Title: Perspective Archive (MSS093), 1947-1982
Predominant Dates:1947-1982
ID: MSS/MSS/093
Primary Creator: Perspective
Extent: 9.0 Boxes
Languages: English
Perspective magazine was one of the more interesting literary magazines to emerge in the United States after World War II. It was founded in 1947 by Jarvis Thurston and his wife, the poet Mona Van Duyn, while they were teaching at the University of Louisville. When Thurston joined the English faculty of Washington University in 1950, the magazine moved with them to St. Louis. Thurston and Van Duyn operated the magazine, which appeared quarterly, from St. Louis for over twenty years until 1975, the date of Perspective's final issue. In 1982, the Washington University English Department produced a special dedicatory issue of Perspective.This issue, which honored Thurston on his retirement and featured new work by his former students and contributors, might be considered the magazine's true final issue.
Perspective's 28-year run was quite lengthy, compared to most little magazines. What made Perspectiveimportant, however, was not the length of time it survived but the quality of the work it published. Thurston, Van Duyn, and the various other editors who worked on the magazine over the years demonstrated a keen eye for promising work by emerging poets and fiction writers. Authors whose work Perspectivehelped to introduce include William S. Merwin, Anthony Hecht, Douglas Woolf, Thomas McAfee, William Gass, Stanley Elkin, Donald Finkel, and Constance Urdang, the latter three serving on the editorial staff of the magazine for many years. And, as the list below indicates, Perspective's reputation as an important literary magazine helped it attract work from many of the most prominent authors of the time.
Access Restrictions: Open
Use Restrictions:
Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.
Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.
If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)
Related Materials: See also the Mona Van Duyn and Jarvis Thurston Papers
Preferred Citation: Name of the Collection, Washington University Libraries, Department of Special Collections
The house with the blue door [poem]. Typescript, 2 pages. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Goldstein, 1974: June 6
On acquiring a votive candleholder at an antique shop in Southampton [poem]. Typescript, 1 page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Goldstein, 1974: June 6
Yahrzeit [poem] Typescript, 1 page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Goldstein, 1974:June 6
Girl in black [essay]. Typescript [photocopy], 2 pages. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Magowan, [1968:Oct 20]
Susan [poem]. Typescript [photocopy], 2 pages. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Magowan, [1968:Oct 20]
United Hungarian F.C. [poem]. Typescript [photocopy], 2 pages. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Magowan, [1968:Oct 20]
Zebekiko [poem]. Typescript [photocopy], 2 pages. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Magowan, [1968:Oct 20]
Consider me Adam, you be Eve: Eve (first line) [poem]. Typescript, 2 drafts, 2 pages. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Meyers, 1967: February 13
Don't think it's easy or that I am kind (first line) [poem]. Typescript, page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Meyers, 1967: February 13
Not perfect, not willing, not believing (first line) [poem]. Typescript, page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Meyers, 1967: February 13
What crap! How can he call it poetry (first line) [poem]. Typescript, page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Meyers, 1967: February 13
Why are they indifferent, seriously (first line) [poem]. Typescript, page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Meyers, 1967: February 13
Why be nasty? Why not relent? Not I (first line) [poem]. Typescript, page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Meyers, 1967: February 13
The pearl-handled skyline [poem]. Typescript, 1 page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Morin, 1969: June 19
Test of strength [poem]. Typescript, 1 page. Filed in Series I.1 with letter from Morin, 1969: June 19
Dinner bell in the woods [poem], 1954. Typescript, 1 page. Filed in Series I.2 with letter from Stevens, 1954: August 23
Reality is an activity of the most august imagination [poem], 1954. Typescript, 1 page. Filed in Series I.2 with letter from Stevens, 1954: August 23
