Collection
Mariah, Paul Papers
Span Dates: 1898-2014
Bulk Dates: 1960-1988
Volume: 4.30 linear feet
Description
The collection consists of writings, correspondence, personal papers, printed material, a small amount of photographs, a sound recording, and other papers by or relating to American publisher, poet, and gay rights activist Paul Mariah.
Writings contain drafts of poetry and prose by Mariah, Helen Luster, and Hunce Voelcker, as well as journals kept by Mariah and notes on Mariah's poems by his partner Kenneth Poff. Correspondence generally concerns professional matters, such as Mariah's poetry submissions and ManRoot publications. Included are letters and cards from Andrew Bifrost, James Broughton, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Norbert Körte, Lynn Lonidier, Richard Tagett, and Voelcker. The collection also contains Mariah's correspondence with his mother, Ada Pearl Jones. Personal papers contain artwork, notebooks, calendars, a few writings, ephemera, and Poff's will. Also included are a copy of visitation rules for the Menard Correctional Center; materials concerning Mariah's involvement with the Council on Religion and the Homosexual and the Kinsey Institute's study on gay men and women in San Francisco in 1969-1970; and a file on "gay phemenology" with typescripts of articles and speeches by others about gay liberation, marriage, and mental health. Printed material contains ephemera related to readings, exhibitions, concerts, symposia, and conferences documenting the work and activism of gay, Black, and Indigenous poets, artists, and musicians, as well as materials related to gay advocacy groups such as One, Inc. and the Society for Individual Rights.
Hist/Bio Note
Paul Mariah (born Paul Meredith Jones) was a publisher and poet prominent in the gay literary scene in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Whittington, Illinois, in 1937 to Ada Pearl Kelley and Herman Jones, Mariah graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1959 with a degree in theater. After graduation, Mariah briefly taught at a middle school before he was incarcerated in Menard Correctional Center in Illinois for three years. After his release from prison, he changed his name to Paul Mariah. In 1966, Mariah moved to San Francisco and became involved with gay rights activism, joining the Society of Individual Rights. He earned a Master's degree in English literature from San Francisco State College in 1969. During his graduate studies, Mariah was a personal secretary for writers Kay Boyle and Robert Duncan. In August 1969, Mariah and Richard Tagett founded ManRoot, a small press that published books and chapbooks by many notable writers of the San Francisco Renaissance and the Stonewall era, as well as twelve issues of ManRoot poetry magazine. As a poet, Mariah's work appeared in numerous publications, and he published two poetry collections, Personae Non Gratae (1971) and This Light Will Spread (1978).
Mariah was a project scheduler and research assistant for the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research's San Francisco Homosexual Study in 1969-1970 and was a member of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, serving as its president in 1971. Mariah was also a counselor from 1972 to 1975, working with former prisoners. His partner of fifteen years, Kenneth Po, an Army veteran and ManRoot's business manager, died in 1986. Mariah died in 1996
Finding Aid
An online finding aid is available.
https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11872.pdf
Location
This collection is held at Yale University Library
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
New Haven, CT 06520-8330
https:// beinecke.library@yale.edu
Tags
Council on Religion and the Homosexual | San Francisco | California