From Frost to Fragonard: Renovating the Poetry Room
The newly-refurbished Poetry Room in the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building. - Lynne Hammette
The Poetry Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building is a small space in the northwest corner of the third floor of the building that commands one of the best views of the city, overlooking the east front of the Capitol and beyond to the towers of Virginia. One of the last spaces in the building to be renovated, it is the home of the Library's Poetry and Literature Center, which includes an administrative office and a small working office for the resident Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, in addition to the elegant Poetry Room. This third (or "attic") floor of the Jefferson Building, which houses the Congressional Page School in addition to the Poetry and Literature Center, is now closed to the public.
The Poetry Room was formally dedicated on April 23, 1951, William Shakespeare's birthday. The guest of honor was Library benefactor Gertrude Clarke Whittall, who gave the funds for the development of a poetry center in December 1950. The Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry Fund was to be used to "promote the appreciation and understanding of poetry," primarily through a series of lectures on poetry and poetry readings. These funds also supported the original decoration and furnishing of the Poetry Room.
This Asian screen and Buddha grace the redecorated Poetry Room. - Lynne Hammette
The Poetry Room recently underwent a complete renovation, including furnishings, lighting fixtures and window treatments. The furniture in the Poetry Room was donated by Whittall and includes pieces from the English Edwardian and American Colonial Revival periods, the majority in the Neoclassical style. All of the furnishings were refurbished or treated, and structural repairs were made when needed. Reversible adhesives and coatings were used whenever possible to maintain the furnishings' integrity. In the case of a four-panel Edwardian screen, the original fabric was preserved by keeping it on the frame and covering the old fabric with new.
A candelabrum, original to the room, was also restored. Working from photos of details of the furniture, a rug manufacturer designed a new carpet, and new drapes were styled by Library designer LynneHammette, working with the upholsterer. Four framed prints by the French Rococo-era painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard were cleaned and restored.
Prior to the renovation, the poetry room was cluttered with an odd assortment of chairs and tables, with wall-to-wall carpeting and water stains on the floors from the radiators. The renovation began in May 2002 and was completed in the summer of 2003.
The Consultant in Poetry
"The Consultant in Poetry is a very busy man, chiefly because he spends so much time talking with people who want to know what the Consultant in Poetry does." So begins Howard Nemerov's 1963 essay "What Does The Consultant in Poetry Do?" in William McGuire's 1988 book, "Poetry's Catbird Seat: The Consultantship in Poetry in the English Language at the Library of Congress," the definitive reference book for the history of the consultantship.
Consultants in Poetry and Poets Laureate Consultants in Poetry at the Library of Congress, 1937-present: Joseph Auslander, 1937-1941; Allen Tate, 1943-1944; Robert Penn Warren, 1944-1945, 1986-1987; Louise Bogan, 1945-1946; Karl Shapiro, 1946-1947
Renamed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry through legislation passed in 1985, the poet laureate today is a very busy man or woman, but the time spent explaining the position has probably remained the same.
Ted Kooser, the current poet laureate whose appointment was announced in August, has been fielding calls and questions about this and other matters since then. His usual quiet lifestyle has been disrupted by requests from reporters for interviews and photographs. Through it all, he has remained mellow and patient, in part because he's an easygoing Nebraskan, but also, he says, due to the "shell shock" of being appointed to the prestigious position of Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the keystone of the Library's Poetry and Literature Center.
Background
On Feb. 19, 1872, the congressional Joint Committee on the Library of Congress considered a petition by T.N. Hornsby, a private citizen, asking Congress to establish a "bureau of poets and poesy." No action was taken, and the position of poet laureate at the Library as it is known today would not exist had the committee agreed to establish such a bureau.
The Consultantship in Poetry in the English Language, also known as the Chair of Poetry, was conceived by Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress from 1899 to 1939, and created by a gift fund in 1936. Putnam appointed Joseph Auslander, lecturer on poetry at Columbia University and poetry editor of the North American Review, as the first consultant on July 7, 1937. His annual stipend was $3,000.
Robert Lowell, 1947-1948; Leonie Adams, 1948-1949; Elizabeth Bishop, 1949-1950; Conrad Aiken, 1950-1952; William Carlos Williams, 1952
The consultantship was funded in large part by Archer Milton Huntington, the son of Collis P. Huntington, the railroad builder and principal organizer of the Central Pacific Railroad. Huntington's friendship with Librarian Putnam led to Huntington's donation of funds to maintain a "Chair of Poetry in the English Language," which consisted of a 1936 deed of trust of 5,000 shares of Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. stock. Half of the income was earmarked for the maintenance of a Hispanic Society Room, which is now the Hispanic Reading Room.
Another fund, the Henry Kirke Porter Memorial Fund, derived from half the proceeds of the sale of a valuable piece of real estate in downtown Washington, was given to the Library in 1938 by Annie-May Hegeman and named for her stepfather, who was a founder of the YMCA and a former member of Congress. The Porter Fund provided additional funds to support the Chair of Poetry.
Auslander, handpicked by Huntington to be the consultant with no definite term of office, was a man who came from humble means and studied at Harvard, eventually teaching at Columbia College. He published often in small magazines, but his work was not looked upon kindly by some of his peers, such as Archibald MacLeish, an established poet himself, who became Librarian of Congress just two years later.
MacLeish assumed the duties of Librarian of Congress on Oct. 2, 1939. And in 1941, after serving the Library as Chair of Poetry for four years, Auslander left the position and assumed the duties of gifts officer, a position created especially for him, in order to continue his work to secure private donations for the Library's literature collections. Auslander's tenure under MacLeish was marked by some turbulent times, including disagreements about establishing a poetry room. Coupled with MacLeish's lack of admiration for Auslander's work, this may have led MacLeish to force Auslander out of the position.
Randall Jarrell, 1956-1958; Robert Frost, 1958-1959; Richard Eberhart, 1959-1961; Louis Untermeyer, 1961-1963; Howard Nemerov, 1963-1964, 1988-1990
As John Broderick, former assistant librarian for research services at the Library of Congress has written: "Auslander was definitely not his [MacLeish's] idea of who should occupy the highly visible, though not yet prestigious, position of Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. MacLeish terminated Auslander's appointment, intending to use the position to bring distinguished American poets to the Library for one-year terms."
In a letter to the poet Stephen Vincent Benet, excerpted in "Poetry's Catbird Seat," MacLeish described the post of Consultant in Poetry as "a practicing poet able and willing to answer the inquiries about American and English poetry which occasional readers may bring in, and to have general supervision of the collection in a non-technical way, and, secondly, to offer to practicing poets a place where for a period of a year or two a man may have time and access to the Library for the purposes of his work."
Two years passed before MacLeish was able to fill the poetry chair, and Allen Tate was inducted as the second consultant in 1943.
"I Crown Thee…Poet Laureate!"
The process of appointing the consultant has always been without much pomp or bureaucratic circumstance; since the early 1950s he or she is appointed by the Librarian of Congress, who may consider recommendations from a variety of sources, such as present and former consultants. The formal duties and requirements of the consultant are also modest; regular office hours or full-time residency in Washington are not compulsory. Only two readings, one at the beginning and one at the end of the year's consultantship, are required.
Reed Whittemore, 1964-1965, 1984-1985; Stephen Spender, 1965-1966; James Dickey, 1966-1968; William Jay Smith, 1968-1970; William Stafford, 1970-1971
Currently, the consultant receives a privately funded, taxable stipend of $35,000.
The title of the consultant's position was officially changed by Public Law 99-194 to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in 1985 after an effort of many years by former Sen. Spark M. Matsunaga (D-Hawaii) to create a position of Poet Laureate of the United States, who would be appointed by the President upon recommendations of the then National Council on the Arts.
The Library opposed the legislation for three principal reasons, which Broderick enumerated in his 1986 article in the Yearbook of the Dictionary of Literary Biography: "1) the inappropriateness of such a position in a democratic society; 2) the politicization of such a position if filled by Presidential appointment; and 3) the confusion with and detraction from the Library's Consultant in Poetry."
The 1985 law as passed represented a compromise, with a change in title and some funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, but with the position still appointed by the Librarian of Congress. It resulted in the rather awkward title of Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, but it seemed to greatly enhance the public perception of the position. As Broderick notes: "The national media greeted the appointment of Robert Penn Warren [the first holder of the position with the new title] with coverage unmatched since the days of Robert Frost. If Senator Matsunaga wanted to increase the visibility of the national poetry position he succeeded immeasurably."
Josephine Jacobsen, 1971-1973; Daniel Hoffman, 1973-1974; Stanley Kunitz, 1974-1976, 2000-2001; Robert Hayden, 1976-1978; William Meredith, 1978-1980
The law established the "Authority for Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry," in effect recognizing the consultant position and its literary contributions. The law also recognized the position as "equivalent to that of Poet Laureate of the United States" and encouraged federal government use of the services of the Poet Laureate as long as this "does not impair the continuation of the work of the individual chosen to fill the position."
The change in name was announced at the end of Gwendolyn Brooks' appointment, and she assuaged any fears about the title change during her last lecture as consultant:
"The administration of the Library of Congress in the past has shown great intelligence in selecting sane, talented and discriminating people to this post—after all, it selected me, didn't it?—and it will continue to do so. It will not select people who will consent to write celebrations for sanitary installations. There is nothing to fear."
Warren had the distinction of serving under both titles when he was appointed the first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in 1986, 42 years after his first term as Consultant in Poetry in 1944.
Maxine Kumin, 1981-1982; Anthony Hecht, 1982-1984; Robert Fitzgerald, 1984-1985; Gwendolyn Brooks, 1985-1986; Richard Wilbur, 1987-1988
The informality and minimal workload of the position are designed to encourage the poet to write or promote poetry for the period of the consultantship. The methods with which to do one or both of these things vary according to artistic temperaments.
Poets Laureate Programs and Projects
Recently appointed Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has already had a busy introduction to the life of Poet Laureate. He's been interviewed, videotaped, photographed and recorded, and he has appeared in print, on television and on broadcast and satellite radio. Kooser marked the official start of his appointment at his first reading on Oct. 7. During that first visit to Washington as the new Poet Laureate, he also participated in the Library's National Book Festival on the National Mall, where he read his poetry and signed copies of his recent book, "Delights and Shadows."
Born in Iowa, Kooser lives in Garland, Neb., and is the first consultant from the Plains states. At Kooser's first reading, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, in introducing the Poet Laureate, said that Kooser's poetry "makes us think differently about what we take for granted in everyday life"; and described Kooser's style as "spare simplicity."
Mark Strand, 1990-1991; Joseph Brodsky, 1991-1992; Mona Van Duyn, 1992-1993; Rita Dove, 1993-1995; Robert Hass, 1995-1997
Kooser, a plain-speaking man of 65, plans to focus his efforts during his term on making poetry accessible to more people and by promoting the reading of poetry. As he said in an early interview, "Poetry can offer readers fresh new ways of looking at the ordinary, everyday world. … Seeing a very ordinary thing through new eyes. That's what poetry can do for people, for everybody who will give it a chance."
Billy Collins, Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, had a similar idea in mind during his two-term tenure. He founded the Web site "Poetry 180," a poem-a-day program to promote the reading of poetry in high schools. The project has been very popular, and the Web site (www.loc.gov/poetry/180/) continues to be updated and maintained by the Library's Public Affairs Office.
Other Poets Laureate have quietly championed the work of other, less-established poets. Louise Glück, Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2004, promoted the work of younger artists through her choices for the Library-organized Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry and the Witter Bynner Foundation fellowship. Readings for these award-winning poets were organized and widely promoted by Glück and the Library.
Women as Poetry Consultants
Louise Bogan, the fourth consultant, was the first woman named to the post in 1945. Bogan was known to be outspoken and merciless in her reviews of many fellow poets, notably Auslander and MacLeish. Proud of her independent stance against the literary establishment, Bogan became more obliging after she was appointed consultant. She oversaw the production of literary recordings and convinced W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot to record their poetry for the Library's poetry archives. Bogan also recorded her own poetry to great success.
Robert Pinsky, 1997-2000; Billy Collins, 2001-2003; Louise Glück, 2003-2004; Ted Kooser, 2004-
Léonie Adams' appointment was slated to follow Bogan's, but Karl Shapiro was chosen instead. When Shapiro wrote to Tate about the selection, Tate responded that "a man might do this particular job this year better than any woman that could be selected." As "Poetry's Catbird Seat" notes, it is unclear why gender played such an important role in selecting the consultant that year, considering Adams' distinction and that most of the Library's Fellows in American Letters (who played a major role in recommending poets for the job under Librarian Luther Evans) considered her the best poet for the job. Nonetheless, she was chosen two years later, in 1948, and was the first poet to inaugurate the tradition of a reading early in the consultancy.
In total, there have been nine women who have filled the poetry consultant position. Some have chosen to emphasize and promote the work of other women writers, such as Maxine Kumin, who initiated a popular women's series of poetry workshops at the Poetry and Literature Center.
Gwendolyn Brooks was known for her affability and the personal attention she gave to every letter or request to read. Her generosity was legendary. Brooks continued the tradition of hosting "brown bag" noontime poetry readings with one exception; she picked up the lunch tab (sometimes for as many as 20 people) and gave the poets who read $200 for their time and travel.
In a tribute to Brooks, poet Rita Dove pondered Brooks' influence and impact as a writer: "How does one begin to convey the influence Gwendolyn Brooks has had on generations—not only writers, but people from all walks of life? How can one describe the fiercely personal connection her poems make, how to chronicle her enormous impact on recent literary, social and political history? … Though I never dreamed of following in her footsteps as far as the Pulitzer Prize, her shining example opened up new possibilities for me and generations of younger artists."
Rita Dove, in turn, also carried out notable projects during her tenure. The seventh Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner organized a literary season so exemplary that the Librarian asked her to remain a second term. As reported in a 1995 Information Bulletin article, Dove was a bit overwhelmed and curious by the free rein she was given. "Nothing was ever questioned. … When I came in, they said, ‘We have these dates and what would you like to do?' At first this is very disconcerting." But she rose to the occasion during her two-year appointment, featuring a variety of authors and programs at the Library, such as young poets from Montana's Crow Nation and a jazz and poetry evening during which poets read while musicians accompanied them.
Audio and Video Poetry Archives
A continuing activity of the Poetry and Literature Center is the invitation of poets and writers to record for the Library's Archives of Recorded Poetry and Literature.
Most incumbent Poets Laureate have furthered the development of the Library's archives of recorded literature, and the center's Web site features video recording and audio files. Recently, some episodes of "Poet Vision," which features poets reading and talking intimately about their work, have been added to the center's Web site. The 12 episodes in the series, videotaped from 1988 to 1990 in Philadelphia and broadcast on television in that area, were donated to the Library of Congress in 2000 and now are held by the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
Grace Cavalieri and "The Poet and the Poem"
"The Poet and the Poem at the Library of Congress," a series of radio interviews with a wide variety of poets, is a labor of love for Grace Cavalieri, an award-winning poet and playwright who founded the series in 1977. The show features poets' readings of their work along with discussions with Cavalieri of their craft and sources of inspiration, often peppered with personal stories and insights about their writing experience.
The hour-long show first aired on WPFW-FM radio in Washington, D.C., where it ran, live on a weekly basis, for 20 years without interruption. After the show was retired from WPFW in 1998, the Witter Bynner Foundation funded an annual series from the Library, with seven one-hour programs recorded per year, which are fed by satellite to public radio stations.
"The Poet and the Poem" will enter its 28th consecutive year in 2005 and is the longest-running program devoted exclusively to poetry in the history of broadcasting. The series, which includes talks with several Poets Laureate and Witter Bynner fellows, is also available for listening on the Poetry Center's Web site at www.loc.gov/poetry/.
Wide Angle: the Poetry Collections at the Library
The Library's Manuscript Division maintains and acquires original manuscripts by poets, but a 1969 law preventing living artists from getting a full-market-value tax deduction of their donated works has made it more difficult for the Library to acquire donated literary works.
Alice Birney, literary curator in the Library's Manuscript Division, suggests that ideally "there should be a poetry endowment for living artists." Such a cache would persuade poets to give their papers to the Library while receiving a respectable sum for their donation. Still, some very impressive original documents have made their way into the Library's collections, among them correspondence and poems of the Poets Laureate Robert Frost (1958-59) and Louis Untermeyer (1961-63). The Untermeyer-Frost Collection, donated in 1962, contains 500 items and includes letters from Robert Frost to Untermeyer concerning poetry, Frost's philosophy, and their views and interests, together with photographs, published writings and other material by and about Frost, including galley proofs of "The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer (1963)."
In addition, the papers of Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren (1944-45, 1986-87) and a small group of Joseph Brodsky letters are also included in the division's holdings. The Edna St. Vincent Millay collection of some 40,000 items, including correspondence, diaries, notebooks, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records and family papers, is another important holding in the division. And the division is the world's largest repository of Walt Whitman's papers.
The Manuscript Division also houses the Archives of the Library of Congress, which contains records and correspondence of the Consultants and Poets Laureate, a widely used source of research.
It is the policy of the Library of Congress to collect comprehensively works by both established and new American poets regarded as having literary merit or as representing current trends in writing. In addition to volumes of poems by individual authors, the Library's general collections include anthologies and periodicals whose contents consist primarily of poetry; new critical and authoritative collections of prominent poets' works; and historical, theoretical, critical, scholarly and bibliographical studies of poetry. For the most part, the Library attempts to maintain a research-level collection of poetry by and about authors from other countries.
While most major American research libraries have strong collections in literature and language, and no single library holds every published work by every poet, the Library's collections are unrivaled for the breadth and depth of their coverage. The general collections of the Library of Congress contain published works of poetry from most of the countries of the world in most of the languages of the world. But—both because the Library of Congress (in addition to serving Congress) serves as the national library of the United States and because of the copyright deposit law—its holdings of American poetry are particularly strong. Special credit in this regard must go to the sixth Librarian of Congress (1864-1897), Ainsworth Rand Spofford.
It was Spofford who first recognized the importance of copyright deposit in developing a comprehensive collection of the nation's literature and who worked to obtain congressional approval of the Copyright Act of 1870, which centralized all copyright activities at the Library of Congress and required that anyone claiming a copyright for printed material send two copies of the item in question to the Library of Congress. With the passage of this act, the foundation was laid for the world's most extensive collection of Americana.
The general collections of the Library of Congress, therefore, contain holdings of American literature and poetry unsurpassed in scope, along with works that analyze, criticize and interpret them. Although first editions of numerous prominent poets' works are sent to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, additional copies and subsequent editions are added to the general collections.
Poetry is very much at home in the Library of Congress. As Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole has written in "On These Walls": "The Library is steeped in poetry; indeed, the Jefferson Building's walls are covered with poets' words. Quotes by Tennyson, Keats, Wordsworth, Emerson, Milton, Byron and Virgil, among others, grace the walls. Sculptures representing Shakespeare and Homer keep watch in the Main Reading Room. And a celebration of poets is depicted in Henry Oliver Walker's mural "Lyric Poetry."
Joseph Auslander, on being named to the post of Poetry Consultant in 1936, penned his acceptance in poesy:
The simple phrase of gratitude
Is something rather felt than heard:
Your quiet graces ruse
The overstrident thought or word.
Wherefore this letter I indite
returns in but a meagre measure
The courtesy that gave delight,
The fellowship that furnished pleasure.
Subsequent Poets Laureate, in their unique ways, have assumed the post with similar gratitude—and determination to increase the awareness and accessibility of poetry.
