Houghton Library
Woodberry Poetry Room Collection
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John Berryman
Ted Berrigan
Elizabeth Bishop
Laura (Riding) Jackson
Jack Kerouac
Robert Lowell
Charles Olson
Ezra Pound
Adrienne Rich
Muriel Rukeyser These audio files are encoded in RealAudio format and require the RealPlayer software for playback. A basic version is available as a free download from the Real website. |
- Welcome
- History
- About the Collections
- Visitor Information
- Permissions Information
- Programs and Events
- Contact Us
Welcome
Welcome to the Woodberry Poetry Room, home to an unparalleled collection of 20th and 21st century English-language poetry books and serials, audio recordings, and rare materials. Founded in 1931, in honor of Harvard alumnus, poet and scholar George Edward Woodberry (1855-1930), the Poetry Room offers students, faculty, scholars and members of the public a comprehensive experience of the art-form: from written text, to audio and visual recordings, to live readings and events.
Inaugurated by a 1930 recording of T. S. Eliot, the Woodberry’s inimitable audio archive has grown into one of the most comprehensive recording collections of poetry in the country, second only to the Library of Congress. The collection today includes such voices as W. H. Auden, Ted Berrigan, Elizabeth Bishop, Yves Bonnefoy, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Creeley, E. E. Cummings, Robert Duncan, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Louise Gluck, Ted Hughes, Robinson Jeffers, Philip Larkin, Denise Levertov, Audre Lorde, Robert Lowell, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Czeslaw Milosz, Marianne Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, Sharon Olds, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Siegfried Sassoon, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens and James Tate. It is, according to Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, “indispensable: it contains not only the voices—from different times of their lives—of the greatest poets, but constitutes a living history of modern poetry."
In addition to its vast audio archive, the Poetry Room has served as the site of readings by a breathtaking array of writers. This tradition continues today with a rich assortment of programs and events, as well as a significant effort to preserve and digitize the Woodberry’s pivotal recordings for generations to come. We welcome you to visit the Poetry Room and experience its vital and ongoing role in contemporary poetry.
History
From its founding, the Poetry Room’s vision was a unique one: to provide a “comfortable, unlibrary-like” place in which students and faculty could encounter “the poetry of their own century,” a subject which was largely unrecognized in the American curriculum of that era.
Situated on the top floor of the Widener Library for nearly two decades, the Poetry Room was moved in 1949 to a room originally designed by renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in Lamont Library, where it has played both a symbolic and active role in Harvard University’s early championing of contemporary poetry. According to Professor Harry Levin, it was no accident that the Poetry Room opened just a year prior to T. S. Eliot’s arrival on campus in 1932, as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry.
During the same period, recording pioneer Frederick C. Packard began to collaborate with the Poetry Room on a prescient and groundbreaking series of recordings of contemporary poets, under the “Harvard Vocarium” label. Inaugurated by Packard’s 1930 Vocarium recording of T. S. Eliot and swiftly followed by recordings of the Poetry Room’s Morris Gray Lectures (the illustrious lecture and reading series that is now overseen by the Department of English), the audio collection has grown into one of the preeminent audio archives in the United States.
For over a half a century, the Poetry Room has functioned as a creative and dynamic focal point for Harvard students, faculty and scholars, and as a gathering space for a range of Harvard students who have gone on to play a pivotal role in the 20th and 21st century literary landscape—among them, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara and Kenneth Koch. To this day, visitors from all over the world and across all disciplines enter the Poetry Room and discover an inspiring place for scholarly contemplation and artistic creation.
About the Collections
Audio Collection
Established in 1931, the Woodberry Poetry Room audio collection is one of the preeminent audio archives in the country. Prescient in its appreciation of the relationship between audio recording and poetic scholarship, the Woodberry Poetry Room collection has become one of the most comprehensive collections of 20th and 21st century poetry recordings in the country. Some highlights from the audio collection include recordings by John Ashbery, Ted Berrigan, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Seamus Heaney, Randall Jarrell, Robinson Jeffers, Jack Kerouac, Denise Levertov, Audre Lorde, Robert Lowell, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Frank O’Hara, Charles Olson, Ezra Pound, Sylvia Plath, Laura (Riding) Jackson, Adrienne Rich, Muriel Rukeyser, Siegfried Sassoon, Wallace Stevens, Allen Tate and William Carlos Williams.
The collection comprises over 6,000 recordings, including those made in conjunction with the Woodberry Poetry Room, the audio archives of the Academy of American Poets and the Aspen Writers’ Conference, as well as an extensive numbers of recordings by early recording pioneers, independent studios and commercial recording companies.
For a list of recordings made for the Woodberry Poetry Room, please consult our finding guide on OASIS. For a more general overview of the reel-to-reels, tapes, lps, CDs and videos in the collection, visit HOLLIS and conduct an “expanded search” using the following search terms:
Keyword: “poetry”
Location: “Poetry Room (Lamont)”
Format: “audio”
Some of our audio collection is not represented in HOLLIS. If you cannot find a particular recording via HOLLIS, we recommend that you consult our card catalog or contact the curator via e-mail or telephone at (617) 495-2454.
Access Policies
The audio collection is accessible by arrangement with the curator. All recordings (including listening copies) must be listened to in the Poetry Room. If no listening copy exists, the curator will determine whether material is suitable for duplication. A minimum of one week is required to produce a listening copy of any recording. All copies remain the property of the Poetry Room. If you are a non-Harvard affiliate and would like to learn more about visiting the Poetry Room audio collection, click here.
Book & Serial Collection
The Woodberry book collection presents highlights from 20th and 21st century English-language poetry and poetry in translation. In addition, the room features a non-circulating collection of current poetry journals from across the country and around the world, which are free to be perused by all visitors. The books and serials are shelved in the creative and comfortable setting of the Poetry Room, designed by the revered Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, with views overlooking the majestic Memorial Church and Harvard Yard.
To search for a specific title or a particular poet in the circulating collection, visit HOLLIS and conduct an “expanded search” using the following search term:
Location: “Poetry Room (Lamont)”
Access Policies
While the general public is welcome to peruse the collection, books in the Poetry Room do not circulate to anyone not affiliated with Harvard University.
Blue Star Collection
In addition to its circulating and audio-visual collections, the Poetry Room contains over 4,000 Blue Star materials, a non-circulating collection of rare and ephemeral poetry publications and materials. Highlights from the Blue Star collection include typescripts of poems by Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke's annotated edition of Rilke's Duino Elegies, a cigar smoked by Amy Lowell, broadsides signed by Elizabeth Bishop and Allen Ginsberg, archival photographs of Robert Frost, Marianne Moore and Ted Hughes and portraits by Larry Rivers, as well as first (or signed) editions of works by John Ashbery, Jorge Luis Borges, Basil Bunting, E. E. Cummings, Robert Duncan, Odysseus Elytis, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Robert Lowell, Pablo Neruda, Frank O'Hara, Ezra Pound, Adrienne Rich, Laura Riding, Wallace Stevens, Wislawa Szymborska, Dylan Thomas, Louis Zukofsky and many more.
For a comprehensive list of Blue Star materials, visit HOLLIS and conduct an “expanded search” using the following search terms:
Keyword: Blue Star
Location: “Poetry Room (Lamont)”
Access Policies
The Blue Star collection is accessible by arrangement with the curator. All Blue Star materials must remain in the Poetry Room. Photocopies of materials that are not fragile or whose duplication is not prohibited can be made on request (for a fee and as staff time permits).
Visitor Information
The Poetry Room is open to all Harvard students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the public. For further information see:
Send general inquiries to: poetryrm@fas.harvard.edu
Permissions Information
Non-commercial Use
Scholars and educators wishing to receive a listening copy of a recording for academic purposes must receive permission from the respective publisher. Once written permission is obtained from the publisher/estate, we will be able to consider your listening copy request. We recommend allotting ample time to receive permissions prior to requesting a listening copy from us.
You may wish to contact the curator via e-mail or telephone at (617) 495-2454 in advance so that we can determine whether the material is suitable for duplication. Certain recordings carry restrictions placed by donors on access and/or copying, or may be too fragile for duplication. All copies remain the property of the Poetry Room and are produced for one-time, academic use. Prepayment to cover reproduction (and shipping, if necessary) is required.
Harvard faculty and graduate student instructors wishing to utilize particular recordings for their classes are invited to hold seminar(s) at the Woodberry Poetry Room. At least one week notice is recommended. Faculty and instructors must arrange to meet with the curator to select the recordings and schedule the seminar. Please contact the curator via e-mail or telephone at (617) 495-2454.
Commercial Use
For commercial use of Poetry Room audio materials, please contact the curator via e-mail or telephone at (617) 495-2454.
The Poetry Room reserves the right to refuse requests that cannot be filled due to the fragility of master recordings, staff time limitations, or other constraints. The Poetry Room cannot copy material that is or has been made commercially available elsewhere; and no reproductions of recordings can be made without appropriate authorization from the authors or their literary executors. Sound quality of Poetry Room archival audio materials varies greatly; no guarantee of reproduction quality can be made. Prepayment is required.
Programs and Events
The Woodberry Poetry Room continues its vital role as an active literary center through a wide range of programs, including daytime and evening events. Unless otherwise indicated, all events take place at the Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library, Room 330, and are free and open to the public. To receive a weekly update of events, please contact the Poetry Room via e-mail with "WPR MAILING LIST" as the subject header.
Daytime Programs
REEL TIME @ The Woodberry
REEL TIME is an acoustical journey through one of the preeminent audio archives in the country. Each week throughout the semester participants are invited to read, write, and chat during these creative listening sessions at the Woodberry Poetry Room. The weekly listening hours will follow an alphabetical route through the Poetry Room's 20th and 21st century collection.
Events take place most Fridays at 3:00pm throughout the semester in the Woodberry Poetry Room and are free and open to Harvard students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the public (with a valid photo ID). Seating is limited.
IMPROMPTU POETICS: WPR Recording Sessions
This exciting new series harks back to one of the Poetry Room's original roles as a pioneering poetry-recording venue. With its early recording label, Harvard Vocarium, the Poetry Room was once a kind of Motown of Modernist poetry. Our new series revives this role for the 21st century and offers attendees a close-listening experience like never before. Each guest poet is invited to add his/her voice to the Woodberry Poetry Room's vital archive by reading new work for 15-20 minutes. Audience members are invited to listen as the recording session takes place and take part in a brief Q&A.
Events take place several times throughout the semester in the Woodberry Poetry Room and are free and open to Harvard students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the public (with a valid photo ID). Seating is limited.
Woodberry Works-in-Progress
Woodberry Works-in-Progress offers attendees an opportunity to engage with artists and scholars who are in the midst of creating significant works—whether those works be compiling a cutting-edge anthology; launching a small press; articulating a ground-breaking literary theory; or experimenting with a new form of poetry. These casual conversations take place in a round-table setting in the Woodberry Poetry Room.
Events take place several times throughout the semester in the Woodberry Poetry Room and are free and open to Harvard students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the public (with a valid photo ID). Seating is limited.
Evening Programs
Join us for our Spring 2009 season of public events, featuring poets and critics from around the country, including Mary Jo Bang, Fanny Howe, Adam Kirsch, Noelle Kocot, Sarah Manguso, Maurice Manning and Jeffrey Yang.
Events are free and open to the public. A valid photo ID may be required to enter certain venues.
Contact Us
Woodberry Poetry Room
Lamont Library, Room 330
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-2454
Fax: (617) 495-1376
E-mail: Woodberry Poetry Room Staff Directory
