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Collection Description
Harvey Marshall Matusow (HMM) has explained his varied roles (commentator, curator and creator) in underground culture as a reaction to his absence during its heyday – while his beloved Beat Generation found fame in San Francisco, he was serving time for perjury. The Matusow II collection focuses on ‘alternative culture’ in New York and London, with particular strengths in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Archive also houses some personalia (relating to family members) and material documenting Matusow’s further involvement with Senator McCarthy, both in the 1952 Presidential election campaign (as pro-Republican speaker) and as assistant in a project to undermine public trust in The New York Times. His prison correspondence is also included.
On his release in 1960, Matusow worked his way into the New York art scene and, by 1963, was editor and publisher of the listings magazine The New York Arts Calendar. Increasing bitterness and a sense that he would never be truly forgiven for his acts in the previous decade drove him deeper into counter-culture. He became involved in New York’s first underground newspaper, The East Village Other (EVO) and, on moving to London in 1966, began to contribute to its closest British equivalent, the equally groundbreaking International Times (IT). The collection is strong on small-press, counter-culture magazines of this era and the Matusow Archive includes copies of EVO, IT, Friends/Frendz, INK, Oz (including the published account of the notorious Oz obscenity trial and the infamous ‘School Kids’ issue), Crawdaddy and Forum. There are drafts of articles and reviews Matusow wrote for various publications and a copy of his interview with Norman Mailer for IT in 1968 (Matusow had made Mailer’s acquaintance two years earlier).
In the late 1960s, Matusow became involved with the Anti-Computer Campaign and organised the International Society for the Abolition of Data-Processing Machines. His activity and interest is recorded in the form of contemporaneous newspaper and magazine articles voicing concern over the growth of technology. Matusow showed his lighter side in the early 1970s when he became involved in the design, manufacture and sale of a toy called the “Stringless Yoyo”. He would later name his unfinished autobiography after this toy.
More tangential and esoteric strengths of the second part of the Matusow Archive include two boxes of material on Wilhelm Reich of ‘Orgone Box’ notoriety, a fellow inmate from Matusow’s prison years. Reich’s extravagant claims for his inventions and experiments had led to prosecution by the Food and Drugs Administration for fraud, and Matusow’s collection contains a transcript of Reich’s (unsuccessful) appeal against his conviction. Magazine articles and copies of Reich journal Organic Functionalism (Rutter Press) from the late 1950s and early 1960s are also included.
The collection is arranged by subject into 12 sections and described to folder level. The contents of some boxes have an item description. The collection has been rearranged from previous listings into subject area but the order of the original arrangement is shown in the appendix at the end.
There are a number of oversized items in the catalogue which are stored separately from the main collection. These items are indicated by the letters ‘BSR’ (Basement Strong Room) at the end of the description. Please give at least 24 hours notice before visiting Special Collections to view these items.
Box and file number are shown in bold at the end of each folder description. Please give box and file number when ordering items.
Dates of Creation of material: c1930s - 1988
Extent: 73 Archive Boxes
Level of Description: Folder level
Adam Harwood
September 2007
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