LibraryLinks Fall 2007/Spring2008
Binghamton University Libraries Celebrate the Acquisition of Molly Peacock’s Papers
By John M. Meador, Jr. and Jean Root Green
Binghamton University (BU) Libraries are pleased to announce the acquisition of Molly Peacock’s papers and manuscripts. Ms. Peacock, an internationally recognized poet and Binghamton University alumnus (Harpur ’69), will have her sixth volume of poems, The Second Blush, published by W.W. Norton and Company in June 2008. Additionally, Ms. Peacock served as one of the creators of the Poetry in Motion program, past president of the Poetry Society of America, and author/performer of “The Shimmering Verge,” a one-woman show that she has performed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and Off-Broadway at Urban Stages in New York City. Please visit Molly’s web site (http://www. mollypeacock.org/) for additional biographical information.
A formal announcement of this significant acquisition occurred on February 6, 2008 during a gala gathering of BU Libraries supporters and Molly’s distinguished friends at The Penn Club of New York. The evening’s highlight occurred when Molly came to the podium and read “The Flaw,” a new poem from her forthcoming book.
Speaking at this celebration, Molly said, “My literary papers have found a home at Binghamton University Library, which is perfect. That’s where my papers were longing to be, since I found a home at Binghamton University for four years, between 1965 and 1969. And that was the time I found myself as a writer.”
John Meador, Director of University Libraries, expressed his gratitude to Molly and told the audience that as academic libraries embrace similar digital futures, it will be the unique papers and manuscripts comprising their respective Special Collections that ultimately distinguish one library from another. In this instance, Molly’s papers are particularly noteworthy for their completeness. She admitted that evening, “I have to confess to you that I have been saving my literary papers since the age of twelve. And when I got to Binghamton and realized I had an overweening ambition for a working class girl from Buffalo some day to be listed in the Table of Contents of the Oxford Book of American Poetry, it dawned on me that I had better start saving stuff. I saved my college notebooks from Binghamton and every draft of every poem I’ve written since then.”
Binghamton University Libraries are proud to be the stewards of Molly Peacock’s oeuvre and are appealing to others, particularly Binghamton University’s very creative alumni, to consider adding their collections of manuscripts and personal papers to a rapidly growing Special Collections. Our Libraries utilize the latest preservation techniques to protect primary research materials for future generations of students and scholars. Also, an in-house digitization lab is available to produce virtual library exhibitions that will publicize these collections to larger scholarly communities. Please contact Binghamton University Libraries to learn more about placing your papers among a growing number of distinguished collections or to financially support this ongoing collection preservation endeavor.