Jill Johnston

Author and Critic

The Jill Johnston Literary Archive

Jill Johnstons literary career commenced in 1955, when she began writing criticism for The Dance Observer and Art News. After migrating to the fledgling Village Voice in 1959, Johnston emerged as a champion of avant-garde dance and art, covering seminal performances of the Judson Dance Theater, Happenings, the Fluxus movement, and other cutting-edge events. In Art News she reviewed painting and sculpture shows between 1959 and 1965.

   Johnstons writing changed dramatically in the late 1960s, when she adopted a daring, experimental style that paid tribute to both Dada and Gertrude Stein. Remaining Dance Journal in title only, Johnstons weekly column in the Village Voice chronicled a period of revolutionary change and upheaval in American culture. Equal parts diaristic confessional and political diatribe, Dance Journal announced a new model of critical engagement with the world at large. By way of her enormously popular column, Johnston became a leading voice of second-wave feminism, the first woman to announce her sexual orientation in the mass media, and the celebrated author of Marmalade Me (1971), Lesbian Nation (1973), and Gullibles Travels (1974).

    By the late 1970s, Johnstons relationship with the Village Voice had all but dissolved, and she turned her attentions inward, publishing two volumes of probing autobiography in quick succession, Motherbound (1983), and Paper Daughter (1985). At this same time, Johnston reinvented herself as a critic, becoming a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and Art in America. Her incisive studies of the work of Jasper Johns, which first appeared in the pages of Art in America, became the basis for her controversial book, Jasper Johns: Privileged Information, published in 1996.

    Throughout the 1990s, Johnston continued to pen art, dance, and cultural criticism for various publications, while witnessing both collections and reprints of her earlier writings, including Secret Lives in Art (1994), Admission Accomplished (1998), and Marmalade Me (1998) revised and expanded. She also began extensive research on her third volume of autobiography, which illuminates Johnstons long-obscured ties to her father, a celebrated English bell founder, and the introduction of carillons to North America. Entitled, ENGLAND's CHILD: The Carillon and the Casting of Big Bells, this amb itious project couples intimate self-exploration with broad cultural historyf. Published by Cadmus Editions in Spring of 2008.

Johnston's archive consist of 80 boxes (12x10x16), primarily manuscripts, drafts, correspondence and research material. All material has been categorized, organized and inventoried. An archival inventory book is available.

Below is a table of content.
The Jill Johnston Literary Archive

Books by Jill Johnston
ENGLAND's CHILD: The Carillon and the Casting of Big Bells	Boxes 55 through 70
At Sea On Land: Extreme Politics	Box 80
www.jilljohnston.com	Box 80
Nora Johnston: A Memoirs	Box 77
Marmalade Me	Boxes 17 and 42
Admission Accomplished: The Lesbian Nation Years 197075	Box 42
Jasper Johns: Privileged Information	Boxes 27 through 34
Secret Lives in Art: Essays on Art, Literature and Performance	Box 42
Paper Daughter: Autobiography in Search of a Father	Boxes 35 and 53

Mother Bound: Autobiography in Search of a Father	Boxes 35 and 53
Gullibles Travels	Box 16 and 53
Lesbian Nation	Box 15 and 53
Amazon Expedition	Box 15
Marmalade Me	Box 53
Unpublished book manuscripts:
Pros(e)tanzas for Mark di Suvero	Box 78
Niki de Saint Phalle: The Tarot Garden	Box 51; Box 52
Write First, Then Live	Boxes 40, 41 and 44, 45, 46
The Fathers Daughter	Box 41

Writers Go Naked	Box 42; Box 80
A Danish Wedding	Box 80
Walter Gutman book	Box 26
The Structure of Winter and the Intention of Trees	Box 17
The Impersonality of Personal Journalism	Box 17
Confessions of a Critic	Box 17
One Sentence After the Other: Fourteen Pieces by Jill Johnston	Box 17
A Critique of Pure Madness	Box 17
My Father in America	Boxes 21 and 22 and 22
Photo Collection	Box 81

Jill Johnston Journals	Boxes 71; 72; 73; 74; 75
Correspondence
Lecture and Business Correspondence 1970s to early 1980s	Box 10
Lecture & General Correspondence, late 1970s-1980s	Box 24
Correspondence, 1990s–2000s	Box 47
Correspondence, 1990s	Box 42; Box 48
George Walsh	Box 49
Correspondence, 2000 onward	Box 50
Lectures	Boxes 34; 37; 38; 39; 40
Jill Johnston as contributor

Art in America	Boxes 25; 28; 36; 36 ; 37; 38; 39; 43; 54
New York Times Book Review	Boxes 25; 36; 36 ; 37; 38; 39; 43
JJ Articles 1980s for other publications	Box 36
Miscellaneous Research, 1980s	Box 26
Miscellaneous clippings and research material 1980s	Box 23
MSS and Research Materials for JJ Articles, 1990s	Box 37
MSS and Research Materials for JJ Articles, 1990s	Box 39
MSS and Research Materials for JJ Articles, 1990s	Box 38
Jill Johnston at the Village Voice 1958–1979	Boxes 2; 3; 4; 12; 14; 18; 19
Fan Mail 1970s Fans Who Wrote Endlessly	Box 5

Letters from Friends and Famous, 1970s	Box 6
Fan Mail 1970s, 1968-1972	Box 7
Fan Mail 1970s, 19731974	Box 8
Fan Mail 1970s, 19751979	Box 8
Special issue of Culture Hero about JJ created and published by Les Levine 1970	Box 76
Jill Johnston as contributor prior to Village Voice	Box 1
Press Material about Jill Johnston	Box 9
Village Voice Letters To The Editor	Box 9
Feminist Movement Magazines, Pamphlets, Ephemeral	Box 11
Feminist Movement Magazines, Pamphlets, Ephemeral	Box 11

Miscellaneous Dance, Art, Poetry Publications, 1960s70s Box 20

Manuscripts By Others Box 13; Box 34

Writings by GREGORY BATTCOCK Box 9

England's Child
$27.95

Appendix 2 of EC is

a list of carillons by G&J/

Cyril F. Johnston.