Duncan (Robert) collection
The Robert Duncan collection comprises over 100 linear feet of manuscript material, correspondence, artwork, ephemera, audio visual material, and printed material related to Robert Duncan’s (1919-1988) life and work, including a significant amount of material related to his partner, Jess (1923-2004), a visual artist who often collaborated with Duncan. The majority of this collection came from Duncan and Jess’s home shortly before and after Duncan’s death and reflects a shared life created to support their literary, artistic, and spiritual pursuits. This manuscript collection is complemented by Duncan and Jess’s shared personal library of approximately 9,000 volumes, also housed in the Poetry Collection, the arrangement preserved to reflect that of its original organization within their house.