.

"Business Records" contains documents from the numerous businesses as well as community events that Charles Potts organized or began. The Walla Walla Poetry Party, for example, is documented with pamphlets, programs, and other papers. Files from Temple Bookstore, Tsunami Inc., and Litmus Inc., Chinese Computer Communications Inc. are likewise preserved in this section. Next, there are also many articles about marketing in Asia, linguistics, and realty. Finally, this section contains a large amount of rough drafts, graphics, and copies of Temple Magazine as well as other documents associated with running the magazine.

The "Correspondence" section contains a large amount of correspondence between Charles Potts and his friends, colleagues, business associates, and poets. Some of the letters contain samples of poetry. This section is organized alphabetically by the last name of the writer of the letter.

"Events, Projects, Catalogs, and Publishers" is filled with pamphlets and mail from numerous publishing companies and information about poetry events; both focus primarily on the Pacific Northwest. In addition to publications from and about China and Japan, this section also contains some articles about the creation of keyboards in Chinese and Japanese by Yamada Hisao.

"Published and Unpublished Written Works by Other Authors" contains samples, and even entire books, of mostly poetry by authors that were sometimes in contact with Potts. These are mostly organized by the last name of the author with the last part of the section containing poetry magazines. The last part of this section contains poetry magazines produced by independent publishers.

This collection also contains numerous video and audio recordings collected and produced by Charles Potts. There is a collection of audio recordings on CDs of the 2003 Walla Walla Poetry Party as well as many other poetry events sponsored by Potts. In addition there are also over 100 cassettes, most containing recordings of poets reciting their work. Finally, there are many VHS recordings containing video footage of poetry gatherings such as the Walla Walla Poetry Party in addition to other events.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Charles Potts papers must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: Charles Potts papers USU_COLL MSS 486, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:USU_COLL MSS 486, USUSCA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

These materials are arranged variously by item type and alphabetically. Much of the order was imposed by the archivist.

Processing Note

Processed in February of 2015, additional material added in 2024

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated to Utah State University Special Collections and Archives in 2011 by Charles Potts. Additional materials were donated in 2015 and 2019.

Separated Materials

For a collection of books written by Charles Potts see Book Coll 68 in the USU Special Collections and Archives Book Room.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid/Register created by Joanna Dobrowolska and Clint Pumphrey
2015, 2024

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