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Kenneth Wayne Brewer papers, 1968-2000

Overview of the Collection

Title
Kenneth Wayne Brewer papers
Dates
1968-2000 (inclusive)
Quantity
95 boxes, (43.75 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_COLL MSS 275
Summary
The Kenneth Wayne Brewer papers contains letters, poetry, and related items covering the life and career of Dr. Kenneth W. Brewer, a professor and poet at Utah State University, and the Utah Poet Laureate beginning in January of 2003.
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
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Biographical Note

Kenneth Wayne Brewer was born on November 28, 1941, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Shortly after his birth, his father, Ulyss Brewer, deployed for World War II where he served most of his time fighting in the Philippines. Brewer would not see his father again until 1945. After his father's deployment, Brewer and his mother, Edna Juanita Virt Brewer, moved in with his maternal grandmother, Mary Belle Virt.

His father returned from the war in 1945. He had aspired to be a boxer, but an injury prevented this and he began driving freight trucks in Indianapolis. Eventually he became an office manager for A & H Trucking Co. His mother worked as a typist for the same firm and his grandmother was a gift wrapper for a department store in Indianapolis. Because of his parents' schedules, Brewer was largely raised by his grandmother. He entered PS 62 at age five and eventually graduated from Thomas Howe High School where he earned mostly Bs and Cs and participated in football and the ROTC. He also held a job at a local string factory during his senior year.

In 1959 he entered Butler University where he had an active social life. His original goal was to become a football coach. After a year, he transferred with a friend to New Mexico Western College in Silver City, New Mexico. He majored in English and became, due to the encouragement of some of his teachers, very interested in writing poetry. During his time at the college, he suffered a severe leg injury in a football game that ended his football career. He graduated in 1965 from the recently renamed Western New Mexico University with a bachelor of arts in English and secondary teaching. He was the first person in his family to graduate from college.

He entered the master of arts program at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico that year. It was there that he met Keith Wilson who became his mentor and friend for many years and with whom he continued to correspond. While he never had a class from Dr. Wilson, it was as a result of Dr. Wilson's encouragement that Brewer decided to try to become to be a full-time writer. Under Wilson's tutelage, Brewer published his first poem, called "Pastel." He graduated with his MA in 1967. During this time, he was a graduate assistant at the university. After graduation, he taught English at a high school in Las Cruces and was a part owner with friend Mark Medoff of a cantina called Billy the Kid's Comedy Cantina. He also married his first wife, Carol Ann Hayton on August 22, 1964. They had two children, Kimberly Diane (Marsing) born February 10, 1966, and Jonathan Keith born September 9, 1969.

He was offered a position at Utah State University and joined the faculty in 1968. While teaching on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Brewer sought his PhD at the University of Utah. He graduated with a PhD in 1973 after writing his first poetry compilation, "Catching Light," under his major professor, Franklin Fisher.

Dr. Brewer continued teaching poetry and poetry compilation throughout the 1970s while also writing poetry and publishing extensively. During this time, he developed many friendships within the Utah writing community and beyond, while continuing his correspondence with friends and poets around the country. He eventually gained national attention and was included in national anthologies and listings of prominent American poets. In 1977, he and his first wife, Carol, divorced, and the following year on September 22, 1978, he married Roberta (Bobbie) Stearman, who also was a professor of English at Utah State University. From 1977 to 1982, Dr. Brewer published four volumes of poetry and increased his participation in the writing community. During the 1980s, he participated in theater troupes, such as the Valley Players, and in many writing conferences and arts groups. During this same period, Dr. Brewer wrote and published a great deal of poetry including one book in 1994. Also during this period, he won many awards for his research and writing, both within the USU community and beyond. He also worked on the Utah centennial poetry anthology in 1996. In the spring of 2000, Dr. Brewer retired after 32 years of teaching in order to devote more time to his writing and to promoting the Utah writing community.

Dr. Brewer was named the Utah poet laureate in January of 2003, succeeding his longtime friend, David Lee. His plan was to use this position to promote one of his passions: poetry readings. He wanted to record Utah poets reading and interpreting their poetry. Dr. Brewer himself participated in literally hundreds of poetry readings around the country and published hundreds of poems and nine volumes of poetry, in addition to several compilations in conjunction with other Western poets and artists.

Dr. Brewer died at his home in Providence on March 15, 2006 following a very public nine-month battle with pancreatic cancer. This period was marked by a prodigious output in which Dr. Brewer wrote hundreds of poems, many of them dealing with themes of life and death. Shortly before he died, Dr. Brewer received a lifetime achievement award from the Utah Humanities Council. His very open struggle with cancer received extensive media coverage, including a December 18, 2005 profile on the CBS Evening News.

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Content Description

The Kenneth Wayne Brewer papers contains letters, poetry, and related items covering the life and career of Dr. Kenneth W. Brewer, a professor and poet at Utah State University, and the Utah poet laureate beginning in January of 2003. It is divided up into six different series: Correspondence, Poetry, Personal Writings, Professional Papers, Colleagues and Miscellaneous. The correspondence spans 1968 to 2000 when Dr. Brewer retired. The correspondence is both institutional and personal, though because of his friendships within the Western writing community and among Utah schools, these categories are often blurred. Occasionally the full name of a correspondent could not be determined. In those cases, the letters are listed by the only name known, e.g., Bill or Katie. If the correspondence was to an agency with which Dr. Brewer worked, that correspondence will be found with the items on that agency. The poetry is divided between individual poetry organized alphabetically and poetry collections likewise organized. The collection contains drafts and manuscripts. Published versions of these drafts along with poetry published in national poetry journals can be found in the Kenneth W. Brewer Book Collection. The collection contains personal essays and personal journals maintained by Dr. Brewer from the 1960s to the 1990s. The journals are divided between personal journals, in which Dr. Brewer wrote about his life and thoughts, and poetry journals, in which Dr. Brewer wrote poetry. Those writings that deal directly with theater, such as one-act plays, are included in Box 36 with other theater information. The collection also contains information about Dr. Brewer's teaching and mentoring of students as well as his numerous professional appointments and undertakings. In addition, the collection contains examples of poetry readings, both of his own poetry and of others, on audiotape and videotape. Finally, poetry and vitae are included from many Utah and Western poets, which Dr. Brewer gathered while working on the Utah centennial anthology. This collection covers not only the life and work Utah's second poet laureate, but also documents the larger field of Western American writing and the important figures within that community during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The final series in the collection contains an oversized box with various different items: business information on the Comedy Cantina he owned, various personal essays and poetry manuscripts, and minutes from the Utah Arts Council. A family photo album along with a few other photos have been removed and placed in a separate photo collection.

Addendum Scope and Content:

Material in this portion of the collection has been arranged to match the order in the original portion. Addendum Series I, Incoming Correspondence, is arranged alphabetically by sender and then chronologically. Some e-mails also include poetry that was sent to Dr. Brewer as an attachment. Incoming correspondence also contains e-mails and cards of encouragement from colleagues and friends after Dr. Brewer's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer as well as thank you cards for his poems and readings. Dr. Brewer's poetry submissions correspondence are also included here. Addendum Series II contains Dr. Brewer's poetry collection, arranged chronologically, poetry reading fliers, short stories, greeting cards printed with Dr. Brewer's poems, poems set to guitar music, short stories (also arranged alphabetically), and publications featuring Dr. Brewer's poems. Addendum Series III contains Dr. Brewer's personal writings, poetry and personal journals, and academic and daily planners, arranged chronologically. Addendum Series IV consists of professional papers, committees and boards Dr. Brewer served on, judging and reviewing he participated in, awards he received, as well as biographical and personal education. Addendum Series IV also contains some of Dr. Brewer's undergraduate, master's and PhD course work, handwritten notes on books, various financial papers, media reports about Dr. Brewer in addition to video and audiocassettes of his readings. Addendum Series V is made up of his colleagues' work that also includes cassette recordings of a few readings, including Allen Ginsberg and May Swenson. Of special note, in those cases where we have both draft versions as well as final versions of Dr. Brewer's writings, both versions have been retained.

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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 Kenneth W. Brewer papers must be obtained from the Special Collections and Archives manuscript curator and/or the Special Collections and Archives department head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: Kenneth W. Brewer papers USU_COLL MSS 275, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations: USU_COLL MSS 275, USUSCA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by subject matter.

Processing Note

Processed in January of 2008.

Acquisition Information

The Kenneth W. Brewer Papers were given to Utah State University Special Collections and Archives by Dr. Brewer in four donations. The first was in 1997 and included ten boxes of poetry, photographs, and books, both of his own poetry and of the Beat Generation. The second donation was in 1998 and was more poetry and personal writing. The third collection was seven boxes in 2000 after Dr. Brewer's retirement and included more books and much of the correspondence and personal information. The addendum material contained seven boxes and was donated to Utah State University Special Collections and Archives in 2006 after Dr. Brewer's death.

Related Materials

Kenneth Wayne Brewer photographs P0381

Separated Materials

Kenneth Wayne Brewer photographs P0381

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Poets laureate--Utah.
  • Poets, American--Utah.

Finding aid/Register created by Jonathan Barney/Sara Skindelien
2011

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

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