ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Title
Richard Vetere Collection

Collection Number
SC 375

OCLC Number
In-process

Creator 
Richard Vetere, 1952-

Provenance 
Donated by Richard Vetere in January 2004.

Extent,Scope, and Content Note 
The Richard Vetere Collection is comprised of approximately 12.5 cubic ft. of Vetere's published and unpublished manuscripts, screenplays, plays, and poetry; notebooks; correspondence; and memoranda.

Arrangement and Processing Note
Processed by Special Collections in December 2004.
Finding aid revised and updated by Kristen J. Nyitray in June 2019.

The collection is arranged in series order. 
SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORANDA, 1967-2001 (14 boxes)
SERIES 2: POETRY, 1965-1988 (4 boxes) 
SERIES 3: PLAYS, 1972-2001 (6 boxes)
SERIES 4: SCREENPLAYS, 1975-1993 (5 boxes)
SERIES 5: TELEVISION and SHORT STORIES/NOVELLAS (1 Bbox)
SERIES 6: NOVELS (4 boxes)
SERIES 7: ESSAYS (2 boxes)
SERIES 8: NOTEBOOKS, 1973-1997 (1 box)
SERIES 9: OTHER AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS (1 box)
SERIES 10: PUBLICATIONS (2 boxes)
SERIES 11: OVERSIZED MATERIALS (1 box)

Language
English 

Restrictions on Access
The collection is open to researchers without restriction.

Rights and Permissions 
Stony Brook University Libraries' consent to access as the physical owner of the collection does not address copyright issues that may affect publication rights. It is the sole responsibility of the user of Special Collections and University Archives materials to investigate the copyright status of any given work and to seek and obtain permission where needed prior to publication.  

Citation 
[Item], [Box], Richard Vetere Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.  

Historical Note

Prepared by Richard Vetere

Richard Vetere was born on 23rd Street in Manhattan on January 15th 1952 and raised in Maspeth, Queens. His parents were Albert Vetere, from the West Village in Manhattan, a clerk who worked over forty years in the Universal Movies warehouse on 57th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan and Angelina Guiliano, from Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Richard was the first born and his two brothers to follow were named Robert and Albert. Both sides of Richard’s family were abundant with passionate and outspoken men and women. They were gregarious, hardworking and law-abiding. His father’s mother, Maria, an orphan was active in the Women’s Suffrage movement. His mother’s mother, Anna, was the first female shop steward in the electrical union in New York City at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Richard’s grandfather on his father’s side owned a tailor shop on Spring Street and Sixth Avenue in the 1920’s and several of Richard’s uncles were NYPD detectives and many were electricians thanks to his grandmother. Angelina and Albert provided Richard with a warm and loving childhood. They moved into a solid brick two-story house on 62nd Street in 1955. The house was surrounded on the exterior by cemeteries, factories and truck lots. However the rolling hills, alleyways and empty lots were a paradise of a playground for Richard’s rich imagination. Richard attended Saint Stanislaus Catholic grammar school where he was an excellent student and altar boy. A pretty, popular thirteen year old named June Arorryo who ran with a much older crowd introduced Richard to poetry by showing him a poem one day in class. The poem was sent in a letter to her from her eighteen-year old boyfriend, who was serving and fighting in Vietnam. They were in the seventh grade and the year was 1963. The poem was about horrors and loneliness of jungle warfare and after reading it Richard was overwhelmed with feeling. He went home and immediately wrote his first poem. It was a short rhyming poem titled “Today I am Forty Years Old” about Richard’s friend who’s father was hit and disabled by a enemy motor during the Normandy Invasion in World War II.  Richard showed the poem to June who handed it to Sister Maria. Sister Maria handed the poem to the Mother Superior who brought Richard around to every classroom having him stand in front of his fellow students as she proudly read the poem aloud to them. Though shy Richard was petrified by all the attention he managed to survive the ordeal. Richard soon graduated and was accepted into the all boys Monsignor McClancy High School where he quickly gained the reputation as “poet” when he won the school’s Edgar Allan Poe Poetry Contest with his poem titled “Thoughts Upon A Cloudy Day.” The Brothers at McClancy appointed Richard Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine The Voyager. Richard filled notebook upon notebook with poetry during those years and every weekend in the library taking out books on poets. Though he knew little about the poets themselves, he read Keats, Shelly and Byron romanticizing about their short but exciting lives, quite different from his prosaic but pleasant days in the middle class Queens neighborhood. McClancy was where Richard learned the value of discipline and the skill of typing. Though the school was strict, Richard and his neighborhood friends, often older, spent their ‘off’ time ‘down the park’ and playing sports. Richard graduated and was accepted into Saint John’s University and after years of complying to a strict ‘dress code’ at McClancy Richard was thrilled to be able to grow his hair long and wear jeans to school. He also bought a motorcycle and ‘hung’ out with a dangerous but exciting crowd in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, his mother’s old neighborhood. During these days Richard filled even more notebooks of poetry dreaming of publishing a book. At Saint John’s he won first prize in a poetry contest and his life was changed forever. The contest’s judge, Professor Remo Iannucci befriended Richard and became his mentor introducing him to the life and world of poets including the European poets Rilke, Andre Gide, Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Bauldlaire among many. Richard was also made the Poetry-Editor of the literary magazine Sequoia and quickly became famous on the campus for publishing his work in national magazines at the age of seventeen. Richard gave poetry readings at the university and through Dr. Iannucci’s recommendation, Richard was accepted into Columbia University and received his master’s degree in Comparative English Literature the following year. In that year Richard continued writing poetry, giving poetry readings and wrote his master’s theses on the poetry of Delmore Schwartz. Also, thanks to Dr. Iannucci’s introductions, Richard quickly ran the Poetry Division of the Queens Council on the Arts.

The Decade of the 1970s
After graduating from Columbia University with his master’s degree at the age of twenty-two, Richard faced the ‘real’ world and had to devise a way to make a living. He moved out of his family’s house moving into the apartment in Bayside/Flushing that he still lives in. Making ends meet was difficult and Richard, accustomed to hard work and odd jobs, promised himself that he would take the leap to become a working writer. He was determined. He went out socially hoping to make connections and he joined all the art organizations available teaching himself how to write journalism, fiction, screenplays and plays. Several people during those days helped Richard survive and gave him the confidence to continue. Rudoph Marinelli, Jane Crowley of the Queens Historical Society and Dr. Iannucci, all older and wiser, helped him through the decade. They worked to help him secure grants and attain membership into Poets & Writers where he could earn money giving readings of his poetry. Some of the grants he received during this time included A Mary Roberts Rineheart Grant and a Cultural Council Foundation Grant/C.E.T.A. In 1976 Richard published his volume of poetry titled Memories of Human Hands and a novella The Last Detective. But Richard was developing another passion and that was for the theatre. He had presented plays in his backyard in the alley entertaining neighbors and family for several years when he was only a child but while at Columbia his desire to ‘write plays’ possessed him. He loved the interaction with actors and the thrill of seeing his work performed for a live audience. With monies from family and friends, Mr. Vetere co-founded an off-off Broadway Theatre company aptly named the GAP. The idea was to be the ‘gap’ between commercial and avante-guard theatre. He joined forces with a neighborhood friend who was an actor named Tony Cippola and they produced several seasons at the Grove Theatre. Richard’s very first play ever produced was titled Nero and was performed at the 18th Street Theatre. The play gained him good reviews but it was his poetic play Hadrian’s Hill that brought him the best notices including from the Village Voice which printed “In Mr. Vetere’s work imagery and metaphor blend, often brilliantly, imparting beautiful word pictures.” These two plays were part of a trilogy that compared New York City to ancient Rome. The third play was Night Over the Tiber and was produced at the Provincetown Playhouse. However, Richard’s work was still far too poetic for the naturalistic stage and it wasn’t until 1978 when Israel Horovitz (who became a life-long friend) accepted Richard into the Actor’s Studio Playwright’s Unit that Richard wrote a play that was a stylistic breakthrough for him. Rockaway Boulevard was the realistic portrayal of a loving but conflicted couple who lived in Queens and tended to the husband’s dying father. Dr. Iannucci helped inspire the play but Richard found theatrical devises like the father’s banging on the floor above and a rooftop scene inspired from films such as On The Waterfront, The Hustlerand Hud, that gave him an instant reputation at the Studio. A subsequent production of the play directed by Rudolph Marinelli at the Cubiculo Theatre stated “Mr. Vetere demonstrates the ability to mix the poetic with the colloquial. He shows promise indeed.” Michiko Kakutaini wrote that for the New York Times in 1981. Over the following three decades the play continues to be produced in New York City with crossover appeal having been done by African-American and Latino theatre companies alike. In 1979 it was chosen to represent American theatre at the International Playwright’s Conference at McGil University in Montreal. Rockaway Boulevard led Richard to writing several more plays set in the borough of Queens populated by characters who possessed a cutting sarcasm and wit and were always conflicted by the choice of the dream on one hand and the realistic options on the other. These plays performed at the Actor’s Studio included Johnny on the Ponyand Joey ‘No Talk.’ While Israel Horovitz introduced Richard to the New York Theatre scene and Remo Iannucci encouraged Richard’s poetry writing, Rudolph Marinelli introduced Richard to the commercial world of film. The older Mr. Marinelli, an editor and film producer, hired Richard to re-write a movie script. After that work was complete, Richard quit his security guard job at the Queens Mall and worked for Mr. Marinelli as an editor during the day and the two worked on screenplays in the evening. During those years Richard assistant edited movies such Bergman’s Face to Face and Scenes from a Marriage as well as Bertolucci’s 1900 and co-authored several screenplays with Mr. Marinelli which they eventually sold including Nuts & Bolts and Rage of the Blue Moon. Richard continued his theatre career being one of the co-creators of The New Living Newspaper which was a political satire ripped from the headlines in the tradition of the 1930’s social plays and was presented at Playwright’s Horizons Theatre in 1979.  By the end of the decade, Richard had garnered the beginnings of success. He published his first book of poetry, he had become a playwright-in-Residence at the Actor’s Studio and he was on the verge of having his first screenplay produced.

The Decade of the 1980s
Mr. Vetere was introduced to film director William Lustig by fellow alumni of Saint John’s University, Russ Banham in 1980. Mr. Banham, an actor, who had a meteoric but short-lived Hollywood career, was a former member of the GAP Theater Company. The introduction was made and Mr. Lustig, having seen Mr. Vetere’s Rockaway Boulevard at the Actor’s Studio, quickly hired Mr. Vetere to write what he called ‘a working class Death Wish.’ The indie film, starring future Oscar nominated actor Robert Forster titled Vigilante, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983 and exploded in American’s theatres becoming the 20th grossing motion picture of that year. During this time Mr. Vetere also took on adjunct lecturing positions at Saint John’s University as well as Queens College. He taught screenwriting at Queens College for fifteen years. The following year Mr. Vetere published his second volume of poetry A Dream of Angels and despite still not having an agent to market his work, the success of Vigilante gave Mr. Vetere an international reputation and in 1987 he was flown to Paris. He lived for three months in Paris splitting his time between there and the south of France re-writing French screenplays (already translated into English) for French producers and directors. It was also in the late 80s that Mr. Vetere was flown out to Los Angeles by Fame producer David DeSilva. Mr. Vetere’s first trip to Los Angels was to work with director Stuart Gordon.Though that project never materialized any further, Mr. Vetere made many subsequent trips to Los Angels in the 80’s and always stayed on the beach at 2121 Ocean Avenue. It was at the apartment in beautiful Santa Monica of former GAP Theatre Company member Nick Hardin aka Nick Mariano who has also become a life-long friend. Mr. Vetere had numerous productions of his plays in small Los Angeles theatres and it was during this time that Mr. Vetere developed the screenplay adaptation of his stage play Rage of the Blue Moon which became a Lifetime Cable movie over a decade later. It was also during this time where Mr. Vetere continued to give poetry readings in nightclubs in New York city including the China Club and Heartbreaks to name a few. Because of this notoriety he became a welcomed member to the famous restaurant and celebrity hang-out in New York City called Columbus. It was there where he met the brilliant literary agent Mary Meagher who enhanced his career for the following decade. It was in the mid-90s that Ms. Meagher brought Mr. Vetere over to the William Morris Agency.This relationship brought other stage productions to Mr. Vetere including productions of his plays at theatres like New York Film and Stage company at Vassar, Naked Angels, EST, HERE Theatre, Circle Rep among a few in NYC. Two of his most produced plays of this time were the oddly dark Painting X’s on the Moon and Black and White City Blues. Mr. Vetere also developed his stage play The Marriage Fool with actor Farley Granger playing Richard’s father produced at Circle Rep. The play developed from a one-act into a full-length inspired by his father’s death. And it was in the ‘80’s where Mr. Vetere began the early drafts of his novel The Third Miracle which has refined his literary reputation more than anything he has written before or since.

The Decade of the 1990s
The 1990s were teaming with film, television and theatrical productions for Mr. Vetere. It was also a decade where Mr. Vetere saw numerous publications of his work and a time where he accomplished an enormous amount writing. It all started when Mr. Vetere’s teleplay adaptation of his stage play Hale the Hero! premiered on A&E as part of the General Motors Playwrights Theatre starring Elizabeth Shue and Kevin Anderson. It garnered a rave review in the LA Times. At the same time his play The Engagement was produced at the George Street Playhouse. This was quickly followed by the Penguin Repertory Theatre Company’s production in Nyack, New York of his stage play The Marriage Fool. Mr. Vetere was immediately hired to adapt the play for CBS and in 1997 it aired as a Sunday night TV movie of the week starring Walter Matthau, Carol Brunet, John Stamos and Teri Polo. It was the highest rated TV movie of year. Mr. Vetere wrote several more plays that were produced at Penguin Rep. during the decade including The Vows of Penelope Correli; One Shot, One Kill; Gangster Appareland First Love. Gangster Apparel had its world premiere at the Old Red Lion in London in 1993, produced at Penguin in 1994 and at HERE in NYC off-off Broadway in 1995. The movie rights were then sold to Paramount Films and Mr. Vetere wrote the screenplay adaptation. Mr. Vetere also wrote an evening of one-act plays that were presented in 1993 at the West Bank Café including How to Go Out on a Date in Queens; A Coupla Bimbos Sittin’ Around Talkin’; A Piece of Property and The Spot. In 1995 the Dramatic Publishing House at last published Mr. Vetere’s plays. His play, The Classic, produced by Manhattan Theatre Source was added to their catalogue. In 1997 Mr. Vetere was hired to write for the CBS TV series Dellaventura which starred Danny Aiello where he was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for his writing.
Because of his growing reputation, Mr. Vetere was offered to write a movie in Rome called The Zip for director Giacomo Battiato. Mr. Vetere lived in Rome as he worked on the screenplay. In 1997 the publishing house of Carrol & Graf released his novel The Third Miracle to rave reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and the Library Journal chose it as one of the best debut novels of the year. Simon & Schuster immediately issued the trade paperback edition. Since then the novel has been published in many languages. Francis Ford Coppola optioned the novel in 1997 and Mr. Vetere co-authored the screenplay adaptation which was filmed in Toronto, Canada by internationally famous director Agneiszka Holland starring Ed Harris, Anne Heche and Armin Mueller-Stahl and produced by Mr. Coppola. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 1998 and was distributed by Sony Picture Classics that same year. The film and novel continue to be taught in Universities in Catholic Theology classes as well as classes entitled from ‘Fiction to Film.’

The Decade of the 2000s
In 2000 Mr. Vetere’s film adaptation of his stage play How To Go Out On a Date in Queens was filmed by Michele Danner starring Jason Alexander and Kimberly Williams and Alison Eastwood. In 2001 Mr. Vetere acted in his stage play Safe at the Manhattan Theater Source Theatre company returning to Bleeker and McDougal Streets where he wrote and acted in his very first stage play when he was only nine years old. He adapted the screenplay of Safe for director/actor Chaz Palmintieri to star in and direct. Mr. Vetere play One Shot, One Kill was produced at Primary Stages during the 2002 season in New York City to rave reviews where it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 2003 Mr. Vetere was Story Editor on the ABC series TV Threat Matrix and lived in Tuloca Lake in Los Angeles for that season. In 2004 Mr. Vetere performed his piece Fired at Second Stage and was cast in a major role in Debra Einstadt’s second film The Limbo Room as understudy actor Shelly Meyers. The movie stars Melissa Leo. He was also cast in Jane Ainbender’s movie Nail Polish. Currently, Mr. Vetere has completed his novel Passion City as well his commission for Phil Ramone, Sonny Grosso and Pierre Cosset of a book for the musical on Mario Lanza titled Be My Love. There are also upcoming productions of his book for the musical 100 Years Into the Heart and a commercial run New York City run planned for his stage play Gangster Apparel. Mr. Vetere is also currently working on a screen adaptation of the book Programmed to Kill for producer Kim Rubin titled As Seen On TV. Mr. Vetere’s family includes his mother and brothers Robert and Albert as well as his sister-in-laws June and Kathy and his nephews Robert, Tommy and Albert. He continues to write and live in Queens.The year 2005 found Mr. Vetere working on the screenplay adaptation of his stage play Caravaggio for producer Lili Zanuck with actor Russell Crowe to play Caravaggio.  However, despite all the interest, a director could never be agreed upon.  Mr. Vetere also found his musical 100 Years Into the Heart be chosen by the Broadway Bound series at the Kaufman Center and present at Lincoln Center.  It was then produced at the Spirit of Broadway in Norwich, Connecticut and later that year Mr. Vetere won the Best Book and Best New Show at the black tie award diner. Other events that year included Mr. Vetere selling a TV show idea to Fox Studio but unlike the success he had with George Clooney executive producing along with Warner Bros. his TV pilot, The Wonder, Mr. Vetere along with Fox Studio producers Brad Johnson couldn’t sell his new idea.  In 2005 Mr. Vetere also completed his new novel Baroque about minor painter Mario Minitti set in Rome in 1600 and he wrote a new play called Poet On A String about Delmore Schwartz and James Agee.  He also did a reading of his play Johnny On the Pony with actor Paul Sorvino.The year 2006 was a very busy year beginning with his novel The Third Miracle becoming a Book of the Month Club selection in Spain and with his play Machiavelli having its world premiere at the Manhattan Theater Source then moving to an Off-Broadway run at the ArcLight Theater later that year.  His play Caravaggio opened in Chicago at the Silk Road Theater and Mr. Vetere was asked to be a guest speaker about Caravaggio by the Chicago Humanities Festival. His movie How to Go Out On A Date in Queens had its world premiere at the Lemley Theater in Beverly Hills and is now a big seller on DVD. The film he acted in The Limbo Room was accepted into Slamdance and many other film festivals and Mr. Vetere continued to help run the Queens International Film Festival in its new home at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria.  Mr. Vetere was also asked to teach a masterscreenwriting class at NYU and was asked back to lecture on screenwriting at Queens College.  He also had a presentation of his musical of his novel The Third Miracle with lyrics by Jeff Hughes and music by Scott Eithier.  On a personal note his mother, Angelina Vetere, passed away and his best friend over many years, Alan Czak also died.  His long time agent, Mary Meagher who he had lost contact with over seven years earlier, died of liver and heart failure at the age of 47. In 2007, early in the year, Mr. Vetere was commissioned to write the stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's film Rear Window. Mr. Vetere also wrote an early draft of his new play Poet On a String a dramatic piece about the real life meeting of poets Delmore Schwartz, James Agee and Gertrude Buckman, Delmore's wife, in July of 1939 on Monk's Farm in New Jersey . Dramatic Publishing released Mr. Vetere's published plays Machiavelli and Caravaggio . 100 Years Into the Heart was presented at the Village Theater Musical Theater Festival in Seattle and Mr. Vetere's other musical Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Story was presented at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts with the Nassau Pops to a one night only sold out performance of 2,500 people. Mr. Vetere continued as the Senior Advisory Board member for the Queens Film Festival which had its most successful festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. The Staten Island Center for the Arts presented An Evening with Richard Vetere with Mr. Vetere and actresses Antoinette LaVecchia, Margo Passalaqua, and Angela Rauscher read poetry from Mr. Vetere's volume Memories of Human Hands and dramatized scenes from his novel The Third Miracle . Richard Vetere also wrote a new play titled Three Sister From Queens and a ten minute play titled An Epic Story of Love and Sex Told In Ten Minutes: Chapter One. In 2008, Mr. Vetere directed a reading of Three Sisters in Queens at the Cherry Lane Theater and An Epic Story of Love and Sex Told in Ten Minutes: Chapter One which was named one of the best short plays of the year and published by Smith and Kraus. Penguin Rep performed a new draft of Mr. Vetere's play The Vows of Penelope Corelli andCaravaggio was optioned for an Off-Broadway production. Mr. Vetere also wrote his first young adult play , Bird Brain, and it was given its first staged reading at the Lindenhurst High School. That year Mr. Vetere also saw a production of One Shot, One Kill at Colin University outside Dallas . Mr. Vetere continued teaching film writing at Queens College and was asked to teach film writing at Montclair State University . He was also asked to create a playwrighting/theater class at Lang College at the New School. Mr. Vetere also collaborated with director Eddie Shieh and wrote a short film You & Me which they coproduced and shot in around New York City. The short film was a love story told in ten different languages. Mr. Vetere also adapted his novel The Third Miracle for the stage and the film was presented at MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art ) as a part of a retrospect of director Agnieszka Holland's work. Mr. Vetere was asked to introduce the film with Agnieszka and actor Ed Harris. That winter The Sundance Chanel presented The Limbo Room and actress Melissa Leo, also in Limbo Room, was nominated for an Oscar for her work in Frozen River. Mr. Vetere also wrote two new plays this year, Murder in the Dark, a mystery set in NYC 1948 and Lady MacBeth's Lover. He also worked on his screenplay Couple Wanted.

Subjects
Vetere, Richard,--1952-
American literature -- Italian American authors.
American literature -- Italian influences.
Italian Americans in literature.
Italian Americans -- Intellectual life.
One-act plays, American.
Authors -- Fiction.
Gangsters -- Drama.
Gangsters.
American drama.
Comedy.
Satire.
Italian Americans.
Italian Americans -- Ethnic identity.
Italian Americans in literature. 

INVENTORY

Series 1: CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORANDA, 1967- 2001 (14 boxes)
Personal letters and greeting cards, professional correspondence with publishing houses, managers, actors and venues, teaching correspondence and newsletters and announcements, calendars and datebooks and press

Box 1
1967-1974

Box 2
1975

Box 3
1976-1979

Box 4
1980-1984

Box 5
1984 – 1985

Box 6
1986

Box 7
1987-1988

Box 8
1988-1989

Box 9
1989-1990

Box 10
1991-1995

Box 11
1996-2001

Box 12
undated

Box 13
calendars and datebooks, 1974, 1985-1991, 1994, 1982-83* (located in box 42, oversized)

Box 14
Clippings 1970s-1990s
Press 1970s-2001
Queens Council on the Arts Literary Happenings
Curriculum vitae and resumes

SERIES 2: POETRY, 1965-1988(4 boxes)
poetry collections and poems
Note: arranged by date, then alphabetically by title

Box 15
1965-1970, writings from high school
1971, poems
1972-1974, notes for poems and essays for Torch, St. John’s University newspaper
1970s, published poems, clippings
1972, poems
Winter/Spring 1972, notebook: “From the Lost” Collected Poems
1972-1973, “Memories of Human Hands” (3 folders)
undated, notebook: “Memories of Human Hands”
undated, “Memories of Human Hands”
1973, poems
May-Oct. 1973, Notebook: “A Verse of Cities”

Box 16
1973-1975, “The Earth is a Man” poems
1974, Notebook: “The Earth is a Man” and loose poems
1974, “Dead Body”
1974-1975, miscellaneous poems
1974-1975, poetry binder
1975, “Knot Endings”
1975-1976, “Stone House Notes”
1976, published book: “Memories of Human Hands”
Jan-Feb 1976, “Surfaces”
1976, miscellaneous poems
1985-1988, miscellaneous poems
undated, “Messages from the Outpost”
undated, “Voices, Visions, and other Places”
undated, “The Year Before the Year”

Box 17
undated, poems (7 folders)

Box 18
undated, notebooks: “Autumn Unattached and One More Winter”
“Beneath the Earth Blazed Sky”
“Cain and the Unknown God”
“Cruelty of the Touch”
“Jesse in the Winter City”
“Life’s Tarnished Rainbow”
“A Tender Rage”
“To the Empty Ruins of my Heart”
“The Violent Summer of Byron Kane”
“Voices from the Stage”
“The Worn Wishes of a Forgotten Man”

SERIES 3: PLAYS, 1972- 2001 (6 boxes)
note: arranged by date, then alphabetically by title

Box 19
(1972-1977)

July 23, 1972, draft “The First Born”: an opera
1972, “The Hangman’s Love”
1973, “Nero” – first draft
1973?, “Nero” (2 folders)
1973, “The First Born” – sheet music to opera *Located in Box 42 oversize
Oct. 26, 1974 “Hadrian’s Hill”- draft (2 folders)
1975, “Hadrian’s Hill” – final draft
1975, “The First Born”: an opera
12.31.1976, “Downfall of a Girl” – first draft
1976?, “Downfall of a Girl”
1976?, “Jack and Jill”
1976?, “Night Over the Tiber” – first draft
1976?, “Night Over the Tiber” (3 folders)

Box 20
(1978-1979)

1978?, “Rockaway Boulevard”
1978:  “Disco Fever”
1978, “Paradise” – draft
1978, “Paradise” – working draft
1978, “Paradise” (2 folders)
1978, “Paradise” – final draft
1979, “Johnny on the Pony: - draft

Box 21
(1980s)

1980?, “Brooklyn Voices”
1981? “The Arrogance of a Fat Man” – first draft (2 folders)
1981? “The Arrogance of a Fat Man”
1981? “The Arrogance of a Fat Man” – second draft
1986, “The Marriage Fool”
1989, “Rage of the Blue Moon” (alternate title: “Claudia”)

Box 22
(1990-2001)

1990, “Hale the Hero” (3 folders)
1990, “Lonesome Cowboy”
1990, “Local Politics” (2 folders)
1991, “Gangster Apparel”
1992, “Local Politics”
1992, “Four Cops”
1994. “The Classic”
1999?, “Painting X’s on the Moon” – early draft
1999?, “Painting X’s on the Moon”
March 1999, “Painting X’s on the Moon” - third draft
2001, “Safe”

Box 23
(undated)

“Behavior Unbecoming an Officer:
“Claudia” (3 folders)
"Caravaggio" (1 folder)
“Desperado” (2 folders)
“The Hooker and the John” – first draft
“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded” (2 folders)

Box 24
(undated)

“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded”
“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded” – discussion draft
“Don John” (3 folders)
“Dogs”
“The Living Newspaper”

Box 25
(undated)

“Rockaway Boulevard” – first draft
“Rockaway Boulevard” (2 folders)
“Shrink”
“Vegas Lady”
Unidentified, set in Texas
Unidentified (2 folders)
Unidentified, Pola Negri

SERIES 4: SCREENPLAYS, 1975-1993 (5 boxes)

Box 26
(1975-1977)

1975-76, “N8 St.”/ “North Eighth Street” (4 folders)
1976, “The Arms of Venus de Milo”
1976, unidentified
1978?, “Disco Fever” – notes
1978?, “Disco Fever” – screen treatment with William Lustig
1979, “The Tax Man Cometh” – proposal
Late 1970s, “Nuts and Bolts” – first draft (4 folders)
Late 1970s, “Streetwise”

Box 27
(1981-1983)

1981, “The Honoured Society” – screen treatment, first draft
1981, “The Honoured Society” – treatment
1981, “Vigilante” – third draft
1981, “Vigilante”
1983, “For Better or For Worse”/”The Right Lane” – first draft (2 folders)
1983. “For Better or For Worse”/”The Right Lane” – index cards
1983, “For Better or For Worse” with David deSilva

Box 28
(1985-1992)

1985, “The Original Cast” – first draft
1987, “The Original Cast” – final draft
1990, “The Hanging Ground”
1990? “Son of the Jaguar” – adaptation
1990? “Son of the Jaguar” - research information
1990, “Toni Goes to Mars”
1.1992, “Rage of the Blue Moon” – notes on draft
1992, “Rage of the Blue Moon”

Box 29
(1992-1993)

7.15.1992, “In the Name of Love” – treatment
1992, “The Zip”
8.23.1993, “The Place to Be” – first  Draft
10.21.1993, “The Place to Be”
5.15.1993, “What’s on Your Mind” – first draft, with Frank Pesce (2 folders)
6.15.1993, “What’s on Your Mind” – revised first draft

Box 30
(undated)

“A & P” – adaptation, “Cinehaus” – treatment
“Downtown” – synopsis
“End of the Line” – also by Marc Levin
“Home Movies” – early drafts
“Home Movies”
“Joey No Talk” (2 folders)
“Lies that Bind” (2 folders)
“Manhattan Towers”
“Royal Blue” – proposal for documentary
“A Tender Rage” – first draft
“A Tender Rage”
unidentified treatment
unidentified first draft

SERIES 5: TELEVISION AND SHORT STORIES/NOVELLAS (1 box)
Television series proposal and short fiction

Box 31

Television
1978, “Cover Girls”
1978, “K.O. Joe”
1978, “The Silver Screen”
1982, “The ‘Out to Lunch’ Gang”
1983, “The ‘Out to Lunch’ Gang”
undated, “David Co.”
undated, “E.S.P.” Episode #1
undated, “Foreign Bodies”
undated, “Inside Out”
undated,, “SDS: Decade of Rebellion 1960-1970” – draft
undated, “Decade of Rebellion: - discussion draft
undated, “SDS: Decade of Rebellion 1960-1970 
undated, “Streetwise” with Rudolph Marinelli

Short Stories/Novellas
1974, “From the Sky” – first draft (2 folders)
1976, “The Last Detective” – first draft
1976?, “The Last Detective” – working drafts (2 folders)
1978, “The Last Detective” book (removed and cataloged for Main Stacks)
undated, “The Conductor”
undated, “The Dead”
undated, “First Love” (2 folders)
undated, “Love Struck”
undated, “Maspeth” – first draft
undated, “Maspeth” – working drafts (2 folders)
undated, “Money,” “White Man”

SERIES 6: NOVELS (4 Boxes)

Box 32
(1976)

3.7.1976, “White Summer” (3 folders)
10.10.1976, “White Summer”
undated, “White Summer”
1976, “White Summer” (3 folders)

Box 33
(1977-1991)

6.25.1977, “Don John”
1977, “Don John” (2 folders)
1991, “The Third Miracle” (5 folders)

Box 34
(1991, undated)

August 1991, “The Third Miracle” (3 folders)
November 1991, “The Third Miracle” (2 folders)
undated, “The Conductor”

Box 35
(undated)

“The Capitalist” – Part I
“Castle’s Daughter”
“The Irony Factor” – Synopsis and Prologue
“The Irony Factor” – notes and draft
“Maniac” – based on screenplay, bound
“Vision of Vincent Spark”

SERIES 7: ESSAYS (2 boxes)

Box 36

critical essays

1976?, “Ashberry’s Poetry: The Audience that isn’t Listening”
1977, “Behind the ‘Scenes’”
1977, “Gilbert Sorrentino, interview and notes
1977, “Gilbert Sorrentino and the Writing of Serious Fiction”
1977? “Italian/American Theatre Now!” – research materials
1977? “Italian/American Theatre Now!”
Dec 1979, “The Poet as Performer: Magician of the Moment”
June 1980, “The Movie was Great but Wait Until You Read the Novel” Journal Vol.3/5
Feb 1980, “Poets, Fiction Writers Face Shrinking Markets During 1980s”
May 1980, “The World of the Small Press, Is it too Small?”
Spring 1994, “Gangster Apparel in London”
11.8.2000, “Poets & Writers Talk” – Speech
undated,  “Bertolucci’s NOVECENTO (1900)”
undated, “A Bond of Blood”
undated, “Class, Style & Warmth: The Italian/American Woman”
undated, “Lawrence Ferlinghetti”
undated, “Film: Art Form, But Whose?”
undated, “Invisible Voices: Our Contributions to American Art”
undated, “King of Off-Off Broadway”
undated, “More for the Price”
undated, Queens Council for the Arts
undated, “A Serious Writer”
undated, “Tony, the Bricklayer”
undated, “Vendetta”
undated, “VOCI INVISIBILE: Ethnic Responsibility on Stage”
undated, “Woman with a Mission”
undated, unidentified draft

Box 37
academic essays

1969, high school essays
1971, Shakespeare notebook
1972-73, St. John’s University essays
1972-74, Columbia University notes (3 folders)
1973-74, “Delmore Schwartz” – masters essay (3 folders)

SERIES 8: NOTEBOOKS 1973-1997 (1 box)
contain organizational notes for plays, from workshops, etc.
note: organized by date

Box 38
1973
1978-79, Actor’s Studio
1983
Spring 1993 - New York Writer’s School, Spring 1994, Summer 1994
Spring 1995, Spring/Summer 1996, Fall 1996
Winter 1997, Spring 1997, Summer/Fall 1997
undated – 2 notebooks

SERIES 9: OTHER AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS (1 box)
manuscripts by other authors
note: organized by title

Box 39

“Chum”, Michael Hirtz – screenplay
“Dates and Nuts”, Gary Lennon - Play
“Daughter”, Peter J. Katopes – Novel (3 folders)
“Gypsy Lover”, “Thunder”, Don Linder
1960, “The L-Shaped Room”, Lynne Reid Banks – published novel
1993, “The Place to Be”, Bob Giraldi – Screenplay Outline
1993, “The Place to Be”. Anthony Polemini & Nancy Vaughn
“The Sound of Poetry: Best Poems of the 90s” – audio cassette
1994, TV Pilots
“Visions,” Diana Kwiatowski Rubin – audio cassette

SERIES 10: PUBLICATIONS (2 boxes)
college and professional literary magazines and papers

Box 40

Early Spring, 1947, Sequoya
January, 1947, Sequoya
1966, McClancian – high school yearbook
June 1967, The Voyager – Msgr McClancy High School
June 1968, The Voyager – Msgr McClancy High School 
Spring 1969. The Voyager – Msgr McClancy High School 
1970?, The Voyager – Msgr McClancy High School 
1970, Sequoya vol.xxxiv no.II
1971, Sequoya (4 copies)
Spring 1972, America Sings College Poetry Review
Spring 1972, Sequoya – St. John’s Undergrad Literary Magazine 

Box 41

1972, The Torch – St. John’s University
May/June 1973, Cardinal Poetry Quarterly
Spring 1973, Sequoya: After the Black Book 
1974, Sequoya, third edition and epilogue – English Literary Society, St. John’s
undated, Source Literary Magazine – submission material 
undated, Source vol.1 no.2
“Where are We Now?: The Italian American Today.” Directed by Richard Vetere. 24:00.

SERIES 11: OVERSIZED MATERIALS

Box 42

1973, “The First Born” – sheet music to opera
1982 calendar
1983 calendar
posters
magazines