Robert Peters
Encyclopedia
Robert Louis Peters is a poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924. He holds a Ph.D in Victorian literature
. His poetry
career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis. The book commemorating this loss, Songs for a Son, was selected by poet Denise Levertov
to be published by W.W. Norton in 1967, and it still remains in print. Songs for a Son began a flood of poetry.
, Boston University, Ohio Wesleyan, University of Idaho
at Moscow, University of California at Riverside, and then University of California at Irvine, where he first taught in 1967. His field of study was Victorian literature. In addition to publishing numerous articles and monographs, he edited, with Herbert Schueller, the letters of John Addington Symonds
. Peters received a Fulbright Fellowship to Cambridge, England in the 1960s to work on Symonds' letters. In 1965, he published The Crowns of Apollo, a scholarly study on Algernon Charles Swinburne
. After Peters' Songs for a Son was published, he devoted more time to writing and study of contemporary poetry. Fellow poets Charles Wright
and James McMichael
and novelist Oakley Hall
taught poetry at UC Irvine during this time and shared directorship of the university's well-known Master of Fine Arts
program.
.
His Workers, Drones & Queens of Contemporary American Poetry offers readers the best of these writings collected in a single volume. Included are some 35 essays on and reviews of such major figures as Robert Bly
, Charles Bukowski
, Allen Ginsberg
, John Ashbery
, Diane Wakoski
, Robert Creeley
, Robert Duncan
, Tess Gallagher
and W. S. Merwin
, as well as commentaries on the work of many lesser-known poets.
Billy Collins
, a former student of Peters and now a noted poet in his own right, once described Peters' poetry: "[…] modifies poetic language and breaks new artistic ground. By combining playful rhymes with painfully serious matter, he has returned new tonal possibilities to poetry. By fully exploiting the metaphor of the body, […] he has provided a fresh code for the expression of feeling ..."
Poet and author of Iron John
, Robert Bly
, wrote about Peters' American Poetry Bakeoff book of criticism as "not maternal ... insights are set down simply, unornamented, as if intended to glance off, and yet I think they are important, and belong to the center ... He deserves numerous readers, particularly among young poets dissatisfied with the celebrities who keep writing the same poem over and over again ... [His] essay on Robert Creeley
is superb; the best essay on his work I know."
He has been published by both large and small presses, including W.W. Norton, Wayne State University Press
, Crossing Press, New Rivers, Cherry Valley Editions, Unicorn Press, GLB Publishing, Paragon House, Chiron Review Press and University of Wisconsin Press
. In the fall of 2001, the 40th volume of his Familial Love and Other Misfortunes was published by Red Hen Press
. Peters has served as a contributing editor for The American Book Review, Contact II and Paintbrush.
, and his rural Wisconsin origins — to excursions into the psyches of a vast gallery of historical eccentrics, numbering among them, a Bavarian king, a Hungarian countess (and mass murderer) and a British romantic painter. The root of his interest in personae poetry goes back to his studies of Victorian poet Robert Browning
. He adapted both King Ludwig II of Bavaria
and Elizabeth Báthory
, the Hungarian Countess, for theatrical presentation, performing them around the country. His Poems: Selected & New includes a rich sampling of work written over the past 30 years, while collecting in a single volume many of Peters' best poems.
Poet Diane Wakoski
best describes his poetry, "The fascination with the dead, with the rotting, with pigs rooting into the earth, a poem about a primal scene
in a root cellar, discovering sex and the underground, taboo, death-related experience — this is what all of Peters' poetry is about […] which gives it great originality and power."
in Los Angeles, at Carpet Company Theatre in Los Angeles, Fine Art Theatre at UCI, Provincetown’s Summer Theatre, St. Matthews Church near Broadway, New York and many college campus venues. He took acting lessons from his colleague, Fine Arts Professor Robert Cohen (acting theorist)
, at University of California, Irvine
. These performances are all well-documented in Peters’ journals, video recordings, flyers, playbills, posters and scrapbooks, replete with reviews and photos, which are all housed and catalogued at UCSD Mandeville Collection.
of Wisconsin. His last memoir was on the death of his third son which took place in the 1950s. Thomas Keneally
, author of Shindler's List, summarized Peters' second memoir, Nell's Story, by saying, "As a fascinating exercise in obscure lives retrieved, as a joint effort in painful and exultant memory, this rich memoir has the playful seriousness and inventive charm which characterizes the work of Robert Peters ...""
and PEN International. He has enjoyed Guggenheim
and National Endowment for the Arts
fellowships, and won the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award of the Poetry Society of America.
, Lawrence. His working library of contemporary poetry, with related papers, is now in the Rare Book Collection, Bowling Green State University
. Recently his remaining archives have been obtained by the Weisel Library Special Collections, University of San Diego
.
Victorian literature
Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria . It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century....
. His poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis. The book commemorating this loss, Songs for a Son, was selected by poet Denise Levertov
Denise Levertov
-Early life and influences:Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex.Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, p74 Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales...
to be published by W.W. Norton in 1967, and it still remains in print. Songs for a Son began a flood of poetry.
Academic beginnings
After army service during World War II, he enrolled at University of Wisconsin, majoring in English. He received his B.A. in 1948, his M.A. in 1949 and his doctorate in 1952. His teaching career took him to Wayne State UniversityWayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
, Boston University, Ohio Wesleyan, University of Idaho
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho is the State of Idaho's flagship and oldest public university, located in the rural city of Moscow in Latah County in the northern portion of the state...
at Moscow, University of California at Riverside, and then University of California at Irvine, where he first taught in 1967. His field of study was Victorian literature. In addition to publishing numerous articles and monographs, he edited, with Herbert Schueller, the letters of John Addington Symonds
John Addington Symonds
John Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love , which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible...
. Peters received a Fulbright Fellowship to Cambridge, England in the 1960s to work on Symonds' letters. In 1965, he published The Crowns of Apollo, a scholarly study on Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
. After Peters' Songs for a Son was published, he devoted more time to writing and study of contemporary poetry. Fellow poets Charles Wright
Charles Wright (poet)
Charles Wright is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award (19830 for...
and James McMichael
James McMichael
-Life:The Pasadena, California native received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. In 1970 he married his second wife, Phylinda Wallace, a translator, and has three children, Robert, Geoffrey and Owen....
and novelist Oakley Hall
Oakley Hall
Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M...
taught poetry at UC Irvine during this time and shared directorship of the university's well-known Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
program.
Poet and critic
Peters is a prolific poet, having published some 30 books of poems, and he is an important critic of contemporary American poetry. In his controversial books of criticism — The Great American Poetry Bake-Off series, Peters Black and Blue Guides to Current Literary Magazines and Hunting the Snark: A Compendium of New Literary Terminology — he has assessed more than 400 contemporary poets and critics. He also wrote poetry reviews for the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
His Workers, Drones & Queens of Contemporary American Poetry offers readers the best of these writings collected in a single volume. Included are some 35 essays on and reviews of such major figures as Robert Bly
Robert Bly
Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...
, Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
, Diane Wakoski
Diane Wakoski
Diane Wakoski is a American poet who is primarily associated with the deep image poets, as well as the confessional and Beat poets of the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
, Robert Duncan
Robert Duncan
-Arts:*Robert Duncan , American music critic*Robert Duncan , British TV actor*Robert Duncan , U.S. composer*Robert Duncan , U.S. poet-Politics:...
, Tess Gallagher
Tess Gallagher
Tess Gallagher is an American poet, essayist, author and playwright. She attended the University of Washington, where she studied creative writing with Theodore Roethke and later Nelson Bentley as well as David Wagoner and Mark Strand...
and W. S. Merwin
W. S. Merwin
William Stanley Merwin is an American poet, credited with over 30 books of poetry, translation and prose. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematically characterized by indirect, unpunctuated narration. In the 1980s and 1990s, Merwin's writing influence derived from...
, as well as commentaries on the work of many lesser-known poets.
Billy Collins
Billy Collins
Billy Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...
, a former student of Peters and now a noted poet in his own right, once described Peters' poetry: "[…] modifies poetic language and breaks new artistic ground. By combining playful rhymes with painfully serious matter, he has returned new tonal possibilities to poetry. By fully exploiting the metaphor of the body, […] he has provided a fresh code for the expression of feeling ..."
Poet and author of Iron John
Iron John
"Iron John" is a German fairy tale found in the collections of the Brothers Grimm, tale number 136, about a wild man and a prince...
, Robert Bly
Robert Bly
Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...
, wrote about Peters' American Poetry Bakeoff book of criticism as "not maternal ... insights are set down simply, unornamented, as if intended to glance off, and yet I think they are important, and belong to the center ... He deserves numerous readers, particularly among young poets dissatisfied with the celebrities who keep writing the same poem over and over again ... [His] essay on Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
is superb; the best essay on his work I know."
He has been published by both large and small presses, including W.W. Norton, Wayne State University Press
Wayne State University Press
Wayne State University Press , founded in 1941, is a university press that is part of Wayne State University. It publishes under its own name and also the imprints Painted Turtle and Great Lakes Books....
, Crossing Press, New Rivers, Cherry Valley Editions, Unicorn Press, GLB Publishing, Paragon House, Chiron Review Press and University of Wisconsin Press
University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
. In the fall of 2001, the 40th volume of his Familial Love and Other Misfortunes was published by Red Hen Press
Red Hen Press
Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press specializing in the publication of literary fiction and poetry located in Pasadena, California. Founded by Kate Gale, the mission of Red Hen Press is to discover, publish, and promote works of literary excellence that have been overlooked by mainstream...
. Peters has served as a contributing editor for The American Book Review, Contact II and Paintbrush.
Style of poetry
His poetry covers a wide range of themes and forms, from intensely personal volumes of private celebrations and losses — the death of a son, the break-up of a marriageDivorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, and his rural Wisconsin origins — to excursions into the psyches of a vast gallery of historical eccentrics, numbering among them, a Bavarian king, a Hungarian countess (and mass murderer) and a British romantic painter. The root of his interest in personae poetry goes back to his studies of Victorian poet Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
. He adapted both King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Ludwig II of Bavaria
Ludwig II was King of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death. He is sometimes called the Swan King and der Märchenkönig, the Fairy tale King...
and Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...
, the Hungarian Countess, for theatrical presentation, performing them around the country. His Poems: Selected & New includes a rich sampling of work written over the past 30 years, while collecting in a single volume many of Peters' best poems.
Poet Diane Wakoski
Diane Wakoski
Diane Wakoski is a American poet who is primarily associated with the deep image poets, as well as the confessional and Beat poets of the 1960s.-Biography:...
best describes his poetry, "The fascination with the dead, with the rotting, with pigs rooting into the earth, a poem about a primal scene
Primal scene
In psychoanalysis, the primal scene is the initial witnessing by a child of a sex act, usually between the parents, that traumatizes the psychosexual development of that child...
in a root cellar, discovering sex and the underground, taboo, death-related experience — this is what all of Peters' poetry is about […] which gives it great originality and power."
Performances
His acting career developed after countless poetry readings. Peters wanted to reach a larger audience with his poetry by transforming his personae poetry into theatrical monologues replete with memorized scripts, lighting, settings and sound tracks. He performed at Barnsdall Art ParkBarnsdall Art Park
The Barnsdall Art Park has as its mission the presentation, promotion, enrichment, and development of the arts and artists of the Los Angeles region in all its cultural diversity...
in Los Angeles, at Carpet Company Theatre in Los Angeles, Fine Art Theatre at UCI, Provincetown’s Summer Theatre, St. Matthews Church near Broadway, New York and many college campus venues. He took acting lessons from his colleague, Fine Arts Professor Robert Cohen (acting theorist)
Robert Cohen (acting theorist)
Robert Cohen is an American university professor, theatre director, playwright, and drama critic. He has written many books on theatre, two dramatic anthologies and many plays, among other works. Cohen has conducted advanced teaching residencies in numerous countries and much of the United States...
, at University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
. These performances are all well-documented in Peters’ journals, video recordings, flyers, playbills, posters and scrapbooks, replete with reviews and photos, which are all housed and catalogued at UCSD Mandeville Collection.
Memoirs
Peters has written four memoirs of his woebegone days during the 1930s in the North WoodsNorth Woods
The Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, also known as the North Woods, is a forested ecoregion in Canada and the United States. In Canada it is found in Ontario around the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River through Quebec to Quebec City...
of Wisconsin. His last memoir was on the death of his third son which took place in the 1950s. Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally
Thomas Michael Keneally, AO is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982 which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor...
, author of Shindler's List, summarized Peters' second memoir, Nell's Story, by saying, "As a fascinating exercise in obscure lives retrieved, as a joint effort in painful and exultant memory, this rich memoir has the playful seriousness and inventive charm which characterizes the work of Robert Peters ...""
Awards and honors
Peters has also judged competitions for fellowships and prizes for an assortment of small presses and for the Poetry Society of AmericaPoetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
and PEN International. He has enjoyed Guggenheim
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
and National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
fellowships, and won the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award of the Poetry Society of America.
Further reading
Note: All of Robert Peters' papers from 1950–1990, including letters, manuscripts (both published and unpublished), and journals containing his poetry and prose, are on deposit in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, the University of KansasUniversity of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
, Lawrence. His working library of contemporary poetry, with related papers, is now in the Rare Book Collection, Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University, often referred to as Bowling Green or BGSU, is a public, coeducational research university located in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The institution was granted a charter in 1910 by the State of Ohio as part of the Lowry Bill, which also established Kent State...
. Recently his remaining archives have been obtained by the Weisel Library Special Collections, University of San Diego
University of San Diego
The University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic university in San Diego, California. USD offers more than sixty bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral programs...
.
Personal life
Shortly after his divorce from his wife Jean, Peters met poet Paul Trachtenberg and established a relationship lasting more than 36 years.Books of poetry
- Songs for a Son, W. W. NortonW. W. NortonW. W. Norton & Company is an independent American book publishing company based in New York City. It is well known for its "Norton Anthologies", particularly the Norton Anthology of English Literature and the "Norton Critical Editions" series of texts which are frequently assigned in university...
, 1967 - The Sow's Head and Other Poems, Wayne State University PressWayne State University PressWayne State University Press , founded in 1941, is a university press that is part of Wayne State University. It publishes under its own name and also the imprints Painted Turtle and Great Lakes Books....
, 1968 - Connections: In the English Lake District, Anvil Press Chapbook Series, London 1972
- Red Midnight Moon, Empty Elevator Shaft Chapbook Series, 1973
- Holy Cow: Parable Poems, Red Hill Press, San Francisco, 1974
- Bronchial Tangle, Heart System, Granite Books, 1975
- Cool Zebras of Light, Christopher's Books, Santa Barbara, California, 1975
- The Gift to Be Simple: A Garland for Ann Lee, LiverightLIVERightLIVERight is the first 5K run/walk to raise awareness about hepatitis B and liver cancer.The goal of LIVERight was not only to raise money for outreach efforts, but more importantly to educate and increase awareness of this pressing public health issue. Educational displays, informational booths...
/ W.W. Norton, 1975 - The Poet as Ice Skater, Manroot Books, 1976
- Gauguin's Chair: Selected Poems 1967-1974, Crossing Press, 1977
- Hawthorne, Red Hill Press, San Francisco, 1977
- The Drowned Man to the Fish, New Rivers Press 1978
- Ikagnak: The North Wind, Kenmore Press, 1978
- Celebrities: In Memory of Margaret Dumont, Sombre Reptiles, 1981
- The Picnic in the Snow: Ludwig of Bavaria, New Rivers Press, 1982
- What John DillingerJohn DillingerJohn Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
Meant to Me, Sea Horse Press, 1983 - Love Poems For Robert Mitchum, Chiron Review Press, 1983
- Hawker, Unicorn Press, 1984
- Kane, Unicorn Press, 1985
- Shaker Light, Unicorn Press, 1986
- Ludwig of Bavaria: Poems and a Play, Revised edition, Cherry Valley Edition, 1986
- The Blood Countess: Poems and a Play, Cherry Valley Edition, 1987
- Haydon, Unicorn Press, 1988
- Breughel's Pig, Illuminati Press, Los Angeles, 1990
- Good Night, Paul, GLB Publishers, 1992
- Snapshots For a Serial Killer, GLB Publishers, 1992
- Robert Peters: Poems: Selected & New, 1967-1991, Asylum Arts, 1992
- Familial Love and Other Misfortunes, Red Hen Press, Los Angeles, 2002
- Makars' Dozens, Pearl Edition, Long Beach, California 2006
Criticism, scholarship, and other publications
- Victorians on Literature and Art, Appleton-Century-CroftsAppleton-Century-CroftsAppleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., was a division of the Meredith Publishing Company. It is a result of the merger of Appleton-Century Company with F.S. Crofts Co. in 1948. Prior to that, The Century Company had merged with D...
, 1961 - America: The Diary of a Visit, By Edmund GosseEdmund GosseSir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
, edited by Robert Peters Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPurdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
1966 - The Crowns of Apollo: SwinburneAlgernon Charles SwinburneAlgernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
's Principles of Literature and Art, Wayne State UniversityWayne State UniversityWayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and... - The Letters of John Addington SymondsJohn Addington SymondsJohn Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love , which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible...
, Ed. with H.Schueller, 3 vols, Wayne State UniversityWayne State UniversityWayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
Press, 1967–1969 - Pioneers of Modern Poetry, with George Hitchcock, Kayak Press, 1967
- Gabriel: A Poem by John Addington Symonds, Edited by Robert Peters & Timothy D'Arch Smith, London: Harrington 1974
- The Great American Poetry Bakee-Off I, II, III, IV Series, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey 1979, 1982, 1987, & 1991
- The Peters' Black and Blue Guide to Current Literary Journals, first and second series, Cherry Valley Editions, New York, 1983 and 1985
- The Peters' Black and Blue Guide to Current Literary Journals, third series, Dustbooks, 1987
- Hunting the SnarkHunting the SnarkHunting the Snark is a compendium of poetic terminology that mirrored American contemporary poetry of nineteen seventies and eighties written by Robert Peters. The book sorts through contemporary American poems, separating them into nearly a hundred categories. The book’s foreword is written by...
: American Poetry at Century End: Classifications and Commentary, Paragon House, New York 1989 - Letters to a Tutor: The Tennyson Family Letters to Henry Graham Dakyns, Scarecrow Press, 1989
- Where the Bee Sucks: Workers, Drones & Queens of Contemporary American Poetry, Asylum Arts, 1994
- SLIME The Secret Sex-Life of J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar HooverJohn Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
, Artist Eric Reynolds Eros ComixEros ComixEros Comix is an adult-oriented imprint of Fantagraphics Books, established in 1990 to publish pornographic comic books. Eros Comix sells anime videos, DVDs, adult comic books, and books of erotic art and photography...
1995 - Revised Edition of Hunting The Snark: American Poetry at Century End: Classifications and Commentary, Avisson Press, 1997
- Ludwig of BavariaLudwig of Bavaria-Dukes:*Louis I, Duke of Bavaria , Duke of Bavaria in 1183 and the Count of Palatinate of the Rhine in 1214. He was a son of Otto I*Louis II, Duke of Bavaria , Duke of Bavaria from 1253 and Count Palatine of the Rhine....
& Other Short Plays, Asylum Arts, 2001
Memoirs
- Crunching Gravel: A Wisconsin Boyhood in the Thirties, University of Wisconsin Press, 1993
- Nell: A Woman From Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1995
- For You, Lili Marlene" A Memoir of WW II, University of Wisconsin Press, 1995
- Feather: A Child's Life and Death, University of Wisconsin Press, 1997
Interviews
- With Billy CollinsBilly CollinsBilly Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...
, in Gauguin's Chair: Selected Poems, Crossing Press, 1977 - With William MatthewsWilliam Matthews (poet)William Matthews was an American poet and essayist.-Life:Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Matthews earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University, and a master's from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.In addition to serving as a Writer-in-Residence at Boston's Emerson College, Matthews...
, "The Shaker Poems", in The Great American Poetry Bake-off: Second Series, Ibid., 141-150. - Featured in the Writer's Autobiography Series, Vol. VIII, Gale Research Company, December 1989
Essays on Robert Peters
- Diane WakoskiDiane WakoskiDiane Wakoski is a American poet who is primarily associated with the deep image poets, as well as the confessional and Beat poets of the 1960s.-Biography:...
, in American Poetry, Winter 1985, 71-78 - Billy CollinsBilly CollinsBilly Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...
, "Literary Reputation and the Thrown Voice", in A Gift of Tongues: Critical Challenges in Contemporary American Poetry, eds. Marie Harris and Kathleen Augero, University of Georgia PressUniversity of Georgia PressThe University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is a publishing house and is a member of the Association of American University Presses.Founded in 1938, the UGA Press is a division of the University of Georgia and is located on the campus in Athens, Georgia, USA...
, 1987, 295-306. - Charles Hood, "Robert Peters", for the Dictionary of Literary Biography.