Simon Pettet papers

This collection is comprised of the published poetic works of Simon Pettet, an English-born poet who has been living in New York's Lower East Side since 1977. The poems were published in literary journals between 1975-2019, 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 1950's and 1960's. Main figures include Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, James Schulyer, Kenneth Koch, and Barabara Guest. Pettet is more closeley associated with the second generation of New York School poets who grew up in the 1960's, including Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, Ron Padgett, and Anne Waldman. The style is characterized as "witty, urbane, and conversational" by the editors of the Poetry Foundation, a poetry magazine established in Chicago in 1912. Common subjects of those associated with the New York School include pop culture, consumer goods and services, and everyday moments - usually characterized with humor and spontaneity.