Archive of Gay New York City Poet Daniel Diamond
Diamond (1949-1996) is anthologized in the important Persistent Voices: Poetry By Writers Lost To AIDS (edited by Philip Clark and David Groff). According to his biographical sketch, he published numerous limited-edition artist’s chapbooks of his poetry, many of which are included in this archive. Contents include:
Copies of Diamond’s limited editions His Face in Every Crowd (New York: Wabi Press, 1983) and Favorite Sins (1987), as well as a working copy of a limited edition of Maestro; another copy of Maestro, No. 9 of 10, with note signed by Diamond; mock-ups of his book Perfect Gesture (West Orange, NJ: Warthog Press, 1984), perfectbound, a working copy.
Paperclipped collections of collections of poems named Jude and Make My Heart A Dancer: Selected Poems 1975-1990, which contains many poems pasted in, a number with annotations, as well as a mimeographed typed story “A Walking Mind” and diary entries from 1976 and 1978 and 1980-1981 that take the form of poems, brad bound in folder.
Numerous letters and correspondence (more than 30 pieces) to friends (and perhaps lovers) in Canada and across the US, including notes from Ian Young, who would later edit and publish Diamond’s Delicious after his death, as well as from Shirley Powell, Director of the NYC Village Poetry Workshop, and a friend named Dave who includes a naked photo of himself on a bed as well as a mimeographed flyer for Cult of the Green Carnation for “men into cock pride and cock worship.”
Ephemera (approximately 50 pieces) including numerous flyers from NYC in the 70s and 80s: September 1981 NYC Poetry Calendar; 1980 The Gay Market; advertisement for an underground art show with “hot backroom music”; flyers for New York poetry readings; a completed application for Creative Artists Public Service Program 1978-1979; a Festival Program Supplement for a Harvey Fierstein performance; approximately 10 photographs, some of Diamond posing; issues of The New York City News, June 2, 1981, the newsmagazine for a Lesbian and Gay Lifestyle; The Gay Clone (May 1977); limited edition poems by Ian Young; Don Garner’s Pretend You’re Still Alive, a copy of Chelsea Ghost where Diamond was published; and a signed limited edition (also inscribed to Diamond) of Joseph Kodler’s “Epithalamion.”
A significant archive (9 folders) that offers a glimpse into not only the New York City art and literary scene but also Diamond’s personal life and his own hopes, anxieties, and aspirations as a poet and gay man in the 1970s and 1980s. Item #1088
Price: $11,000.00