I. Participants' Correspondence and Conference Papers,, 1978-1983, bulk January 1979-June 1980

Summary: The correspondence in Subseries A dates from 1978 to 1983, with the majority from between January 1979 and June 1980. Inclusive dates for each individual folder are noted on the box list for this series. Correspondence within folders is sorted chronologically.

This subseries contains all pre- and post-conference correspondence between Conference Organizers (Michael C. Jaye, Peter Ventimiglia [before September 1979], and Ann Chalmers Watts [after October 1979]), and individual CLUE participants and/or their representatives (agents, assistants, etc.). In some instances the majority of correspondence was conducted by surrogates on the behalf of participants (especially Edward Albee and James Baldwin). The majority of post-conference correspondence (after April 1980) is conducted on behalf of the organizers by Ann Chalmers Watts.

Correspondence content includes discussions of conference arrangements, conference papers and their content, publicity materials, resumes, biographical sketches, news clippings sent with correspondence, notes on contractual agreements and copies of contracts, and other correspondence regarding the participant and the conference. Correspondence dated after the completion of CLUE (i.e. after April 19, 1980), sometimes includes remarks about the conference itself. Some folders include handwritten notes from the organizers referring to more than one participant, or to no participant in particular. These notes have been maintained within the Correspondence Folders in the order in which they were deposited. Some post-conference material includes discussions of the RUP Book Publication, video and audio publications, television and radio rebroadcasts, etc. (see also Series II, CLUE Organizational Papers, and Series IV, Information on the Rutgers University Press [RUP] Publication Papers).

Any publicity photographs sent with correspondence have been removed and put in folders under the participant's name in Series V, Photographs. The removal of these materials is noted within the Correspondence folder.

See Appendix A for a list of CLUE participants.

Subseries B includes correspondence between conference organizers and potential conference participants who declined to participate. Contents include contact and response correspondence where available, grouped by the name of the respondent. Dated from 1978 to 1980, most are from 1978 and 1979. Some include publicity materials. Most are simply declinations, although a few offer some passing observations, or are presented in such a way that they may be of some interest. For example, the brief letters from Lillian Hellman (October 31, 1979 and March 28, 1980), where she discusses her failing eyesight; Doris Lessing's postcard from London; the postcard from John Updike, where he alludes to his father's oath to "do and die for dear old Rutgers"; and a postcard from Fire Island sent by David Mamet. Others include only letters from the organizers with no reply (Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joan Didion, Thomas Pynchon). Some responses are undertaken by agents, rather than the invited participant (Arthur Miller, Ralph Ellison, William Styron, Susan Sontag (includes bio-sketch from agent), Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller (see individual description of contents below in "Special Folders"), Allen Ginsberg, Günter Grass.

See Appendix B for a list of invitees who declined to participate in CLUE.

Special Folders

Individual folders are assigned to the following in this subseries:

Subseries C includes all drafts of papers originally deposited with the Participants' Correspondence. Other Drafts of Papers, which reflect post-conference revisions for book publication, are included in RUP Publication Series. Researchers wishing to see all revisions of participants' papers should consult the documents in both this series, and the RUP Publication Series. Conference papers have been maintained in the order in which they were deposited, therefore, some papers in this series may reflect revisions made after CLUE. Wherever possible the dates of individual Conference Paper drafts are noted. Dated materials are sorted chronologically. Include Organizers' notes on participants and their panels (i.e. biographical data, schedules, etc.); copies of participants' signed release forms for post-conference print, audio, and video publications; various notes on travel arrangements.

This series includes drafts of presentations which were not included in the RUP publication (Ntosaké Shange, Nikki Giovanni, Jonathan Kozol, and the Spanish language version of Juan Pedro Soto's contribution).

The following are some highlights and notes for participants' correspondence and conference papers. These notes describe content which may be of special interest to researchers. They also serve to give a more specific idea of the general content included in this series.