Guide to the Mekeel McBride and David Gordon Campbell Papers, 1966-1995

Collection number: MC 163
Size: 3 boxes (1.00 cu.ft.)

About Mekeel McBride and David Gordon Campbell

Mekeel McBride was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1950 and attended Mills College, in Oakland, California (B.A. 1972), and Indiana University where she studied creative writing under Samuel Yellen. She has taught at Harvard University, Princeton University, Wheaton College, Berwick Academy, and is currently Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire (1979-present). She also works part time as a floor-guard and birthday party specialist at Happy Wheels Roller Rink.

She has published poems in numerous magazines including The Nation, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The American Review, Tendril, Ploughshares, and Poetry. Her books include A Change in the Weather (Chowder Chapbooks, 1979), No Ordinary World (1979), The Going Under of the Evening Land (1983), Red Letter Days (1988), Wind of the White Dresses (1995), and The Deepest Part of the River (2001), all published by Carnegie-Mellon. She has had residency at the MacDowell Colony, has received two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and was a Bunting Institute Fellow. She lives in Kittery, Maine.

David Gordon Campbell was born in 1937 and was a teacher.

About the Mekeel McBride and David Gordon Campbell Papers

The collection was donated to the University of New Hampshire by David Gordon Campbell. It primarily consists of 30 years of correspondence from Mekeel McBride to David Gordon Campbell. Also included are various McBride manuscripts and publications as well as a collection of 57 photographs.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

This collection is open.

Copyright Notice

Contents of this collection are governed by U.S. copyright law. For questions about publication or reproduction rights, contact Special Collections staff.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], [Folder number], [Box number], Mekeel McBride and David Gordon Campbell Papers, 1966-1995, MC 163, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.

Acquisitions Information

Donation: David Campbell, San Francisco, CA, February 6, 1998 (Accession number: 98.001)

Collection Contents

Series 1: Correspondence, 1966-1995
Series 2: Manuscripts
Series 3: Works by Others Annotated by McBride
Series 4: Publications in Periodicals, 1971-1977
Series 5: About McBride
Series 6: Photographs, 1970-1994
Series 7: Miscellaneous

Series 1: Correspondence, 1966-1995

Correspondence is from McBride to Campbell, with the sole exception of Box 2 f. 20, which is from other individuals to Campbell.

Box 1
Box 1, Folder 1		June 30, 1966 (1)
Box 1, Folder 2		May-September 1967 (3)
Box 1, Folder 3		February-December 1968 (9)
Box 1, Folder 4		January-December 1969 (10)
Box 1, Folder 5		January-November 1970 (12)
Box 1, Folder 6		January-November 1971 (1 )
Box 1, Folder 7		January-December 1972 (14)
Box 1, Folder 8		January-March 1973
Box 1, Folder 9		April-November 1973
Box 1, Folder 10		1974
Box 1, Folder 11		1975
Box 1, Folder 12		January-June 1976
Box 1, Folder 13		June 23-November 19, 1976
Box 1, Folder 14		January 17-August 19, 1977
Box 1, Folder 15		August 26-December 28, 1977
Box 1, Folder 16		January 22-June 15, 1978
Box 1, Folder 17		August 21-September 15, 1978
Box 2
Box 2, Folder 1		1979
Box 2, Folder 2		1981
Box 2, Folder 3		1982
Box 2, Folder 4		1983
Box 2, Folder 5		1984
Box 2, Folder 6		1985
Box 2, Folder 7		1986
Box 2, Folder 8		1987
Box 2, Folder 9		1988
Box 2, Folder 10		1989
Box 2, Folder 11		1990
Box 2, Folder 12		1991
Box 2, Folder 13		1992
Box 2, Folder 14		1993
Box 2, Folder 15		April 1-August 21, 1994
Box 2, Folder 16		August 26-October 24, 1994
Box 2, Folder 17		October 30-December 11, 1994
Box 2, Folder 18		1995
Box 2, Folder 19		Undated
Box 2, Folder 20		Others to Campbell

Series 2: Manuscripts

Box 3 f. 1-5 consist of individual poems, alphabetical by title (f. 5 contains untitled works). Box 3 f. 6-10 contains collections. Box 3 f. 11 contains prose, while f. 12-13 contain commonplace materials and notebooks.

Box 3
Box 3, Folder 1	A-F
Box 3, Folder 2	G-L
Box 3, Folder 3	M-R
Box 3, Folder 4	S-Z
Box 3, Folder 5	Untitled
Box 3, Folder 6	“A Backward Look”
Box 3, Folder 7	“Learning to Sing”
Box 3, Folder 8	“Red Letter Days”
Box 3, Folder 9	“Survival Poems”
Box 3, Folder 10	“Wind of the White Dress”
Box 3, Folder 11	“The Order of Things”; “Ophelia’s Handkerchief”
Box 3, Folder 12	Commonplace notebook 8x6. Includes: Booth, Creeley, Dickey, Enslin, Gilbert, Kizer, Levertov, McBride, Merwin, Moore, Nash, Norris, Pickey, Rich, Sexton, Williams
Box 3, Folder 13	Loose commonplace. Includes: Jon Anderson, Spencer Brown, Michael Dennis Browne, James Dickey, Stephen Dobyns, Shirley Kaufman, WS Merwin, Howard Nemerov, Paul Petrie, Alastair Reid, Pierre Reverdy (translated by Ron Padgett), Carl Sanburg, Anne Sexton, Stevie Smith, Wallace Stevens, James Tate, Diane Wakoski, Robert Wallace, Robert Penn Warren, William Carlos Williams

Series 3: Works by Others Annotated by McBride

Box 3, Folder 13

Student poetry

Series 4: Publications in Periodicals, 1971-1977

Box 3, Folder 15		Chronological. Spring 1971, Sumac 1977, The Agni Review 1982, Poetry East Winter 1982, Tendril 1989, Tray Full of Lab Mice Fall 1995, The Portsmouth Review 1995, Seneca Review 1996, The Prose Poem: An International Journal Undated, Free Lunch
Box 3, Folder 16		March 22, 1977, Bibliography

Series 5: About McBride

Box 3, Folder 17

Newsclippings

Series 6: Photographs, 1970-1994

Box 3, Folder 18

Photographs

e. 1: 1970, Mekeel portrait: “take this-if you should ever go hunting for mushrooms at sunset!” “Kiki”
e. 2: July 5, 1984, “Fred the Dog” from letter dated July 5, 1984
e. 3: August 13, 1988, “Little G. of N. getting a hot toot among other things. Lately she’s been learning the spiritual discipline of lying on sleeping stoves…or letting sleeping stoves lie” Enclosed in letter dated October 22, 1988.
e. 4: September 4, 1988, “David Bucknell washing dishes in Katherine Sullivan’s house being watched by parrot…” Enclosed in letter dated October 22, 1988.
e. 5: September 4, 1988, “Brenda in pardas[sic] helps David + the parrot wash dishes” Enclosed in letter dated October 22, 1988.
e. 6: September 4, 1988, “She’s pointing to his bellybutton which she would like to get a closer look at + he’s making the Hawaiian sign for ‘hang loose’ over her head which is as good as a halo as any…” Enclosed in letter dated October 22, 1988.
e. 7: September 10, 1988, “Me in my newest phase as Brenda Lee avec[sic] air courant turquoise socks. Later that afternoon I turned into a great blue heron…” Enclosed in letter dated October 22, 1988.
e. 8: September 25, 1988, “Molly O’Malone on the farside of the aquarium dreaming of…” Enclosed in letter dated October 22, 1988.
e. 9: October 10, 1988, “Little G. of N. enjoying her quilting fabric throne”
e. 10: October 12, 1988, “Miss White watching gold-fish TV. The goldfish, named by David, are kiss + this. They are twice as big now as they appear in the photo.”
e. 11: October 25, 1988, “Little G. of N. pretending she’s in Ethiopia or starring in Children of the Damned”
e. 12: October 25, 1988, “I took tree pictures especially for you.”
e. 13: December 7, 1988, “Foxes + greatgrandmothers to the left of the sofa.”
e. 14: December 7, 1988, “A sofa! The bookcase painted white.”
e. 15: December 7, 1988, “The mantle over the wood stove-which doesn’t look so stark in real life-rather chic instead.”
e. 16: December 7, 1988, “Where I am sitting right now with a different coffee cup.”
e. 17: August 29, 1989, Quilt
e. 18: April 23, 1989, Cat on bed
e. 19: October 11, 1989, Cat on couch
e. 20: October 11, 1989, Cat on couch; close up
e. 21: October 12, 1989, Dog and cat
e. 22: October 12, 1989, Foliage
e. 23: October 12, 1989, Foliage
e. 24: October 12, 1989, Foliage
e. 25: October 12, 1989, Foliage
e. 26: October 12, 1989, Foliage
e. 27: October 12, 1989, Foliage
e. 28: October 19, 1989, Foliage
e. 29: October 19, 1989, Foliage
e. 40: October 24, 1989,
e. 31: October 24, 1989, Foliage reflected in water
e. 32: October 24, 1989, Wigland, Dover, NH
e. 33: October 24, 1989, The Virgin Mary
e. 34: October 24, 1989, Foliage
e. 35: October 24, 1989, Jack-o-lantern
e. 36: October 24, 1989, Foliage
e. 37: October 24, 1989, Foliage
e. 38: October 24, 1989, Mums
e. 39: October 24, 1989, Foliage
e. 40: October 24, 1989, Foliage
e. 41: October 24, 1989, Ghost and jack-o-lantern
e. 42: October 24, 1989, Foliage reflected off water
e. 43: September 7, 1991, Garden and doll with no arms
e. 44: September 7, 1991, Cat on table
e. 45: September 11, 1991, Futon
e. 46: September 11, 1991, Bookcase
e. 47: September 11, 1991, Bookcase
e. 48: September 11, 1991, Kitchen table
e. 49: September 14, 1991, Rocking chair
e. 50: June 17, 1994, “My porch, my blue rocker.”
e. 51: June 17, 1994, “What’s left of beautiful down the street rhoddies after our heat wave…”
e. 52: June 17, 1994, “Window in my bedroom.”
e. 53: June 17, 1994, “Maine rhoddies and friends.”
e. 54: Undated, “This tree is in love with the sky.”
e. 55: Undated, “One end of Otis sort of electrical congested.”
e. 56: Undated, “The other end of Otis is a bit more Thoreau-esque.”
e. 57: Undated, “Kittery library, very Dickensian, should be where I got Old Curiosity but they’ve moved fiction to a small modern brick number across the street. Still, I think of this as the library. I had to stand in the middle of the street to take this picture. Cars were annoyed…”