Restau Press / Mark Nunnelee Archive. Mark Nunnelee. 1960s–1990s.

Restau Press / Mark Nunnelee Archive.

1960s–1990s. Item #3152

Though short-lived, Restau Press occurred at a critical point in the life of its editor and many of the authors within. As such, this compact archive testifies to this crucial span of years from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, centered on the Boston/Cambridge/Gloucester poetry scene. Correspondence with or about each of the contributors to Restau is well-documented in the archive, along with colleagues from the era, including much discussion of John Wieners and Stephen Jonas, as well as letters from Gerard Malanga, Bill Corbett, Clayton Eshleman, Kenneth Irby, and many others. In particular, significant correspondence with Diane di Prima (for whom he served as an amanuensis in the early 1970s) during the beginning of her Loba poems and teaching in Wyoming (“heavy vibes from wasted earth”), decades-long correspondence with Gerrit Lansing, and letters with Thomas Meyer reveal Nunnelee’s role as a surprising center of creative energy in postwar American poetics.

Photograph by Ammiel Alcalay.

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