William Irwin Thompson papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 3793

Scope and content

Includes Lindisfarne publications, books and articles by Thompson, and manuscripts of some of Thompson's writings. Also, photographs of lectures and group activities at Lindisfarne; video of Thompson's "Lecture on the Future." Photodocumentation of the building of the Lindisfarne Chapel. Includes audiorecordings of lectures delivered at Lindisfarne by Thompson, and many other guest lecturers. Also, correspondence (1972-1982) with many artists and philosophers involved with metaphysics and new age thinking, including Gary Snyder, Paulo Soleri, Paul Winter, Stewart Brand, and many others.

Scope and content

Photographs of the Lindisfarne Fellows Conference, 1979; construction of the chapel and the Lindisfarne Fellows House, 1980; "Thinking Together at the Edge of History: The Story of the Lindisfarne Association," typescript, 2005; and "Still Travels Contemplative Poems," article in Elixir, Issue 3, Autumn 2006. Also "Final Schedule Lindisfarne Fellows Conference," 2011.

Scope and content

Additional papers include writings: undergraduate papers, poetry, and honors theses, graduate school essays, plays, book reviews, college and graduate school literary magazines, and Lindisfarne publications. Also Paul Winter Consort tape and CD, and various published interviews. Failed projects include rejected applications, an aborted novel, and poems with manuscript marginal comments by Wendell Berry. Includes papers relating to his cultural activities at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, 1975-1996. Essay: "Taking Time for Evan and Hilary: Reflections of a Homeschooling Parent."

Scope and content

Also, videotape of "Monte Grande: What is Life," a film by Franz Reichle. Six CDs of lectures from the the Ross School (East Hampton, N.Y.): Senior Lectures, Evolution of Culture, 2010 and Ross Institute Summer Academy 2010, Culture & Evolution of Consciousness, 2011.

Scope and content

Poems by Thompson in "Dreamlife", 2006; "Thinking Otherwise" blog printout, 2012, 2013; cassette tape of Findhorn Foundation Lecture Series, "World Crisis and The Wholeness of Life Conference", 1976. "Memoir" and other articles published in Wild River Review.

Dates

1955-2015.

Creator

Thompson, William Irwin. (Person)
Snyder, Gary, 1930- (Person)
Soleri, Paolo, 1919-2013. (Person)
Winter, Paul. (Person)
Brand, Stewart. (Person)
Berry, Wendell, 1934- (Person)
Reichle, Franz. (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Imagination of an insurrection, Dublin, Easter, 1916..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Darkness and scattered light..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Time falling bodies take to light..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Language of a work: German.. Title of work: Pacific shift..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Islands out of time..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Temenos 12..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: She: Journal of a Tantric obsession..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Selected poems 1959-1991..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: American replacement of nature..) (Person)
Thompson, William Irwin. (Title of work: Transforming history..) (Person)

Restrictions on Access

Access to Boxes 5, 6, 7, 30 restricted until 2040.

Biographical / Historical

William Irwin Thompson was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 16, 1938. He received his B.A. from Pomona College in 1962, his M.A. from Cornell University in 1964, and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1966. He was a humanities professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at York University. He is founding director of the Lindisfarne Association (founded 1973), an association of persons who share Thompson's interest in the spiritual development of human culture. His books include "The Imagination of an Insurrection, Dublin, Easter, 1916"; "Darkness and Scattered Light: Four Talks on the Future"; "Pacific Shift"; "The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Evolution of Cultures"; and "Transforming History."