RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Todd S. J. Lawson papers (Ms. 2010.005)

Brown University Library

Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146
E-mail: hay@brown.edu

Biographical note

Todd S. J. Lawson was born on Oct. 16th, 1940 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After serving four years in the U.S. Air Force, from 1959 to 1963, he received an associate's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Minnesota in 1966, and a bachelor's degree equivalent in Journalism/Liberal Arts/Social Sciences from Mankato State College, in 1969.

While at the University of Minnesota, Lawson worked as a feature and folk arts writer for the Minnesota Daily and was awarded an MCEP (Minnesota Council for Education in Politics) fellowship in 1964. From 1966 to 1969, while a student at Mankato State College, he became prose editor and editor-in-chief of the student arts magazine, Plaintiff, which, under his tenure, received six national awards for interviews, articles and works referencing Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, the Firehouse Theatre and the Anti-Defamation League. Also during this time, Lawson came under heavy criticism from college administrators and some faculty members for a controversial fictional piece he wrote on the Vietnam War, Herbie and I, which culminated in a precedent-setting lawsuit, and campus-wide debate on censorship and political discourse.

Lawson was assistant director (1974-1979) and director (1979-1985) of Pacific Arts and Letters (formerly known as San Francisco Arts and Letters), a non-profit, multi-cultural arts organization and publisher, and editor of its monthly newsletter, ALPS (Arts, Letters, Publishers and Systems). He oversaw the publication of well over three hundred works, in various formats, under its affliate organization, Peace and Pieces Press, and was responsible for organizing its annual small press book fair. From 1980 to 1985, under the sponsorship of Pacific Arts and Letters, in cooperation with the California Arts Council's "Artists in the Communities Program," he also hosted the television talk show, Lawson and the Arts, which was broadcast from a local San Franciscan cable station and incorporated sign-language interpreters for the hearing-impaired. This weekly program featured interviews with a variety of writers, artists, local personalities and international celebrities, including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane Fienstein, Quentin Crisp, and Gary Gach, to name just a few.

Lawson was the author of one chapbook, Pacific Sun Poems (1973), and of four books: Patriotic Poems of Amerikka(1971); The Empire of Howard Hughes (non-fiction, 1975); and The 69 Days of Easter (fiction, 1977). He also wrote numerous individual poetry and prose pieces, including editorials and essays, which were published in various literary periodicals, newspapers, and anthologies, including The Advocate, The Art Journal, Vida Universitaria, and Earth Times (Rolling Stone Magazine).

Lawson won two national citations from Story magazine in New York for his published interviews with the Minnesota Anti-Defamation League and the Firehouse Theatre in Minneapolis. He was also the recipient of a P.E.N. American Center Award, a Pi Delta Epsilon Literary Award, the Carnegie Writers Award (1979), and the California Arts Council Writer-in-Residence Award (1980-1981). He also received grants from P.E.N. American Center (New York), The California State Arts Council (Sacramento, Calif.), and the National Endowment for the Arts (Washington, D.C.).

Lawson died peacefully at home in San Francisco on June 30th, 1987.