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James Den Boer Collection, 1960-2008

By Jen Vos

Collection Overview

Title: James Den Boer Collection, 1960-2008

ID: COLL/061

Creator: Den Boer, James (1937-2022)

Extent: 6.0 Boxes. More info below.

Arrangement: Folder level description

Languages: English [eng]

Abstract

Personal papers, notes, and manuscripts of poet James Den Boer (1937-2022). The collection includes poems, articles, programs, bibliography, and unpublished manuscripts.

Biographical Note

Poet, author, editor, and publisher were just a few hats worn by James Den Boer. He was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin on August 21, 1937, educated in local schools, and attended Calvin College (AB 1960) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (MA 1969). He served in the US Naval Reserve from 1955-1963 and married Cady Williams in 1970.

Throughout his life, Den Boer was honored with numerous awards, grants, and prizes from prestigious institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, National Arts Council, and the International Poetry Forum. He published numerous books of poetry and occasionally branched out into translations, novels, and screenplays. Den Boer lived in Sacramento, CA from the mid-1990s where he continued to write, also serving as editor of Swan Scythe Press, and the proprietor of an online book shop, Paperwork.

Administrative Information

Alternate Extent Statement: 4.284 cubic feet

Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research use within Heritage Hall.

Acquisition Method: Donation

Related Materials: Nicholas Wolterstorff Collection

Preferred Citation: [item], folder, box, James Den Boer Collection, Heritage Hall (Hekman Library), Calvin University

Box and Folder Listing

Series 1
Box 1
Folder 1: Biographical Information
Folder 2: Application for Fellowship --- 1976
Folder 3: Items regarding award-winning Learning the Way
Folder 4: Accolades
Folder 5: National Center for Health Education—Booklet edited by James Den Boer
Folder 6: Critical Essays
Folder 7: Speeches at AWP Conferences
Folder 8: Need for Project—VD Treatment
Folder 9: Poetry Notebook --- 1998
Folder 10: Book of Sketches, Poems, and Jottings --- 1969-1973
Folder 11: Book of Notes and Jottings --- 1973
Folder 12: Book of Notes, Drawings, and Jottings --- 2001-2004
Folder 13: Class Notes and Doodles
Folder 14: Correspondence - Barbara Reid, Nicholas Wolterstorff --- 1973, undated
Series 2
Box 2
Folder 1: American Literature Papers --- 1957-1958
Folder 2: English Paper - ”A Brief Study of Jonsonian Metric”
Folder 3: English Paper – ”The Alchemist” by Ben Johnson
Folder 4: English Paper – ”The Blair-Charters Letter”
Folder 5: English Paper – ”The Duchess of Malfi”
Folder 6: English Paper – ”Digging for China – The ‘American’ Poetry of Louis Simpson”
Folder 7: English Paper – ”Eliot, Laforgue and the Uban Metaphor”
Folder 8: English Paper – ”The Faerie Queen – Book One”
Folder 9: English Paper – ”Hard Times by Charles Dickens”
Folder 10: English Paper – ”The Decline and Fall of the Roman Ideal by F.L. Lucas” --- 1959
Folder 11: English Paper – ”The Idea of a University by John Newman”
Folder 12: English Paper – ”James Joyce’s Dubliners”
Folder 13: English Paper – ”James Joyce’s Chamber Music” --- 1968
Folder 14: English Paper – ”John Gould Fletcher – The Arkansas Anygist”
Folder 15: English Paper – ”Language and Stanza Form in Chaucer, Spenser, Keats, & Byron”
Folder 16: English Paper – ”Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son”
Folder 17: English Paper – ”The Malone-Booth Letter”
Folder 18: English Paper – ”The Music of Poetry in the Work of Louis Zukofsky”
Folder 19: English Paper – ”The Poetic context of Keat’s ‘Ode on Melancholy’”
Folder 20: English Paper – ”Romantic Theories of Poetry”
Folder 21: English Paper – ”Shakespeare by Mark Van Doren”
Folder 22: English Paper – ”Short Lyrics and Songs of Six Romantic Poets”
Folder 23: English Paper – ”A Song to David by Christopher Smart”
Folder 24: English Paper – ”Stylistics and Grammar” --- 1968
Folder 25: English Paper – ”The Symbolist Movement in Literature”
Folder 26: English Paper – ”Systems of Belief in Hardy and Yeats”
Folder 27: Play – ”Indio Muerto”
Folder 28: Play – ”The Birds at Geneva” by William Brown and James Den Boer
Folder 29: Short Story – ”Just Writing”
Folder 30: Manuscript of ”Strophes”
Box 3
Folder 1: Novel – Crocodile Isle Part I
Folder 2: Novel – Crocodile Isle Parts II and III
Folder 3: Novel – Flaws and Hitches
Folder 4: Novel – Two Horses
Folder 5: Novel – The Neon Air
Folder 6: Mystery Novel (Untitled Draft)
Folder 7: Novel (Missing Title Page)
Box 4
Folder 1: Screenplay - The Cubists
Folder 2: Screenplay - Azteca
Folder 3: Screenplay - Bad Blood
Folder 4: Screenplay - Coming Apart
Folder 5: Screenplay - Long Ago, Someday
Folder 6: Screenplay - Two Horses
Folder 7: A Play in One Act
Folder 8: Manuscript - String of Pearls—Sixty ”Romance” Kharjas
Box 5
Folder 1: Information regarding Kharjas
Folder 2: String of Pearls – Sixty ”Romance” Kharjas
Folder 3: Book Review – Making Health Whole
Folder 4: Poetry – Steps --- 2009
Folder 5: Poetry – Coming Apart (Black Dog, Day Moon, Steps)
Folder 6: Poetry – Trying to Come Apart
Folder 7: Poetry – Standing Between My Eyes (Traces, Day Shift/Steps)
Folder 8: Poetry – Lost in Blue Canyon and Other Poems --- 1976
Folder 9: Poetry – Learning the Way (printed copy) Winner of the US Award of the International Poetry Forum --- 1967
Folder 10: Poetry – Dreaming of the Chinese Army --- 2000
Folder 11: Poetry – Traces
Folder 12: Poetry – Four Poems --- 2009
Folder 13: Poetry – Just Enough Lights
Folder 14: Poetry – Stonework: Selected Poems --- 2007
Folder 15: Poetry – Music (Bit, Gap, Heap, Note) --- 2008
Box 6
Folder 1: Poetry – Nine Poems
Folder 2: Poetry – A Visible Light --- 1960-1964
Folder 3: Poetry – Standing Between My Eyes --- 2008
Folder 4: Poetry – SACAMIFESTO (Or, Why I Rarely Go to Local Poetry Readings) --- 2008
Folder 5: Poetry – Black Dog: An Unfinished Segue Across Two Seasons --- 2005
Folder 6: Various Poems
Folder 7: Various Poems
Folder 8: Various Poems
Folder 9: Various Poems
Folder 10: Various Poems
Folder 11: ”Walking to the Sea” Poster copy
Folder 12: Paper – ”Talking with the World”
Folder 13: Paper ”Venantius Honorius Clemantainus Fortunatus”
Folder 14: The Tule Review – Published Poetry --- 2003
Folder 15: ANGELS (Biography of Jimmy and Marie Angel)
Folder 16: Novel (Untitled Draft)
Box 7
Folder 1: Paper - The Christian Comedy of Chaucer's A Knight's Tale
Folder 2: Papers by Nicholas Wolterstorff

I. Artistically Man Acts

II. Art and Responsibility

Folder 3: Various Poems
Folder 4: Prose Poems - Back Until Then, or Unjustified, or Ragged Right
Folder 5: Kids Poems
Folder 6: Novel - Making Names