Poetry Reading, (Vietnam-era) American Writers Against the Vietnam War . David Ray (Reed Professor), and others at Reed College, March 5, 1966, part 1 of 1, 1966-03-05

 Item — Box: 5.5, Object: 084CD

Dates

  • 1966-03-05

Extent

From the Collection: 46.2 Linear Feet

Language

From the Collection: English

General

Notes from FileMaker 'Title' field: David Ray and I set up called American Writers Against the Vietnam War. The first read-in we did was at Reed College–I think Ferlinghetti was there. Louis Simpson helped a lot; Robert Bly

Notes from FileMaker 'Lecturer/Performer' field: Ray, David et. al. (Vietnam-era Poetry Reading)

Notes from FileMaker 'Cross-Reference Titles' field: CD-copy from Reel to Reel Master (See Cat.# 227) "...On March 5, 1966, James Wright was one of ten poets participating in a reading given by American Writers Against the Vietnam War..." (email from Jonathan Blunk to Gay Walker, dated 11/14/2010)

An Interview with Robert Bly Part 5. Vietnam Poems

Interviewer: You wrote your first poem against the Vietnam War in 1964. It seems strange that these poems come so soon after the Snowy Fields poems in 1962. After a few months, a number of poets of all stripes joined an umbrella organization David Ray and I set up called American Writers Against the Vietnam War. The first read-in we did was at Reed College–I think Ferlinghetti was there. Louis Simpson helped a lot. The veterans of World War II like Louis, whose company was wiped out at Bastogne, were effective when right-wingers shouted at us from the balcony, "You're all cowards!" "Go back to Russia!"

(from website interview with R. Bly: http://www.robertbly.com/int_5.html)

Repository Details

Part of the Reed College Special Collections and Archives Repository

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