Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

David Cope is a poet in the Objectivist tradition and the founder of Nada Press, a small press which publishes the literary magazine and other poetry. Cope, a University of Michigan graduate and lifelong Michigan resident, taught literature and writing at Grand Rapids Community College and Western Michigan University. The collection documents Cope's writing, editing, and to some extent teaching and other spheres of Cope's life, through correspondence, manuscripts, notes, printed material, photographs, and videotapes.

David Cope made his first donation of papers to the Special Collections Research Center in 1987. Since then he has continued to make frequent contributions. The David Cope Papers cover Cope's writing and correspondence from the 1970s to the present, as well as his editing and teaching activities. In addition to offering insight into Cope's work, the collection details some of the activities and thoughts of friends and fellow writers and poets; in particular, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Cohn, Antler, and Jeff Poniewaz. Not currently well-documented are the more personal aspects of Cope's life--especially his family life--except for those details made available through his writings and correspondence.

The David Cope Papers are divided into eight series: Correspondence and Name Files, Writings, Editing Materials, Teaching and Education Materials, Publicity Materials, Personal, Photographs, and Audio/Visual. A small selection of books from Cope's library have been removed from the collection and have been cataloged individually. They are shelved by call number in Special Collections and can be requested through the Library's catalog.

This collection contains the correspondence between David Belin and numerous influential Jewish philanthropists, writers, rabbis, and officials of Reform Jewish organizations on the topic of Jewish Outreach. It also contains writings, speeches, articles, newspaper clippings, and published materials about Jewish outreach topics. Well-represented subjects include conversion to Judaism, outreach to intermarried couples, rabbinic officiation of marriages between Jews and non-Jews, Jewish population studies, anti-Semitism in late 20th century United States, and Zionism in the Reform Judaic movement.

The David Belin Jewish Outreach Papers measure 19.1 linear feet and date from 1970-1999. This collection consists primarily of papers related to Belin's leadership in promoting Reform Jewish outreach. The collection is arranged in six series: Correspondence; Organizations; Manuscripts, Typescripts, and Notes; Topical Files; Publications; and Audiocassettes. The Correspondence series consists of letters Belin exchanged with major figures within Reform Judaism. This series includes a rich exchange of ideas, opinions, plans, writings, and reports. The Organizations series reflects Belin's accomplishments while an officer and member of the boards and committees of several Jewish organizations. The Manuscripts, Typescripts and Notes series reveals Belin as an accomplished writer and speaker and also includes many writings and speeches by others. The Topical Files series includes newsletters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and other publications that Belin filed according to subject. Topical files that pertain to specific organizational activities are filed in the Organizations series. The Publications series consists of journals, magazines, and monographs about Judaism in general; materials published by individual organizations are included in their respective Organizations series. The Audiocassettes series includes 17 audiocassettes. Some are recordings of Belin, while others are recordings of convention speakers, board meetings, interviews, and commercially produced educational tapes.

The arrangement within each series follows the filing system used by Belin wherever possible. Belin filed most of his correspondence by the organization it concerned. Thus the Correspondence series consists of correspondence in general while the Organizations series includes the correspondence about organizational matters--although there is considerable overlap. Each organization also has topical files and publications that Belin filed according to the related organization. The exception to this rule is that all manuscript/typescript speeches and writings by Belin and others has been separated into a separate Manuscripts, Typescripts, and Notes series. This has permitted the writings and speeches to be arranged alphabetically by author. Correspondence that accompanied a typescript has been kept with it.

Political group formed in Wayne, Michigan in 1920, with roots in the old Socialist Party of America. This "Michigan faction" was expelled from Communist Party shortly after its founding in 1919, in part for its "consistent adherence to majority action and repudiation of the Communist Party's minority action concept." The party moved its headquarters to Chicago in 1925 where it maintained an office until disbanding in 1968. Consists mainly of correspondence of National Secretary Al Wysocki.

The records of the Proletarian Party survive in an unusual condition, requiring an organizational scheme with some unusual features to accommodate them. Most of the records were torn up by hand when the party disbanded in 1968, usually into quarters or halves. Perhaps 75% of the records have since then been largely or wholly reconstituted by being pasted onto sheets or strips of paper or occasionally clipped or stapled together; the remainder exist only as fragments. These fragments have been variously treated depending on the series to which, if whole, they would belong. Fragments of general correspondence, if dated, are placed in separate folders of fragmentary correspondence at the end of each year's correspondence files; undated fragments are divided by medium and shape, handwritten fragments in one folder, typescript (mostly carbon copy) fragments into several, depending on whether they represent the top left, bottom left, or bottom right corners, the entire left side, or some miscellaneous portion of the original page. This should make it possible to reassemble individual letters when necessary, assuming that all the component parts still exist. Fragments of mundane official correspondence and other material is not distinguished from non-fragmentary examples of the same, fragments that have lost their date being treated as undated.

Note also that many of the records consist of carbon copies, often made on the verso of other documents of interest (flyers, bulletins, the Constitution of the Proletarian Party, etc.). With one or two exceptions, it is the later use as a carbon that is reflected in the item's organizational placement. Researchers seeking the documents accidentally preserved in this way may need to examine the whole collection personally.

The value of the collection resides chiefly in the correspondence. Taken in bulk, it provides an almost intimate acquaintance with the people and ideas that animated the Proletarian Party during its last ten to fifteen years of existence, as well as recollections of its past. The jargon and mechanisms of the party are well illustrated, as is, poignantly, the inability of either to cope with the refusal of history to cooperate with the party's program, or to accept the weariness its members. The decline of the party is well captured in passages like this (John Davis to Al Wysocki, May Day, 1963): "We are dying on the vine as it were, there isn't many more than a dozen of us left. You can't call this a political party. The bulk of our funds go to the paying of rent for the Headquarters and the Kerr store room. I ma not at all clear about what can be done." Or this, from one of the last two members of the Detroit Local (Phil Drouin to Al Wysoki, 6 May 1964): "I have been trying to get a meeting of the remaining members in local Detroit and the only one that shows up is myself and Bennie so we keep postponing it and contact the other members and they always have excuses so...it looks like local Detroit is finish." To which Wysoki can only reply vainly (9 May 1964): "The local Detroit members are asleep on their revolutionary duties."

For comments on the Sarah Lovell for Mayor (of Detroit) campaign, see general correspondence, April 1957. For Wysocki's exchanges with curious student Arthur Maglin, see general correspondence, May, 1960; with student Douglas Hainline, see May and July 1962. For comments on the correct interpretation of the assassination of J.F.Kennedy, see general correspondence of 29 November and 9 December 1963.