Series PS 8523 I95 Z46 1 - Poems: Typescripts and Manuscripts

Arrangement of the poems is kept as organized by the previous custodian. Arrangement is based on the chronological order in which the poems were created, and each poem is identified by its title or first line.
Within each file, poems created within a given year are first arranged chronologically and poems without exact, recorded dates are arranged in alphabetical order after those with exact dates.
There are some exceptions to this arrangement:

• Copied poetry from notebooks: Between the years 1926 and 1931, Livesay kept two notebooks of poetry. This series contains typescript and manuscript copies of the poems from these notebooks. These copied poems are grouped separately from other poems of the same year and copied poems are numbered according to their respective order in the notebooks (e.g. MSS 1-44 or EB 83-161).
• Poetry series: Although poetry series may consist of poems written in different years, they are grouped together and separated from other poems of the same year.

In the early 1970s catalogue cards were created as a finding aid for this fonds. Each catalogue card addresses one poem and contains the following information: poem title, first and second lines of the poem, date (if recorded), whether the poem is a typescript and/or manuscript, whether the poem is published (including publication title and date), and other notes. Not all of this information is reflected in this finding aid; however, the information from the catalogue cards has been transcribed into a digital document, available here . The original catalogue cards are also available upon request.

Between the years 1926 and 1931, Livesay kept two notebooks of poetry. The Dorothy Livesay fonds contains these notebooks, both of which are found in the series Poems: Notebooks.