[syndicate] Papers of the poet Thomas Kinsella

[Séamas Cain]

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The Papers of the Irish poet Thomas Kinsella have gone to the MARBL
Library at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

For a detailed inventory of the Papers of Thomas Kinsella, go to
http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/content.php?id=kinsella774_1010913

Amazingly, the MARBL Library at Emory also holds the Papers of the
Irish poets Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, Peter Fallon/The Gallery
Press Collection, Ted Hughes, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Medbh
McGuckian, Charles Montieth, Paul Muldoon, Edna O'Brien, Desmond
O'Grady, Frank Ormsby, Tom Paulin, and James Simmons as well as other
more or less contemporary Irish poets.  Most of these manuscript
collections have been purchased by Emory.

For an index of Irish literary collections,
mostly at the MARBL Library of Emory University, go to
http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/browse.php

Amazing! that the National Library of Ireland would not have acted
more decisively to keep these manuscript collections (of literary and
historic importance) in Ireland!

Or, is it not so amazing after all? given the back-of-the-hand
treatment to most Irish authors in the past and present.

For information about the Irish
Literary Collections Portal, go to
http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/

In 1985, in Duluth, Minnesota, I was privileged to introduce Thomas
Kinsella at his reading before an audience of 400 people.  I enjoyed
several days of lengthy conversations with Kinsella.  I learned quite
a lot from him about the varieties of innovative and not-so-innovative
approaches to contemporary poetry.  Indeed, it is NOT Seamus Heaney
but Thomas Kinsella that I see as the grand old man of contemporary
Irish poetry!

At that time, on his visit in 1985, Kinsella was very interested to
learn of Lady Augusta Gregory's reaction to the city of Duluth.  In
February of 1914, Lady Gregory came to Duluth to participate in the
founding of the Little Theatre, a breakaway from the commercial
theatre of that day.  (Bernard Shaw was also involved in the founding
of this Little Theatre.)  As Lady Gregory arrived on the scene, the
harbor and the western end of Lake Superior were filled with ice.  And
further east on the great lake, in motion, there were huge ice floes.
Lady Gregory said she had never before seen "icebergs"!  Throughout
her time in Duluth, she kept talking about the "icebergs," and the
"beauty" of the "icebergs"!

Regards, from the icebergs of Lake Superior,

Séamas Cain
http://alazanto.org/seamascain
http://seamascain.writernetwork.com
http://www.mnartists.org/Seamas_Cain

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