University of Arizona

                                             Special Collections will be closed December 20, 2023 through January 1, 2024 in observance of the University Holiday break.

Simon Pettet papers

Photograph of the covers of three literary journals featuring Simon Pettet’s poems.

Simon Pettet is an English-born poet and long-time resident of New York's Lower East Side. Born on November 6, 1953 in Wrotham, England, he studied at the University of Essex (1972 to 1975), at Kings College, and the University of London (1976 to 1977). In 1977, he moved to the United States and went on to publish a variety of poetic works with Talisman House Publishers, most notably his collected poems, Hearth.

This collection comprises the published poetic works of Pettet. The bulk of the material consists of poems that were published in literary journals between 1975 and 2019, and reference Pettet's association with the New York School - a mid-century American group of poets and painters who lived and worked in downtown Manhattan in the 1950s and 1960s. Items included in the collection are literary journals, Arts magazines, Arts newsletters, literary reviews, two Chinese edition book volumes covering 20th century American poetry, a VHS recording of Simon Pettet and Bob Rodenthal speaking at Brooklyn College for the "Living Poetry" series in Spring 1988, and a publisher's promotional booklet.