The Franklin and Penelope Rosemont Papers contain materials related to the activities of the Chicago Surrealists Group and its members, surrealism movements around the world, and the evolution of surrealist thought, writing and art from the 1960s through 2009. The papers contain notes, notebooks, drafts of manuscripts, and published and unpublished work, as well as original artwork by the Rosemonts and by their friends and correspondents. There are photographs distributed throughout the collection; however, the Current documents (2000s) and photographs (1960-2010) series includes a significant number of photographs that feature the Rosemonts and their activities. The final three series are dedicated to correspondence; however, correspondence is also interspersed throughout a few of the other series. A number of the published journals as well as a handful of calendars have been removed from the collection and can be found by searching the library catalog.
Franklin Rosemont was a poet, artist, labor historian, and a pivotal figure in the Chicago Surrealist Group. Together with Penelope Rosemont, his partner of almost fifty years and an artist and author in her own right, Franklin advocated for social, political and cultural change. In Franklin Rosemont's obituary published in CounterPunch, Paul Garon, David Roediger and Kate Khatib wrote that for over four decades, "Franklin and his Chicago comrades produced a body of work, of declarations, manifestos, poetry, collage, hidden histories and other interventions that has, without doubt, inspired an entirely new generation of revolution in the service of the marvelous."
Franklin Rosemont was born in Chicago in 1943. His father, Henry Rosemont, was a labor activist and union printer who played a role in the newspaper printers' strike of 1947-49. His mother, Sally Rosemont, was a jazz musician and a member of the musicians union. Franklin dropped out of high school to hitchhike across the U.S. and Mexico, eventually meeting Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights bookstore and other Beat-era poets. He returned to Chicago and attended Roosevelt University, known for its student activism. He studied under African-American sociologist St. Clair Drake and began to explore radical politics. In 1962, he became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Rosemont left Roosevelt after two years and, along with fellow Roosevelt students Tor Faegre and Robert Green, opened the Solidarity Bookshop on Armitage Avenue in Chicago. The bookshop group published a journal, Rebel Worker, and became an "IWW, anarchist, surrealist hangout that sold all radical political newspapers and was a center of the growing movement."
Penelope Bartik was one of the students drawn to the bookshop group. Born in 1942, she initially attended Lake Forest College before transferring to Roosevelt University for her senior year. A writer and artist, she has been credited with developing several surrealist collage methods.
Franklin and Penelope Rosemont were married in a Unitarian Church in Chicago in May 1965 and at the end of that year set off on the first of many trips to Paris. They met Man Ray, Ted Joans, and André Breton and other members of the Paris Surrealist Group. After Breton died in 1966, Franklin worked with Breton's wife Elise to edit the first English translations of Breton's writings, and in 1978 he edited and wrote the introduction for What is Surrealism: Selected Writings of André Breton.
The Rosemonts returned from Paris "determined to start a specifically surrealist activity and publish a surrealist journal" with the Solidarity Bookshop group. Among the first results were the publications Surrealism & Revolution and The Forecast is Hot! The Rosemonts joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and participated in the 1968 Democratic National Convention demonstrations. Along with Robert Green, they opened Gallery Bugs Bunny and began to host surrealist art exhibitions. After a second trip to Paris in 1970, the Rosemonts returned to Chicago and began publishing the journal Arsenal with the help of Paul Garon.
Throughout three decades, the Rosemonts grew into their own as a writers, artists, editors, and publishers. Along with Paul Garon, the Rosemonts launched Black Swan Press, a small press publishing company. In the 1980s, they took over management of Charles H. Kerr Company, the nation's oldest labor press and oversaw the publication of more than 100 titles. Franklin Rosemont also edited the Surrealist Revolution Series for University of Texas Press. His articles on labor history, education, popular culture and the history of Chicago, as well as his poems, were published in variety of journals and anthologies. Penelope published a collection of true stories and edited Surrealist Women: An International Anthology. Her paintings and photography have been exhibited in galleries and included in anthologies of surrealist art.
Franklin Rosemont died on April 12, 2009, at the age of 65. Penelope Rosemont was still living as of July 2018.
References Garon, Paul, Roediger, David, and Khatib, Kate. "The Surreal Life of Franklin Rosemont." CounterPunch, 16 April 2009. Located in Box 42, Folder 1
Rosemont, Penelope, Garon, Paul and Rosemont, Connie. Franklin Rosemont and Penelope Rosemont: Writings, Papers and Correspondence. Chicago. 2009. Located in Box 1, Folder 1
