Richard N. Wilmarth was born in Fall River, Massachusetts on December 24, 1949. A high school dropout, Wilmarth earned a GED and pursued a musical career in the 1960s and 1970s. He returned to school at the Community College of Rhode Island in 1983, and subsequently completed a B.A. in English at University of Rhode Island in 1988 and an M.A. in English three years later. In 1991, Wilmarth moved to Boulder, Colorado to attend the Naropa Institute, where he worked with Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Anselm Hollo, Joanne Kyger, and Jack Collom. He received an M.F.A. in Writing and Poetics in 1994. Not surprisingly, given these influences, his poetry emulates the clipped, confrontational style of the beat poets.
Initially, poetry served as an avocation, secondary to his musical interests. His priorities changed in the early 1980s when he suffered a nerve injury playing music. As a URI undergraduate Wilmarth’s early verse appeared in the Great Swamp Gazette, a literary paper published by URI students. In 1988 his poem The Reality of the Dream appeared on page 82 of the URI yearbook. Aside from work generated as a student, his early poems appeared in small presses and literary journals located in Rhode Island. Exemplary of the former is Poised for War: A Book of Poems, published in 1991 by Sabotage Press of Providence, Rhode Island. Sabotage Press also published the works of another well known area poet and Wilmarth friend and correspondent, Dale W. Russell. Both Wilmarth and Russell’s works are represented in the URI Poetry Collection.
While residing in Rhode Island, Wilmarth inaugurated the Dead Metaphor Press, a press dedicated to poetry. Early Dead Metaphor publications, written by Wilmarth, include Minimum Wage (1985), Between Games (1987), and Boulder: A Book of Poems (1990). The initial products of Dead Metaphor Press were quite modest in scale design and production. Boulder, for example, features photocopied text, supplemented by clip art including copies of an airline ticket, liberty bell, and a photograph of Jack Kerouac. The finished product was stapled, and one hundred and thirty-eight copies prepared for distribution.
With his move to Boulder in 1991, the scope and productivity of Dead Metaphor Press expanded. Along with Wilmarth’s own work, the Press published poetry based on the results of an annual (1995-2003) chapbook contest. Chapbooks, defined as short, inexpensive booklets containing poems or prose, became a Dead Metaphor Press specialty. Featured among the contest winners were Tracy Davis, John McKernan, Patrick Pritchett, Mark DuCharme, Thomas R. Peters, Jr., Randy Roark, William Morgan and Maureen Foley. Based on the contest results, Wilmarth’s press published 3-5 titles annually. As the publications became more numerous, the production quality of the works improved. In lieu of staples and clip art, chapbooks might feature saddle stitching, custom ordered paper, and original artwork. In addition, a series of bookmarks that highlighted the works of its featured poets was issued.
Richard Wilmarth produced copious amounts of poetry. Drafts were committed to notebooks, writing tablets, the back sides of flyers, scrap paper of various descriptions, and occasionally, coffee house napkins. In the course of its evolution, a poem will sometimes appear in several versions, and longer poems will reemerge as several shorter pieces. While most of the material was written for publication, a number of items in this collection are decidedly intimate and refer to Wilmarth’s personal relationships and experiences.
Wilmarth’s poems appeared in or were reviewed by numerous small press publications, including Blank Gun Silencer, Dusty Dog, Plastic Tower, and Chiron Review. Wilmarth produced several short story and book length pieces. These include Confessions of a Red Sox Fan, The Neutral Zone, and States. None of these longer works were published, although Confessions was accepted by a publisher who subsequently after accepting the manuscript went out of business.
Wilmarth was a prolific if erratic correspondent, and maintained ongoing dialogs with fellow poets, friends, publishers, family members and students. By implication, his letters were succinct, and several recipients commented on the brevity and infrequency of his missives. Regardless, their contents sometimes elicited lengthy and personal responses. On occasion, the contents reveal as much about the emotional state of the author as about poetry. Exemplary correspondents include Donald Hall, Ed Sanders, (poet and members of the 60’s rock band the Fugs), Ann Waldman, and Anselm Hollo.
Wilmarth died of cancer on April 17, 2003 at the age of 53 in Boulder, Colorado. His sister, in his memory, donated his papers to the Special Collections Unit of his alma mater.
Open for research.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Richard Wilmarth Papers, Mss. Gr. 165, University of Rhode Island Library.
In a 1992 poem entitled “if I could just get all these papers organized” Richard Wilmarth summarizes both the scope and content of this collection, and alludes to the myriad forms and formats that his papers take:
"i’ve got reviews, invitations to parties, rejection letters, a postcard from a woman who wants the address of another woman, price lists for computers, tax delinquent notices, manuscripts from other people that I’m supposed to publish, my own manuscripts that no-one will publish, newspapers that put forth political points of view, letters from several women who want me, a chart that shows how much I meditate, ten years of poems in folders, college degrees, envelopes, notebooks, orange papers, yellow paper, blue paper, white paper."
Among the most illuminating items is a meticulously organized set of spiral bound notebooks consisting of draft poems, personal essays, and snippets of verse. Wilmarth was an inveterate "saver" and retained documents of every description. A sizeable portion of his collection consists of drafts of his poetry and longer pieces, and ruminations on a variety of subjects. Wilmarth also preserved numerous materials from the Dead Metaphor Press. Aside from correspondence, this includes mock ups for several chapbooks, preliminary designs, proof sheets, art work, and examples of the finished products.
The correspondence series, divided between personal and general correspondence, spans a wide range of topics. Exemplary of the general correspondence are communications with the many small presses to whom Wilmarth submitted poetry and those individuals published by Dead Metaphor Press. Exchanges with fellow poets also constitute an important component of Wilmarth’s correspondence. Letters focus on issues of style, themes, and more existentially, life as a poet. Some of the correspondence begins in a professional and business like manner, but over a period of months and years develops a personal quality and subject matter. In several cases exchanges begin and continued in a highly personal and revelatory tone.
After processing, the papers were organized into seven series, as follows:
Series I, Subject File (1983-2003), contains reviews of Wilmarth’s poetry, a limited number of publications that contain his poetry, appointment books, news clippings, and obituaries from Rhode Island and Colorado papers.
Series II, Manuscripts (1982-2002), documents the evolution of Wilmarth’s work, and features preliminary versions of published and unpublished materials. Distinct from the notebooks, papers in these files often include several versions of a work, or incipient pieces, in longhand, typed, or both, with notes, addenda, and corrections. While many of these illustrate the evolution of published works, this series also includes unpublished items. Exemplary of the latter are the book length manuscripts for Confessions of a Red Sox Fan, States, and Raleigh. Confessions of a Red Sox Fan, set during the 1995 pennant race, was scheduled to be published by Commonwealth Publications of Edmonton, Alberta. Prior to its publication, Commonwealth went out of business, and the book was never published. In 1996 a lengthy excerpt from the manuscript was published by The Buffalo Head of Waltham, Massachusetts as a Red Sox Journal and is available on the World Wide Web at
A copy of the Buffalo Head Society excerpt is included in the Manuscript Series.
Series III, Notebooks (1979-2003), comprise an important element of this collection. These contain handwritten drafts and revisions of his poetry, examples of self-reflection and personal commentary, observations on people, places, and experiences, and outlines for his writings. Some notebooks contain chronologies of poems submitted to specific publishers.
Series IV, Correspondence (1989-2003), is organized into two sub series, General and Personal Correspondence. General Correspondence includes letters, cards, postcards and notes. Subjects discussed in this series include poetic styles, philosophy and publishing outlets. There are letters from presses to which Wilmarth submitted his poetry and prose, and letters from authors published by the Dead Metaphor Press. Among those represented in the General Correspondence are Donald Hall, Ed Sanders, (poet and members of the 60’s rock band the Fugs), Tracy Davis, John McKernan, and Anselm Hollo.
Personal Correspondence encompasses letters from family and friends, including many with close personal relationships with Wilmarth. In some instances, correspondence that began as general in nature evolved into personal exchanges, and these are filed with the Personal Correspondence. Access to the Personal Correspondence, because of its intimate or personal nature, is restricted from general research until 2025. Requests for access for specific research inquiries may be granted by the Head of Special Collections on a case by case basis. The folder title listing of correspondents for this sub series is not included in this register. Inquiries should be addressed to the Head of Special Collections.
Series V, Dead Metaphor Press (1985-2003), contains proofs, photographs, design materials such as photographs, postage stamps, drawings, dummies, and other items used in the production of Dead Metaphor chapbooks. Among those persons represented are John McKernan, Tracy Davis, Anselmo Hollo, Randy Roark, Mark DuCharme, Maureen Foley, and Bill Morgan.
Series VI, Thesis (1991, 1993), contains copies of Richard Wilmarth's MA thesis for University of Rhode Island completed in 1991and the thesis he completed for his MFA at the Naropa Institute in 1993.
Series VII, Electronic Records (1982-2001), consists of 52 floppy disks (3.25") in Mac Word 5.1. The disks are labeled as containing the text for the Dead Metaphor Press publications, Wilmarth's thesis, and his poetry. There is also one 100mb ZIP disk labeled as containing "back up disk of writing folders" January 2000 to August 2000. The disks are in no particular order.
The papers are arranged into seven series:
Wilmarth's sister donated his papers to the Special Collections Unit of his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island, after his death in 2003.
The Subject File Series includes a variety of records related to Richard Wilmarth's career as a poet. Of special interest are the collection of critiques and reviews of Wilmarth's poetry. This includes comments from URI faculty and printed reviews. Among those journals in which his works were reviewed are The Iconoclast, HELTER SKELTER, Samisdat, Dog River Review, Heathen Zine, and Plastic Tower.
Wilmarth's early self-published poetry and some poems published in periodicals can be found in the folders labeled "Publications". His poetry published by his own publication organ, The Dead Metaphor Press, can be found in Series V. Also found in this series are Wilmarth's appointment books, a collection of historical data and information on the city of Raleigh, North Carolina (1980-1990), handbills, advertisements announcing some of Wilmarth’s speaking engagements, and a few photographs of Wilmarth and other poets.
The records are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material.
The Manuscript Series includes a variety of poetic materials including handwritten and typed drafts, notes, and preliminary versions of both his published and unpublished works. Distinct from the notebooks, the Manuscript Series often includes several versions of a work, with notes, addenda, and corrections. While many of these manuscripts illustrate the evolution of published works, the contents also includes unpublished items. Exemplary of the latter are the book length manuscript for Confessions of a Red Sox Fan, States, and Raleigh. Confessions of a Red Sox Fan, set during the 1995 pennant race, was scheduled for publication by Commonwealth Publications of Edmonton, Alberta. Unfortunately, Commonwealth went out of business. The book was never published. A lengthy excerpt from the manuscript appeared in the Waltham, Massachusetts based web site, The Buffalo Head Society, a "Red Sox Journal", in 1996, and is available online at
Most of the poems and stories that were printed from Wilmarth's computer have been stamped with a date that was provided by Richard when he organized his manuscripts. Some dates on the manuscripts that are enclosed in brackets were ascertained by the archivist while processing the collection. The drafts, typed copies, and pristine versions of the poems and stories are filed alphabetically by title. At the beginning of each letter of the alphabet is a folder that contains manuscripts whose title begins with that specific letter. Titled and untitled works (filed by the first word of the text) are filed together in alphabetical order within the folder. The articles a, an, and the, were not used as filing terms, (e.g. The Black Cat is filed under Black). The same work might also be filed in more than place if we were not able to discern the final title for the work. For example, Confessions of a Red Sox Fan is filed under its first iteration "Red Sox Fan."
Notebooks comprise an important element of the Wilmarth collection. The notebooks contain handwritten drafts of poetry, examples of self-reflection, observations on current events, and outlines for Wilmarth’s writing. Some notebooks contain chronological lists of poems submitted to specific publishers. The notebooks in this series have been arranged in chronological order. There may be some overlap of dates within this arrangement. The first date of the notebook is used in determining the chronological order.
The extensive Correspondence Series is organized into two sub series, General and Personal. Correspondence includes letters, cards, postcards and notes. Subjects discussed in this series include poetic styles, philosophy and publishing outlets. There are letters from presses to which Wilmarth submitted his poetry and prose, and letters with authors published by the Dead Metaphor Press. Some also cover the vicissitudes of life as a poet. Among those represented in the General Correspondence are Donald Hall, Ed Sanders, (poet and members of the 60’s rock band the Fugs), Tracy Davis, John McKernan, and Anselm Hollo.
Personal Correspondence encompasses letters from family and friends, including many with close personal relationships with Wilmarth. In some instances, correspondence that began as general in nature evolved into personal exchanges, and these are filed with the Personal Correspondence. Access to the Personal correspondence, because of its intimate or personal nature, is restricted from general research until 2025. Requests for access for specific research inquiries may be granted by the Head of Special Collections on a case by case basis. The folder title listing of correspondents for this sub series is not included in this register. Inquiries should be addressed to the Head of Special Collections.
The records in this series relate to the production of publications by Wilmarth's Dead Metaphor Press. The press was established in 1992 with the specific purpose to "publish carefully constructed work and have it enter the historical record' " (see folder #1). The Dead Metaphor Press chapbooks series published the works of John McKernan, Tracy Davis, Anselm Hollo, Randy Roark, Mark Ducharme, Maureen Foley and Bill Morgan.
The materials, with the exception of the first few folders, have been separated into two sub-series. The first sub-series is "Books-Production", the second is "Books-Published". Typical materials in the Production sub-series include text copy, book mock-ups, cover designs, camera ready copy, production notes, and sometimes correspondence with the authors. Typical material in the Published sub-series consists two copies of the booklet, numbered and or signed. Many of the original manuscripts for these productions can be found in Series II, Manuscripts. The folders for each sub-series are arranged alphabetically by the title of the publication.
This Series contains copies of Richard Wilmarth's MA thesis for University of Rhode Island completed in 1991and the thesis he completed for his MFA at the Naropa Institute in 1993. The series is arranged in chronological order.
These records consist of 52 floppy disks (3.25") in Mac Word 5.1. The disks are labeled as containing the text for the Dead Metaphor Press publications, Wilmarth's thesis, and his poetry. There is also one 100mb ZIP disk labeled as containing "back up disk of writing folders" January 2000 to August 200. The disks are in no particular order.
A