Robert Bertholf is curator of the Poetry/Rare Books Collection, one of the University Libraries' special collections. He has been a UB faculty member since 1979.

How and when did the Poetry/Rare Books Collection originate?

"the poetry project," the first name for The Poetry Collection, began in 1937 with the simple collecting policy of first editions of poetry published in English in the 20th century. Later, literary little magazines, reference works and books about the poets were added to the list. In the early 1940s, Charles D. Abbott, the director of the libraries and the founder of the poetry project, hired Mary Bernard as the first curator.

How many pieces are in the collection?

There are 110,000 volumes.

Most people at UB are familiar with the Joyce Collection. What are a few of the other notable, but lesser-known pieces? What is the rarest of the rare books?

The James Joyce Collection is the most famous. The bulk of the manuscripts was purchased by two Buffalo families, the Wickser family and the Stafford family. The collection of Robert Graves manuscripts is the largest in any library. We have the best William Carlos Williams manuscript collection, as well as the Jargon Society, Robert Kelly, Robert Duncan, Helen Adam and Dylan Thomas notebooks. We have the notebooks and some typescripts of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses," which in recent voting was considered the most important novel of the 20th century.

What portions of the collection are online? What's the status of the Joyce online project?

We do not have selections online. The current Joyce projects are to make CD-ROM presentations of the manuscripts. There is no online Joyce project.

Are there any special events/exhibits coming up this year?

The Poetry Collection is co-sponsoring, with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, a poetry reading by Paul Muldoon, a famous Irish poet, on Oct. 2 in the Albright-Knox. In addition, the International Robert Graves Conference will be held June 22-24, 2000. There will be a large exhibition of the Graves manuscripts at that time.

What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have answered it?

Because of the restrictions, the narrow definition of its collecting, The Poetry Collection has accumulated great depth in its holdings. Its collection of little magazines is without doubt the best in the country. The Poetry Collection has the reputation as a distinguished research library in the international literary world