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Creator
Marx, Anne
Call number
MssCol 1887
Physical description
24.2 linear feet (58 boxes)
Language
Some early materials in German
Preferred Citation

Anne Marx Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Anne Marx was a poet, lecturer and editor. She was vice-president of the Poetry Society of America in 1978 and regional president of the National League of American Pen Women in 1992. She died April 16, 2006. The collection contains correspondence with friends and organizations, Poetry Society of America records, material about lectures and workshops, drafts of her poems and material pertaining to the nine volumes of published poetry. Also included are audio tapes. Additions donated in 1994 contain material concerning her early years living in Germany, including correspondence, diaries, school material and poems. Also included are materials concerning her first years in the United States. Additions donated in 2006 following Marx's death provide further documentation of her activities as poet and lecturer and covers the years 1947 through 2004.

Biographical/historical information

The poet and lecturer Anne Lowenstein Marx was born to Susan and Jacob Lowenstein on March 8, 1913, in Bleicherode am Herz, a small town in northern Germany. After the deaths of both of her parents during her early childhood, Marx and her younger sister were raised by a grandmother in the same region of Worms on the Rhine. Although Marx was introduced to poetry at the age of five when her mother encouraged her to fill scrapbooks with poems, her formal education at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin was in the field of medicine, the profession of her father and uncles. The choice of poetry over a career in medicine was made as part of her consciously chosen new life as an American that involved turning away from her German roots and language. Her poetry often uses images and themes from the tragedies that she escaped as a refugee from the Holocaust. She created for herself a place in American society and within the society of poets and artists through involvement in the Poetry Society of America and The League of American Pen Women from the 1960s through the 1980s. While growing up in Germany, Marx enjoyed the intricacies of language and excelled at English (UK) and French in school. The discovery of Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry in college encouraged her to begin her own writing. In October 1933, she made her own longhand copy of his works, including his Letters to a Young Poet, which she was to keep with her always. Marx published her first small book of poems, Ein Buchlein, in 1935, and proudly gave copies to friends. At this time, Marx saw her writing as a form of personal expression more than a career. Marx, who was Jewish, realized that her future was not in Germany when her further matriculation into medical school was prohibited in 1933. With the political order rapidly degenerating around her, she prepared all the necessary affidavits and documents for her and her younger sister's emigration from Germany to the United States in 1936. They were welcomed to New York by uncles in an arrival that later became the poem "Port of Entry" in her second volume, The Second Voice.

During her first year in America, Marx worked as a physiotherapist in New York City. It was to be the only time she made use of her medical degree. She later credited her job with her ease in adopting American slang. She strove to become an American in all ways, and was especially eager to perfect the English that she had studied in Germany. She admitted later that she had blotted Germany from her mind to begin her life over again at the age of twenty-three. She met Frederick E. Marx, a vice-president for Helmsley Spear, Inc. Real Estate of New York during her first year in America. The following February they were married and they moved to Scarsdale, New York. In 1938, she became a naturalized American citizen. Her life in Scarsdale was centered on her family and her husband. She had two sons, Thomas and Steven, and she did not publish any poetry until her eldest son left for college in 1953.

When Marx began to write poetry again, she made a conscious decision to make her poems an expression of her new life as an American. She did not practice medicine after marriage, nor did she write in German. She learned to express herself only in English and wrote continuously throughout her life, publishing over two thousand poems in periodicals and reviews as well as eleven books of her collected works. The appeal of her works led to their translation into German and other languages in the various literary reviews around the world.

Just as she developed ties to the community of Scarsdale, with participation in Boy Scouts and women's clubs, she joined poetry and professional organizations to become a part of that community of artists after her initial successes in publishing. Her first success was with her poem "Sustenance," which won second prize in the Westchester Federation of Women's Clubs contest in April 1956. A little more than a year later, after the publication of "Checkers" in the Saturday Evening Post, she accepted membership in the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW). She was voted in as a member of the Poetry Society of America (PSA) in 1959. After her first book award in 1960, and the publication of The Second Voice in 1963, she became the president of NLAPW of Westchester in 1963-64 and the regional president from 1964-1966. The 1960s were the beginning of productive publication. She published books every three years, beginning in 1960 with Into the Wind of Waking, which won the American Weave Chapbook award. She attended writers' conferences at Wagner College in 1960, Iona College in 1964, 1965, and 1970, and in cities around the country. Increasingly, her works appeared in publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, and The Herald Tribune as well as literary reviews. As early as 1958, she participated in radio poetry readings for WEVD in Westchester. It was a decade when she developed ties to the community of poets. She initiated correspondence with Marianne Moore, Elias Lieberman, Gustav Davidson, John Hall Wheelock, John Holmes, and Florence Becker Lenon. Her second volume of poetry, The Second Voice, a turning point in her development that illustrated her re-evaluation of her identity as a German. The reviews, often written by her fellow society members, stress her ability to express the feeling of an emigr and a refugee who has adopted a "second voice." John Holmes called it "English after German, adulthood after childhood, and poetry after silence." It contains mostly autobiographical poems of facets of womanhood and life. Her poems were popular; her own documentation shows how chapbooks sold out. Her poetry is most often free verse, but also takes the forms of rondeaux, sonnets and sestinas. Her subject matter includes child- parent relationships, love poetry, narrative free verse, mood pieces, and social consciousness.

In the 1970s, Marx's time and efforts were channeled into the Poetry Society of America. Her steady involvement since the 1960s brought her a position on the executive board for eight years, and a co-vice-presidency in 1978-79. As a member of this and other societies, she organized lectures for a wide range of ages, from senior citizens to high school students, including a four-year New York Public Library program of poetry readings, "Bridging the Generation Gap," and many Annual Poetry Day events with the New York Poetry Forum. She also advised poets as editor for the publications of the Composers, Artists and Authors of America, Inc. and the Pen Woman in the 1970s. The subject matter of her poems in the 1970s became more reflective. Her visit to Israel resurrected feeling of leaving Germany, which she published in Hear of Israel and later in the 1980s in Hurts to Healings, which was translated into German and printed in bilingual books for use of Professor Hermann Schlosser, who used it as a teaching aid in a course offered to inform the new generation of Germans about the Holocaust.

In 1984, she was diagnosed with cancer, the same disease that killed her father. Her painful recovery gave time to reflect and renewed her desire to write. In her autobiographical essay in the anthology The Courage to Grow Old, she discusses how cancer affected her poetry.

Marx won recognition as the National League of American Pen Women's Poet of the Year in 1991. She died on April 16, 2006.

Scope and arrangement

The Anne Marx Papers contain correspondence, manuscripts and related papers documenting the work of the poet and lecturer Anne Marx. Correspondence with poet friends, editors, and organizations, and "book files" for twelve volumes of her published poetry span the period from 1957 to 2003. Book files consist of marked reading copies of each of the volumes, along with related manuscripts, correspondence with editors and responses from friends and the general public. Additional material documents her poetry readings, workshops she helped to organize and her work for literary societies.

The vast majority of the book files consists of drafts charting her poetry's evolution. The subject matter centers around three aspects of her life: primarily as woman and mother, secondarily as a Jew and a refugee from the Holocaust, and as a member of the professional societies of poets. The correspondence with fellow poets was initiated by Anne Marx, as a technique for further development as a poet. The files contain some interesting reactions to her poetry as well as works in progress.

Marx's papers include extensive files and clippings pertaining to the events and politics of the Poetry Society of America (PSA) of which she was a life member. The National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), for which she held the posts of President in 1992 and co-editor of The Pen Woman in 1985, are not well documented, nor is her position as editor of the anthology Pegasus, in the 1970s. Most of the information concerning her participation in these organizations is in the newsclippings and letters found in the scrapbooks, and materials compiled in the chronology of activities files (2006 additions).

The Anne Marx papers are arranged in eight series:

  • Series I: Correspondence, 1959-1980

    This series includes correspondence from individual poets and poets' organizations from 1958 to 1980. These files consist of incoming letters only. Included in this series are files for poems read over the air on the radio station WEVD, brochures, introduction speeches, and organizational correspondence with the Donnell Branch of the New York Public Library, pertaining to the series of poetry readings, "Bridging the Generation Gap." Correspondence with the New York Poetry Forum centered mainly around the organization of contests and annual Poetry Day events; inquiries about the poet lecture circuit with the poet and artist's organization, South and West; as well as a file of funding requests for The Poetry Society of America events sent to The of Council of Arts of Westchester, New York. The author's division of the manuscripts into book files was respected and therefore this box is not a complete record of correspondence with friends.

    Whenever additional correspondence with individuals and organizations can be found in the book files, it is noted. Most of the files end with the death of the correspondent.

  • Series II: Poetry Society of America
    1957-1986

    Marx became a member of The Poetry Society of America in 1959, and served on the executive board for eight years in the 1970s. She has been the Executive Director of the Westchester County Branch. Her uninterrupted involvement as a monthly contest judge, discussion leader, and speaker at meetings began in 1960.

    Approximately half of this series consists of copies of the quarterly publication, The Bulletin, from the years 1959-1981. The remainder includes brochures, correspondence, and worksheets that document the monthly and yearly poetry contests and awards, including a file on the Joyce Award of 1968, for which Marx served as a judge. Of note among the correspondence in Box 2 are two letters from Louis Ginsberg, the poet (and father of Allen).

    Researchers interested in the history of the PSA will note the documentation of the 1978 vice-presidential election scandal in which Anne Marx and Alfred Dorn were elected and the incumbent, Charles Wagner, was criticized openly for administrative and financial incompetence. Additional information about the PSA can be found in all volumes of the Scrapbooks in Series 5.

  • Series III: Lectures and Workshops
    1957-1989

    Marx's lectures on style, form, and inspiration of poetry were addressed to poets' and artists' organizations, such as the South and West Fifth Annual Convention, 1970, and the yearly Poetry Day events for the New York Poetry Forum. Marx also gave speeches with philosophical and autobiographical themes to a wide variety of groups including the Walpole Historical Society, the Jewish Community Center in Scarsdale, and the Greenville Women's Club.

  • Series IV: Book Files

    The book files consist of manuscripts, annotated reading copies with penciled comments in the margins, poem drafts alphabetized by title, correspondence with editors, publishers, fellow society members, and fan mail. Poem drafts make up from 50 to 70% of each book file's volume.

    Of interest is Jeanne Singer's musical arrangement of Anne Marx's poem "Merging Song," present in songbook form in Box 13 in the book file for 40 Love Poems for 40 Yearsxx, with original artwork by B. Smolover, and worksheet form in Box 12 of the book file, A Time To Mend.

  • Series V: Scrapbooks
    1957-1974

    The six scrapbook albums cover Marx's publishing and society accomplishments, 1957-1975. This series also contains photos, newspaper clippings, and letters of congratulation from publishers, contest judges, and friends.

    About half of the earliest scrapbooks, 1957-59 and 1959-60, are published poems. There is an increasing emphasis on Marx's role in the events planned by the Poetry Society of America and the National League of American Pen Women. Most material is in plastic sleeves with pictures and articles glued in place, with the author's hand notations and highlights of year, location and names. The majority of the documentation available on the Poetry Society of America and the National League of American Pen Women is in these books.

  • Series VI: Sound and Video Recordings

    This series consists of 19 reel-to-reel tapes, 3 LPs and one DVD. Titles were transcribed from box labels.

  • Series VII: 1994 Additions
    1920-1980

    The material in this addition, donated following Marx's death in 2006, provides further documentation of her activities as poet and lecturer and covers the years 1947 through 2006. Correspondence, drafts of her work, and materials related to her speaking engagements all suggest her engagement with her craft and ongoing commitment to organizations like National League of American Pen Women and the Poetry Society of America. The correspondence includes letters from editors, publishers, friends, and from appreciative readers. The drafts of poems, some arranged by title some by topic, include typescripts, promotional materials and correspondence. This series also includes a handwritten notebook of Marx's poems in German.

    Among the personal miscellany are autobiographical sketches for Who's Who and other publications; clippings, flyers and brochures that chronicle her professional activities from the 1960s through 1993; and photographs that document her personal and professional life. Notable is Marx's account of the two months she and her husband Fred spent in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1979. While Fred served as a volunteer for the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), Anne sought out the creative community, giving readings and participating in workshops with Indonesian poets.

    This series also consists of a small number of electronic files that include additional correspondence, writings as well as some genealogical information.

  • Series VIII: 2006 Additions
    1947-2004

    The material in this addition, donated following Marx's death in 2006, provides further documentation of her activities as poet and lecturer and covers the years 1947 through 2004. Correspondence, drafts of her work, and materials related to her speaking engagements all suggest her engagement with her craft and ongoing commitment to organizations like National League of American Pen Women and the Poetry Society of America. The correspondence includes letters from editors, publishers, friends, and from appreciative readers. The drafts of poems, some arranged by title some by topic, include typescripts, promotional materials and correspondence. Notable is a small notebook of Marx's poems written in German.

    Among the personal miscellany are autobiographical sketches for Who's Who and other publications; clippings, flyers and brochures that chronicle her professional activities from the 1960s through 1993; and photographs of that document her personal and professional life. Notable is Marx's account of the two months she and her husband Fred spent in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1979. While Fred served as a volunteer for the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), Anne sought out the creative community, giving readings and participating in workshops with Indonesian poets.

    This series also consists of a small number of electronic files that include additional correspondence, writings as well as some genealogical information.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Anne Marx in 1983 and 1994. Additional material was donated in 2006 by Thomas Marx, Anne Marx's son.

Processing information

Processed by Jeanne M. Ludwig; revised by Leslie Reyman.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Conditions Governing Use

The New York Public Library owns copyright of the material.

Access restrictions

Consult with archivist regarding accessing the electronic records associated with this collection. All sound and video recordings noted in the collection that do not have id numbers are unavailable at this time pending preservation transfer. Readers should advise Division staff of their interest in any recording that has yet to be tranferred by using the following link: http://www.nypl.org/mssref.