LINCOLN — The Kooser Collection has found its home at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Officials with the UNL Libraries announced Monday the acquisition of the personal papers of Ted Kooser, a former insurance executive and UNL professor who served as U.S. poet laureate from 2004 to 2006.
The documents include 50 bound volumes of correspondence from 1966 to 2010, as well as manuscripts, journals and workbooks dating back to 1968.
Some of the materials will be on public view at UNL's Love Library from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 9.
Kooser, 72, said he is delighted that his papers will stay in Nebraska.
"It was the natural place for them," he said in a telephone interview from his home near Garland, Neb. "I've been associated with the university on and off since 1963. It seemed like a perfect fit for me. And if I need to look at something, I can always drive to Lincoln and go to the library."
The University of Nebraska Foundation purchased the materials for an undisclosed amount. Kooser declined to reveal details of the transaction other than to say that the papers were appraised and that he received "a fair price" for them. The foundation has received contributions to help pay for the cost.
Katherine Walter, chairwoman of Digital Initiatives and Special Collections at UNL Libraries, said the collection will enable students of creative writing and 20th-century literature to study the development of Kooser's poetry.
"It is our privilege to preserve his work for future generations," she said.
The workbooks and journals contain Kooser's thoughts, unfinished poems, drawings, clippings and other items he pasted onto the pages. His correspondence includes letters to and from contemporary poets and friends.
The collection also includes letters from actress Debra Winger and more than 25 years of letters exchanged with Bob Kerrey, former Nebraska governor and former U.S. senator.
"Kooser's journals and workbooks provide a personal and intimate look at his life and how the things he came into contact with or experienced may have influenced the creation of his poetry," said Mary Ellen Ducey, a university archivist.
Tim Jackson, a postdoctoral researcher who helped process the collection for use by students and scholars, said the collection is fascinating.
Kooser described himself as a somewhat obsessive record keeper.
"Am I a saver? Am I ever!" he said.
Beginning in the late 1960s he made copies of every letter he sent or received. Every year he took them to a book bindery in Omaha to have them library bound. Originals were filed under his correspondents' names.
He said he kept his papers in plastic tubs in an old brick building he owns in Dwight, Neb.
"The librarians were delighted by the way the stuff is organized," he said. "So often it happens, when they get a literary estate, they get a trailer load of material and they have to sort through all of it. I've always been kind of obsessive about keeping that stuff."
Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939. He earned a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University in 1962 and a master's degree from UNL in 1968.
He retired from his job as a vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Co. in 1999. For many years he also served as a visiting professor at UNL, providing one-on-one writing instruction to graduate students. He has continued that work after NU President J.B. Milliken tapped him as a "presidential professor" in 2005, during his term as U.S. poet laureate.
Kooser has written more than 12 full-length collections of poetry and nonfiction. While poet laureate, he won a Pulitzer Prize for "Delights & Shadows," a 2004 book of poems.
He also began a weekly newspaper column, American Life in Poetry, sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, the Library of Congress and the University of Nebraska. More than 300 columns have been published for a readership of more than 4 million people.
Kooser's first book of prose, "Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps," won the Nebraska Book Award for Nonfiction in 2003.
He credited Milliken for approaching him with the possibility of UNL acquiring his papers.
"It's better than having them in an old building in Dwight, vulnerable to humidity and mice," he said.
University Archives and Special Collections in Love Library, 13th and R Streets, are open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 402-472-2531 or visit libraries.unl.edu.
For more information about Ted Kooser's work and career, visit tedkooser.net.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com
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