Richard Vetere Collection
Manuscript Collection 375
Description:
Papers, 1967-2001.
12.6 cubic ft.
Organization: Series arrangement chronological by document type and format.
The Richard Vetere Collection consists of the author's published and
unpublished manuscripts, screenplays, plays, and poetry; notebooks; correspondence;
and memoranda.
Processed by Alison Huftalen with the assistance of Kristen J. Nyitray
and F. Jason Torre, December 2004.
Online finding aid by Kristen J. Nyitray.
Preface
Introduction
Biography
Series Outline
Container Listing
Preface
The Department of Special Collections worked collaboratively with Professor
Fred Gardaphe, Director of the Italian/American Studies Program at SUNY
at Stony Brook, to obtain the Richard Vetere Collection. Within the University
Libraries' collections, there are over 1100 items which support the interdisciplinary
minor in Italian American Studies. These items consist of autobiographies,
biographies, novels, poetry, studies of Italian American communities,
linguistic studies, films, materials on the migration process, as well
as genealogical sources.
Introduction
The Richard Vetere Collection was donated in January 2004.
It contains 12.6 cubic feet (42 boxes) of material and includes manuscripts,
published works, correspondence, and research notes.
The collection is open to research without restrictions in accordance
with general access principles, and under the discretion of the Special
Collections Department staff. The collection's creator (Mr. Richard Vetere)
retains copyright to his personal papers and publications.
In citing the collection, please credit it as follows: Richard Vetere
Collection, Special Collections Department, University Libraries, Stony
Brook University. Correspondence for Mr. Vetere may be addressed to:
53-40 62nd Street, Maspeth, NY 11378 or VETRICH88@aol.com.
Biography
Prepared by Mr. Richard Vetere
Richard Vetere was born on 23rd Street in Manhattan on January 15th
1952 and raised in Maspeth, Queens. His parents were Albert Vetere, from
the West Village in Manhattan, a clerk who worked over forty years in
the Universal Movies warehouse on 57th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan
and Angelina Guiliano, from Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Richard was the first born and his two brothers to follow were named
Robert and Albert. Both sides of Richard’s family were abundant
with passionate and outspoken men and women. They were gregarious, hardworking
and law-abiding. His father’s mother, Maria, an orphan was active
in the Women’s Suffrage movement. His mother’s mother, Anna,
was the first female shop steward in the electrical union in New York
City at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Richard’s grandfather on his father’s side owned a tailor
shop on Spring Street and Sixth Avenue in the 1920’s and several
of Richard’s uncles were NYPD detectives and many were electricians
thanks to his grandmother. Angelina and Albert provided Richard with
a warm and loving childhood. They moved into a solid brick two-story
house on 62nd Street in 1955. The house was surrounded on the exterior
by cemeteries, factories and truck lots. However the rolling hills, alleyways
and empty lots were a paradise of a playground for Richard’s rich
imagination.
Richard attended Saint Stanislaus Catholic grammar school where he was
an excellent student and altar boy. A pretty, popular thirteen year old
named June Arorryo who ran with a much older crowd introduced Richard
to poetry by showing him a poem one day in class. The poem was sent in
a letter to her from her eighteen-year old boyfriend, who was serving
and fighting in Vietnam. They were in the seventh grade and the year
was 1963. The poem was about horrors and loneliness of jungle warfare
and after reading it Richard was overwhelmed with feeling.
He went home and immediately wrote his first poem. It was a short rhyming
poem titled “Today I am Forty Years Old” about Richard’s
friend who’s father was hit and disabled by a enemy motor during
the Normandy Invasion in World War II.
Richard showed the poem to June who handed it to Sister Maria. Sister
Maria handed the poem to the Mother Superior who brought Richard around
to every classroom having him stand in front of his fellow students as
she proudly read the poem aloud to them. Though shy Richard was petrified
by all the attention he managed to survive the ordeal.
Richard soon graduated and was accepted into the all boys Monsignor McClancy
High School where he quickly gained the reputation as “poet” when
he won the school’s Edgar Allan Poe Poetry Contest with his poem
titled “Thoughts Upon A Cloudy Day.” The Brothers at McClancy
appointed Richard Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine The Voyager.
Richard filled notebook upon notebook with poetry during those years
and every weekend in the library taking out books on poets. Though he
knew little about the poets themselves, he read Keats, Shelly and Byron
romanticizing about their short but exciting lives, quite different from
his prosaic but pleasant days in the middle class Queens neighborhood.
McClancy was where Richard learned the value of discipline and the skill
of typing. Though the school was strict, Richard and his neighborhood
friends, often older, spent their ‘off’ time ‘down
the park’ and playing sports.
Richard graduated and was accepted into Saint John’s University
and after years of complying to a strict ‘dress code’ at
McClancy Richard was thrilled to be able to grow his hair long and wear
jeans to school. He also bought a motorcycle and ‘hung’ out
with a dangerous but exciting crowd in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, his mother’s
old neighborhood.
During these days Richard filled even more notebooks of poetry dreaming
of publishing a book. At Saint John’s he won first prize in a poetry
contest and his life was changed forever. The contest’s judge,
Professor Remo Iannucci befriended Richard and became his mentor introducing
him to the life and world of poets including the European poets Rilke,
Andre Gide, Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Bauldlaire among many. Richard was also
made the Poetry-Editor of the literary magazine Sequoia and quickly became
famous on the campus for publishing his work in national magazines at
the age of seventeen.
Richard gave poetry readings at the university and through Dr. Iannucci’s
recommendation, Richard was accepted into Columbia University and received
his master’s degree in Comparative English Literature the following
year. In that year Richard continued writing poetry, giving poetry readings
and wrote his master’s theses on the poetry of Delmore Schwartz.
Also, thanks to Dr. Iannucci’s introductions, Richard quickly ran
the Poetry Division of the Queens Council on the Arts.
The decade of the 1970s
After graduating from Columbia University with his master’s degree
at the age of twenty-two, Richard faced the ‘real’ world
and had to devise a way to make a living. He moved out of his family’s
house moving into the apartment in Bayside/Flushing that he still lives
in.
Making ends meet was difficult and Richard, accustomed to hard work and
odd jobs, promised himself that he would take the leap to become a working
writer. He was determined. He went out socially hoping to make connections
and he joined all the art organizations available teaching himself how
to write journalism, fiction, screenplays and plays.
Several people during those days helped Richard survive and gave him
the confidence to continue. Rudoph Marinelli, Jane Crowley of the Queens
Historical Society and Dr. Iannucci, all older and wiser, helped him
through the decade. They worked to help him secure grants and attain
membership into Poets & Writers where he could earn money giving
readings of his poetry. Some of the grants he received during this time
included A Mary Roberts Rineheart Grant and a Cultural Council Foundation
Grant/C.E.T.A. In 1976 Richard published his volume of poetry titled Memories
of Human Hands and a novella The Last Detective.
But Richard was developing another passion and that was for the theatre.
He had presented plays in his backyard in the alley entertaining neighbors
and family for several years when he was only a child but while at Columbia
his desire to ‘write plays’ possessed him. He loved the interaction
with actors and the thrill of seeing his work performed for a live audience.
With monies from family and friends, Mr. Vetere co-founded an off-off
Broadway Theatre company aptly named the GAP. The idea was to be the ‘gap’ between
commercial and avante-guard theatre. He joined forces with a neighborhood
friend who was an actor named Tony Cippola and they produced several
seasons at the Grove Theatre.
Richard’s very first play ever produced was titled Nero and
was performed at the 18th Street Theatre. The play gained him good reviews
but it was his poetic play Hadrian’s Hill that brought him the
best notices including from the Village Voice which printed “In
Mr. Vetere’s work imagery and metaphor blend, often brilliantly,
imparting beautiful word pictures.” These two plays were part of
a trilogy that compared New York City to ancient Rome. The third play
was Night Over the Tiber and was produced at the Provincetown
Playhouse.
However, Richard’s work was still far too poetic for the naturalistic
stage and it wasn’t until 1978 when Israel Horovitz (who became
a life-long friend) accepted Richard into the Actor’s Studio Playwright’s
Unit that Richard wrote a play that was a stylistic breakthrough for
him.
Rockaway Boulevard was the realistic portrayal of a loving but
conflicted couple who lived in Queens and tended to the husband’s
dying father. Dr. Iannucci helped inspire the play but Richard found
theatrical devises like the father’s banging on the floor above
and a rooftop scene inspired from films such as On The Waterfront, The
Hustler and Hud, that gave him an instant reputation at
the Studio.
A subsequent production of the play directed by Rudolph Marinelli at
the Cubiculo Theatre stated “Mr. Vetere demonstrates the ability
to mix the poetic with the colloquial. He shows promise indeed.” Michiko
Kakutaini wrote that for the New York Times in 1981.
Over the following three decades the play continues to be produced in
New York City with crossover appeal having been done by African-American
and Latino theatre companies alike. In 1979 it was chosen to represent
American theatre at the International Playwright’s Conference at
McGil University in Montreal.
Rockaway Boulevard led Richard to writing several more plays
set in the borough of Queens populated by characters who possessed a
cutting sarcasm and wit and were always conflicted by the choice of the
dream on one hand and the realistic options on the other. These plays
performed at the Actor’s Studio included Johnny on the Pony and Joey ‘No
Talk.’
While Israel Horovitz introduced Richard to the New York Theatre scene
and Remo Iannucci encouraged Richard’s poetry writing, Rudolph
Marinelli introduced Richard to the commercial world of film.
The older Mr. Marinelli, an editor and film producer, hired Richard to
re-write a movie script. After that work was complete, Richard quit his
security guard job at the Queens Mall and worked for Mr. Marinelli as
an editor during the day and the two worked on screenplays in the evening.
During those years Richard assistant edited movies such Bergman’s Face
to Face and Scenes from a Marriage as well as Bertolucci’s
1900 and co-authored several screenplays with Mr. Marinelli which they
eventually sold including Nuts & Bolts and Rage of the
Blue Moon.
Richard continued his theatre career being one of the co-creators of The
New Living Newspaper which was a political satire ripped from the
headlines in the tradition of the 1930’s social plays and was presented
at Playwright’s Horizons Theatre in 1979.
By the end of the decade, Richard had garnered the beginnings of success.
He published his first book of poetry, he had become a playwright-in-Residence
at the Actor’s Studio and he was on the verge of having his first
screenplay produced.
The Decade of the 1980s
Mr. Vetere was introduced to film director William Lustig by fellow alumni
of Saint John’s University, Russ Banham in 1980. Mr. Banham,
an actor, who had a meteoric but short-lived Hollywood career, was
a former member of the GAP Theater Company. The introduction was made
and Mr. Lustig, having seen Mr. Vetere’s Rockaway Boulevard at
the Actor’s Studio, quickly hired Mr. Vetere to write what he
called ‘a working class Death Wish.’
The indie film, starring future Oscar nominated actor Robert Forster
titled Vigilante, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983
and exploded in American’s theatres becoming the 20th grossing
motion picture of that year.
During this time Mr. Vetere also took on adjunct lecturing positions
at Saint John’s University as well as Queens College. He taught
screenwriting at Queens College for fifteen years.
The following year Mr. Vetere published his second volume of poetry A
Dream of Angels and despite still not having an agent to market
his work, the success of Vigilante gave Mr. Vetere an international reputation
and in 1987 he was flown to Paris. He lived for three months in Paris
splitting his time between there and the south of France re-writing French
screenplays (already translated into English) for French producers and
directors.
It was also in the late 80s that Mr. Vetere was flown out to Los Angeles
by Fame producer David DeSilva. Mr. Vetere’s first trip
to Los Angels was to work with director Stuart Gordon.
Though that project never materialized any further, Mr. Vetere made many
subsequent trips to Los Angels in the 80’s and always stayed on
the beach at 2121 Ocean Avenue. It was at the apartment in beautiful
Santa Monica of former GAP Theatre Company member Nick Hardin aka Nick
Mariano who has also become a life-long friend.
Mr. Vetere had numerous productions of his plays in small Los Angeles
theatres and it was during this time that Mr. Vetere developed the screenplay
adaptation of his stage play Rage of the Blue Moon which became
a Lifetime Cable movie over a decade later.
It was also during this time where Mr. Vetere continued to give poetry
readings in nightclubs in New York city including the China Club and
Heartbreaks to name a few. Because of this notoriety he became a welcomed
member to the famous restaurant and celebrity hang-out in New York City
called Columbus. It was there where he met the brilliant literary agent
Mary Meagher who enhanced his career for the following decade. It was
in the mid-90s that Ms. Meagher brought Mr. Vetere over to the
William Morris Agency.
This relationship brought other stage productions to Mr. Vetere including
productions of his plays at theatres like New York Film and Stage company
at Vassar, Naked Angels, EST, HERE Theatre, Circle Rep among a few in
NYC. Two of his most produced plays of this time were the oddly dark Painting
X’s on the Moon and Black and White City Blues. Mr.
Vetere also developed his stage play The Marriage Fool with
actor Farley Granger playing Richard’s father produced at Circle
Rep. The play developed from a one-act into a full-length inspired by
his father’s death. And it was in the ‘80’s where Mr.
Vetere began the early drafts of his novel The Third Miracle which
has refined his literary reputation more than anything he has written
before or since.
The Decade of the 1990s
The 1990s were teaming with film, television and theatrical productions
for Mr. Vetere. It was also a decade where Mr. Vetere saw numerous
publications of his work and a time where he accomplished an enormous
amount writing.
It all started when Mr. Vetere’s teleplay adaptation of his stage
play Hale the Hero! premiered on A&E as part of the General
Motors Playwrights Theatre starring Elizabeth Shue and Kevin Anderson.
It garnered a rave review in the LA Times. At the same time his play The
Engagement was produced at the George Street Playhouse. This was
quickly followed by the Penguin Repertory Theatre Company’s production
in Nyack, New York of his stage play The Marriage Fool. Mr.
Vetere was immediately hired to adapt the play for CBS and in 1997 it
aired as a Sunday night TV movie of the week starring Walter Matthau,
Carol Brunet, John Stamos and Teri Polo. It was the highest rated TV
movie of year.
Mr. Vetere wrote several more plays that were produced at Penguin Rep.
during the decade including The Vows of Penelope Correli; One
Shot, One Kill; Gangster Apparel and First Love. Gangster
Apparel had its world premiere at the Old Red Lion in London in
1993, produced at Penguin in 1994 and at HERE in NYC off-off Broadway
in 1995. The movie rights were then sold to Paramount Films and Mr. Vetere
wrote the screenplay adaptation.
Mr. Vetere also wrote an evening of one-act plays that were presented
in 1993 at the West Bank Café including How to Go Out on a
Date in Queens; A Coupla Bimbos Sittin’ Around Talkin’; A
Piece of Property and The Spot.
In 1995 the Dramatic Publishing House at last published Mr. Vetere’s
plays. His play, The Classic, produced by Manhattan Theatre
Source was added to their catalogue. In 1997 Mr. Vetere was hired to
write for the CBS TV series Dellaventura which starred Danny
Aiello where he was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for his
writing.
Because of his growing reputation, Mr. Vetere was offered to write a
movie in Rome called The Zip for director Giacomo Battiato.
Mr. Vetere lived in Rome as he worked on the screenplay.
In 1997 the publishing house of Carrol & Graf released his novel The
Third Miracle to rave reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and the
Library Journal chose it as one of the best debut novels of the
year. Simon & Schuster immediately issued the trade paperback edition.
Since then the novel has been published in many languages. Francis Ford
Coppola optioned the novel in 1997 and Mr. Vetere co-authored the screenplay
adaptation which was filmed in Toronto, Canada by internationally famous
director Agneiszka Holland starring Ed Harris, Anne Heche and Armin Mueller-Stahl
and produced by Mr. Coppola. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival
in 1998 and was distributed by Sony Picture Classics that same year.
The film and novel continue to be taught in Universities in Catholic
Theology classes as well as classes entitled from ‘Fiction to Film.’
The Decade of 2000
In 2000 Mr. Vetere’s film adaptation of his stage play How
To Go Out On a Date in Queens was filmed by Michele Danner starring
Jason Alexander and Kimberly Williams and Alison Eastwood. In 2001 Mr.
Vetere acted in his stage play Safe at the Manhattan Theater
Source Theatre company returning to Bleeker and McDougal Streets where
he wrote and acted in his very first stage play when he was only nine
years old. He adapted the screenplay of Safe for director/actor
Chaz Palmintieri to star in and direct.
Mr. Vetere play One Shot, One Kill was produced at Primary Stages
during the 2002 season in New York City to rave reviews where it was
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 2003 Mr. Vetere was Story Editor on
the ABC series TV Threat Matrix and lived in Tuloca Lake in
Los Angeles for that season. In 2004 Mr. Vetere performed his piece Fired
at Second Stage and was cast in a major role in Debra Einstadt’s
second film The Limbo Room as understudy actor Shelly Meyers.
The movie stars Melissa Leo. He was also cast in Jane Ainbender’s
movie Nail Polish.
Currently, Mr. Vetere has completed his novel Passion City as
well his commission for Phil Ramone, Sonny Grosso and Pierre Cosset of
a book for the musical on Mario Lanza titled Be My Love. There
are also upcoming productions of his book for the musical 100 Years
Into the Heart and a commercial run New York City run planned for
his stage play Gangster Apparel. Mr. Vetere is also currently
working on a screen adaptation of the book Programmed to Kill for
producer Kim Rubin titled As Seen On TV.
Mr. Vetere’s family includes his mother and brothers Robert and
Albert as well as his sister-in-laws June and Kathy and his nephews Robert,
Tommy and Albert. He continues to write and live in Queens.
The year 2005 found Mr. Vetere working
on the screenplay adaptation of his stage play Caravaggio for producer
Lili Zanuck with actor Russell Crowe to play Caravaggio. However,
despite all the interest, a director could never be agreed upon. Mr.
Vetere also found his musical 100 Years Into the Heart be
chosen by the Broadway Bound series at the Kaufman Center and present
at Lincoln Center. It
was then produced at the Spirit of Broadway in Norwich, Connecticut
and later that year Mr. Vetere won the Best Book and Best New Show
at the black tie award diner.
Other
events that year included Mr. Vetere selling a TV show idea to Fox Studio
but unlike the success he had with George Clooney executive producing
along with Warner Bros. his TV pilot, The Wonder, Mr. Vetere
along with Fox Studio producers Brad Johnson couldn’t sell his
new idea. In 2005 Mr. Vetere also completed his new novel Baroque about
minor painter Mario Minitti set in Rome in 1600 and he wrote a new play
called Poet On A String about Delmore Schwartz and James Agee. He
also did a reading of his play Johnny On the Pony with actor
Paul Sorvino.
The
year 2006 was a very busy year beginning with his novel The Third
Miracle becoming a Book of the Month Club selection in Spain and
with his play Machiavelli having its world premiere at the
Manhattan Theater Source then moving to an Off-Broadway run at the
ArcLight Theater later that year. His play Caravaggio opened
in Chicago at the Silk Road Theater and Mr. Vetere was asked to be
a guest speaker about Caravaggio by the Chicago Humanities Festival.
His
movie How to Go Out On A Date in Queens had its world premiere
at the Lemley Theater in Beverly Hills and is now a big seller on DVD.
The film he acted in The Limbo Room was accepted into Slamdance
and many other film festivals and Mr. Vetere continued to help run
the Queens International Film Festival in its new home at the Museum
of the Moving Image in Astoria. Mr. Vetere was also asked to
teach a masterscreenwriting class at NYU and was asked back to lecture
on screenwriting at Queens College. He also had a presentation
of his musical of his novel The Third Miracle with lyrics
by Jeff Hughes and music by Scott Eithier. On a personal note
his mother, Angelina Vetere, passed away and his best friend over many
years, Alan Czak also died. His long time agent, Mary Meagher
who he had lost contact with over seven years earlier, died of liver
and heart failure at the age of 47.
In 2007, early in the year, Mr. Vetere was commissioned to write the stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's film Rear Window. Mr. Vetere also wrote an early draft of his new play Poet On a String a dramatic piece about the real life meeting of poets Delmore Schwartz, James Agee and Gertrude Buckman, Delmore's wife, in July of 1939 on Monk's Farm in New Jersey . Dramatic Publishing released Mr. Vetere's published plays Machiavelli and Caravaggio . 100 Years Into the Heart was presented at the Village Theater Musical Theater Festival in Seattle and Mr. Vetere's other musical Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Story was presented at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts with the Nassau Pops to a one night only sold out performance of 2,500 people. Mr. Vetere continued as the Senior Advisory Board member for the Queens Film Festival which had its most successful festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. The Staten Island Center for the Arts presented An Evening with Richard Vetere with Mr. Vetere and actresses Antoinette LaVecchia, Margo Passalaqua, and Angela Rauscher read poetry from Mr. Vetere's volume Memories of Human Hands and dramatized scenes from his novel The Third Miracle . Richard Vetere also wrote a new play titled Three Sister From Queens and a ten minute play titled An Epic Story of Love and Sex Told In Ten Minutes: Chapter One.
In 2008, Mr. Vetere directed a reading of Three Sisters in Queens at the Cherry Lane Theater and An Epic Story of Love and Sex Told in Ten Minutes: Chapter One which was named one of the best short plays of the year and published by Smith and Kraus. Penguin Rep performed a new draft of Mr. Vetere's play The Vows of Penelope Corelli and Caravaggio was optioned for an Off-Broadway production. Mr. Vetere also wrote his first young adult play, Bird Brain, and it was given its first staged reading at the Lindenhurst High School. That year Mr. Vetere also saw a production of One Shot, One Kill at Colin University outside Dallas . Mr. Vetere continued teaching film writing at Queens College and was asked to teach film writing at Montclair State University . He was also asked to create a playwrighting/theater class at Lang College at the New School. Mr. Vetere also collaborated with director Eddie Shieh and wrote a short film You & Me which they coproduced and shot in around New York City. The short film was a love story told in ten different languages. Mr. Vetere also adapted his novel The Third Miracle for the stage and the film was presented at MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art ) as a part of a retrospect of director Agnieszka Holland's work. Mr. Vetere was asked to introduce the film with Agnieszka and actor Ed Harris. That winter The Sundance Chanel presented The Limbo Room and actress Melissa Leo, also in Limbo Room, was nominated for an Oscar for her work in Frozen River. Mr. Vetere also wrote two new plays this year, Murder in the Dark, a mystery set in NYC 1948 and Lady MacBeth's Lover. He also worked on his screenplay Couple Wanted.
Series Outline
SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORANDA, 1967- 2001 (14 Boxes)
SERIES II: POETRY, 1965 - 1988 (4 Boxes)
SERIES III: PLAYS, 1972- 2001 (6 Boxes)
SERIES IV: SCREENPLAYS, 1975-1993 (5 Boxes)
SERIES V: TELEVISION and SHORT STORIES/NOVELLAS (1 Box)
SERIES VI: NOVELS (4 Boxes)
SERIES VII: ESSAYS (2 Boxes)
SERIES VIII: NOTEBOOKS, 1973-1997 (1 Box)
SERIES IX: OTHER AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS (1 Box)
SERIES X: PUBLICATIONS (2 Boxes)
SERIES XI: OVERSIZED & MISCELLANEOUS (1 Box)
Container Listing
Series I: CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORANDA, 1967- 2001 (14 Boxes)
Personal letters and greeting cards, professional correspondence with
publishing houses, managers, actors and venues, teaching correspondence
and newsletters and announcements, calendars and datebooks and press
Box 1
1967-1974
Box 2
1975
Box 3
1976-1979
Box 4
1980-1984
Box 5
1984 – 1985
Box 6
1986
Box 7
1987-1988
Box 8
1988-1989
Box 9
1989-1990
Box 10
1991-1995
Box 11
1996-2001
Box 12
n.d.
Box 13
Calendars and datebooks, 1974, 1985-1991, 1994, 1982-83* (located in
Box 42, oversized)
Box 14
Article clippings 1970s-1990s
Press 1970s-2001
Queens Council on the Arts Literary Happenings
Curriculum Vitae and resumes
SERIES II: POETRY, 1965 - 1988 (4 Boxes)
Poetry collections and loose and miscellaneous poems
Note: Arranged by date and then alphabetically by title
Box 15
1965-1970, writings from high school
1971, miscellaneous poems
1972-1974, notes for poems and essays for Torch, St. John’s University
newspaper
1970s, published poem clippings
1972, miscellaneous poems
Winter/Spring 1972, Notebook: “From the Lost” Collected Poems
1972-1973, “Memories of Human Hands” (3 folders)
n.d., Notebook: “Memories of Human Hands”
n.d. “Memories of Human Hands”
1973, miscellaneous poems
May-Oct. 1973, Notebook: “A Verse of Cities”
Box 16
1973-1975, “The Earth is a Man” poems
1974, Notebook: “The Earth is a Man” and loose poems
1974, “Dead Body”
1974-1975, miscellaneous poems
1974-1975, Poetry binder
1975, “Knot Endings”
1975-1976, “Stone House Notes”
1976, published book: “Memories of Human Hands”
Jan-Feb 1976, “Surfaces”
1976, miscellaneous poems
1985-1988, miscellaneous poems
n.d., “Messages from the Outpost”
n.d., “Voices, Visions, and other Places”
n.d., “The Year Before the Year”
Box 17
n.d., miscellaneous poems (7 folders)
Box 18
n.d., Notebooks: “Autumn Unattached and One More Winter”
“Beneath the Earth Blazed Sky”
“Cain and the Unknown God”
“Cruelty of the Touch”
“Jesse in the Winter City”
“Life’s Tarnished Rainbow”
“A Tender Rage”
“To the Empty Ruins of my Heart”
“The Violent Summer of Byron Kane”
“Voices from the Stage”
“The Worn Wishes of a Forgotten Man”
SERIES III: PLAYS, 1972- 2001 (6 Boxes)
Note: arranged by date and then alphabetically by title
Box 19
(1972-1977)
July 23, 1972, 1st Draft? “The First Born”: an opera
1972, “The Hangman’s Love”
1973, “Nero” – 1st Draft
1973?, “Nero” (2 folders)
1973, “The First Born” – sheet music to opera *Located
in Box 42 oversize
Oct. 26, 1974 “Hadrian’s Hill”- Draft (2 folders)
1975, “Hadrian’s Hill” – Final Draft
1975, “The First Born”: an opera
12.31.1976, “Downfall of a Girl” – 1st Draft
1976?, “Downfall of a Girl”
1976?, “Jack and Jill”
1976?, “Night Over the Tiber” – 1st Draft
1976?, “Night Over the Tiber” (3 folders)
Box 20
(1978-1979)
1978?, “Rockaway Boulevard”
4.28.78 “Disco Fever”
1978, “Paradise” – 1st Draft?
1978, “Paradise” – Working Draft
1978, “Paradise” (2 folders)
1978, “Paradise” – Final Draft
7.31.1979, “Johnny on the Pony: - Draft
Box 21
(1980s)
1980?, “Brooklyn Voices”
1981? “The Arrogance of a Fat Man” – 1st Draft (2 folders)
1981? “The Arrogance of a Fat Man”
1981? “The Arrogance of a Fat Man” – 2nd Draft?
1986, “The Marriage Fool”
1989, “Rage of the Blue Moon” (alternate title: “Claudia”)
Box 22
(1990-2001)
1990, “Hale the Hero” (3 Folders)
1990, “Lonesome Cowboy”
1990, “Local Politics” (2 Folders)
1991, “Gangster Apparel”
March 1992, “Local Politics”
9.5.1992, “Four Cops”
1.1.1994. “The Classic”
1999?, “Painting X’s on the Moon” – Early Draft
1999?, “Painting X’s on the Moon”
March 1999, “Painting X’s on the Moon” 3rd Draft
1.1.2001, “Safe”
Box 23
(n.d.)
“Behavior Unbecoming an Officer:
“Claudia” (3 folders)
"Caravaggio" (1 folder)
“Desperado” (2 folders)
“The Hooker and the John” – 1st Draft
“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded” (2 folders)
Box 24
(n.d.)
“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded”
“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded” – Discussion
Draft
“Don John” (3 folders)
“Dogs”
“The Living Newspaper”
Box 25
(n.d.)
“Rockaway Boulevard” – 1st Draft
“Rockaway Boulevard” (2 Folders)
“Shrink”
“Vegas Lady”
Unidentified, set in Texas
Unidentified (2 Folders)
Unidentified, Pola Negri
SERIES IV: SCREENPLAYS, 1975-1993 (5 Boxes)
Box 26
(1975-1977)
1975-76, “N8 St.”/ “North Eighth Street” (4
folders)
1976, “The Arms of Venus de Milo”
1976, Unidentified
1978?, “Disco Fever” – notes
1978?, “Disco Fever” – Screen treatment with William
Lustig
1979, “The Tax Man Cometh” – Proposal
Late 1970s, “Nuts and Bolts” – 1st Draft (4 folders)
Late 1970s, “Streetwise”?
Box 27
(1981-1983)
Feb 1981, “The Honoured Society” –Screen Treatment,
1st Draft
12.1.1981, “The Honoured Society” – Treatment
9.10.1981, “Vigilante” – 3rd Draft
1981, “Vigilante”
1983, “For Better or For Worse”/”The Right Lane” – 1st
Draft (2 folders)
1983. “For Better or For Worse”/”The Right Lane” – index
cards
1983, “For Better or For Worse” w/ David deSilva
Box 28
(1985-1992)
11.26.1985, “The Original Cast” – 1st Draft
1987, “The Original Cast” – Final Draft
1990, “The Hanging Ground”
1990? “Son of the Jaguar” – Adaptation
1990? “Son of the Jaguar” - Research information
1990, “Toni Goes to Mars”
1.1992, “Rage of the Blue Moon” – Notes on Draft
1992, “Rage of the Blue Moon”
Box 29
(1992-1993)
7.15.1992, “In the Name of Love” – Treatment
1992, “The Zip”
8.23.1993, “The Place to Be” – Rough 1st Draft
10.21.1993, “The Place to Be”
5.15.1993, “What’s on Your Mind” – 1st Draft,
w/Frank Pesce (2 folders)
6.15.1993, “What’s on Your Mind” – Revised 1st
Draft
Box 30
(n.d.)
“A & P” – adaptation, “Cinehaus” – treatment
“Downtown” – synopsis
“End of the Line” – also by Marc Levin
“Home Movies” – Early Drafts
“Home Movies”
“Joey No Talk” (2 Folders)
“Lies that Bind” (2 Folders)
“Manhattan Towers”
“Royal Blue” –Proposal for Documentary
“A Tender Rage” – 1st Draft
“A Tender Rage”
Unidentified treatment
Unidentified 1st Draft
SERIES V: TELEVISION AND SHORT STORIES/NOVELLAS (1 Box)
Television series proposal and short fiction
Box 31
Television
1978, “Cover Girls”
1978, “K.O. Joe”
1978, “The Silver Screen”
1982, “The ‘Out to Lunch’ Gang”
1983, “The ‘Out to Lunch’ Gang”
n.d., “David Co.”
n.d., “E.S.P.” Episode #1
n.d., “Foreign Bodies”
n.d., “Inside Out”
n.d., “SDS: Decade of Rebellion 1960-1970” – Rough
Draft
n.d., “Decade of Rebellion: - Discussion Draft
n.d., “SDS: Decade of Rebellion 1960-1970)
n.d., “Streetwise” w/ Rudolph Marinelli
Short Stories/Novellas
1974, “From the Sky” – 1st Draft (2 folders)
1976, “The Last Detective” – First Draft
1976?, “The Last Detective” – Working Drafts (2 Folders)
1978, “The Last Detective” – published books
n.d., “The Conductor”
n.d., “The Dead”
n.d., “First Love” (2 folders)
n.d., “Love Struck”
n.d., “Maspeth” – 1st Draft
n.d., “Maspeth” – Working Drafts (2 folders)
n.d., “Money”, “White Man”
SERIES VI: NOVELS (4 Boxes)
Box 32
(1976)
3.7.1976, “White Summer” (3 Folders)
10.10.1976, “White Summer”
n.d., “White Summer”
1976. “White Summer” (3 Folders)
Box 33
(1977-1991)
6.25.1977, “Don John”
1977, “Don John” (2 Folders)
1991, “The Third Miracle” (5 folders)
Box 34
(1991 & n.d.)
August 1991, “The Third Miracle” (3 Folders)
November 1991, “The Third Miracle” (2 folders)
n.d., “The Conductor”
Box 35
(n.d.)
“The Capitalist” – Part I
“Castle’s Daughter”
“The Irony Factor” – Synopsis and Prologue
“The Irony Factor” – notes and draft
“Maniac” – based on screenplay, bound
“Vision of Vincent Spark”
SERIES VII: ESSAYS (2 Boxes)
Box 36
Critical Essays
1976?, “Ashberry’s Poetry: The Audience that isn’t
Listening”
1977, “Behind the ‘Scenes’”
1977, “Gilbert Sorrentino Interview & Notes”
1977, “Gilbert Sorrentino and the Writing of Serious Fiction”
1977? “Italian/American Theatre Now!” – research materials
1977? “Italian/American Theatre Now!”
Dec 1979, “The Poet as Performer: Magician of the Moment”
June 1980, “The Movie was Great but Wait Until You Read the Novel” Journal
Vol.3/5
Feb 1980, “Poets, Fiction Writers Face Shrinking Markets During
1980s”
May 1980, “The World of the Small Press, Is it too Small?”
Spring 1994, “Gangster Apparel in London”
11.8.2000, “Poets & Writers Talk” – Speech
n.d., “Bertolucci’s NOVECENTO (1900)”
n.d., “A Bond of Blood”
n.d., “Class, Style & Warmth: The Italian/American Woman”
n.d., “Lawrence Ferlinghetti”
n.d., “Film: Art Form, But Whose?”
n.d., “Invisible Voices: Our Contributions to American Art”
n.d., “King of Off-Off Broadway”
n.d., “More for the Price”
n.d.,Queens Council for the Arts
n.d., “A Serious Writer”
n.d., “Tony, the Bricklayer”
n.d., “Vendetta”
n.d., “VOCI INVISIBILE: Ethnic Responsibility on Stage”
n.d., “Woman with a Mission”
n.d., Unidentified Draft
Box 37
Academic Essays
1969, High School Essays
1971, Shakespeare Notebook
1972-73, St. John’s University Essays
1972-74, Columbia University Notes (3 Folders)
1973-74, “Delmore Schwartz” – Masters Essay (3 Folders)
SERIES VIII: NOTEBOOKS 1973-1997 (1 Box)
Miscellaneous Notebooks containing organizational notes for plays, from
workshops etc.
Note: organized by date
Box 38
1973
1978-79, Actor’s Studio
1983
Spring 1993 - New York Writer’s School, Spring 1994, Summer 1994
Spring 1995, Spring/Summer 1996, Fall 1996
Winter 1997, Spring 1997, Summer/Fall 1997
n.d. – 2 notebooks
SERIES IX: OTHER AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS (1 Box)
Manuscripts by other authors
Note: organized by title
Box 39
“Chum”, Michael Hirtz – screenplay
“Dates and Nuts”, Gary Lennon - Play
“Daughter”, Peter J. Katopes – Novel (3 Folders)
“Gypsy Lover”, “Thunder”, Don Linder
1960, “The L-Shaped Room”, Lynne Reid Banks – published
novel
1993, “The Place to Be”, Bob Giraldi – Screenplay Outline
1993, “The Place to Be”. Anthony Polemini & Nancy Vaughn
“The Sound of Poetry: Best Poems of the 90s” – audio
cassette
1994, TV Pilots
“Visions,” Diana Kwiatowski Rubin – audio cassette
SERIES X: PUBLICATIONS (2 Boxes)
College and professional literary magazines and papers
Box 40
Early Spring 1947, Sequoya
January 1947, Sequoya
1966, McClancian – highschool yearbook
June 1967, The Vogager – Msgr McClancy Highschool
June 1968, The Vogager – Msgr McClancy Highschool (6 copies)
Spring 1969. The Vogager – Msgr McClancy Highschool (11 copies)
1970?, The Vogager – Msgr McClancy Highschool (5 copies)
1970, Sequoya vol.xxxiv no.II
1971, Sequoya (4 copies)
Spring 1972, America Sings College Poetry Review
Spring 1972, Sequoya – St. John’s Undergrad Literary Magazine
(12 copies)
Box 41
1972, The Torch – St. John’s University
May/June 1973, Cardinal Poetry Quarterly
Spring 1973, Sequoya: After the Black Book (7 copies)
1974, Sequoya1974, Third Edition & Epilogue – English Literary
Society, St. John’s
n.d., Source Literary Magazine – Submission Material (2 folders)
n.d., Source vol.1 no.2
SERIES XI: OVERSIZED & MISCELLANEOUS
Box 42
1973, “The First Born” – sheet music to opera
1982 Calendar
1983 Calendar
Miscellaneous posters
Miscellaneous magazines |