The Eila Kokkinen Collection
This collection primarily comprises Kokkinen's correspondence with poets, artists, writers, filmmakers, art historians, and other figures related to the Beat Generation, Abstract Expressionism, and New York’s downtown art world, including letters and manuscripts from editor and publisher Irving Rosenthal, the poet Clive Matson, the artist Erin Matson, the writer Bonnie Bremser, and the writer Gerald Brenan, among many others. There are also working files from her career as an editor, curator, and art historian; artworks collected by Kokkinen; works by poets and artists inscribed or gifted to her; and ephemera documenting social and artistic movements. The archive also contains files related to Kokkinen’s time as an art editor at the Chicago Review in 1957 and 1958, when the Review, edited by Rosenthal, published excerpts from William S. Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch and was accused of obscenity by the University’s administration.
The archive is available; please contact us for inventory and price.