Archives
Questions & Answers
Michael D. Basinski is curator of the Poetry Collection.
What is the Poetry Collection?
The Poetry Collection is poetry’s library of record. The collection is the completely interrelated map of the evolution of poetry in English, beginning in 1900. All poets are bound to each other by their poetry, and their poetry develops in form, style, material, philosophy and opinion in relation to, or in comparison and contrast or response to, all other poetry. It is the fantastic interconnectedness that the collection presents. Imagine the family tree of poetry, and that is the image of the Poetry Collection. Every facet is interrelated and all facets, all individuals or movements, types, styles, etc. are equal in importance to the whole of poetry.
The Poetry Collection began in 1937 under the direction of Charles D. Abbott. The collection's first mandate was—and remains—to collect first editions of books of poetry published in English beginning in 1900 without prejudice. To collect without prejudice means to collect books and recordings of poetry in all forms and contemporary traditions/schools, from all various communities of poets and from all English-speaking countries. For example, broadsides, chapbooks, poem-cards, mail art, visual poetry, underground poetry and poetry publications from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England and South Africa are all within the collecting parameters. Subsequent and special limited editions of books of poetry are added to the collection to maintain poetry’s authoritative bibliographic record.
The little literary magazine collection in the Poetry Collection is parallel to the first-edition collection. This facet focuses on entrepreneurial literary magazines. While institutionally supported magazines are a part of the literary-magazine collection, these titles are secondary to its primary consideration. In this manner, emerging poets are captured throughout their careers: in their earliest little magazine appearances, in more institutional periodicals, monographic chapbooks, critical works and, ultimately, in canonical or small-press anthologies.
The Poetry Collection’s manuscript collections primarily follow the modernist line, beginning with James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, and the magazines and presses that support the evolution of progressive, experimental and innovative poetry. The Poetry Collection also collects the literary culture of Western New York in the form of publications and small press, little magazine and art organization archives, and manuscript collections.
In addition, the Poetry Collection supports the research potential of its collections through the acquisition of books and materials in diverse formats of criticism, affiliated books and material, an authoritative collection of poetry anthologies, artists' books and works of art related to poets, realia, and ephemeral items. In total, the collection gathers all it might of the evolving world of poetry in order to present the most exact image of that evolving world and to reflect the intent and direction of its historical and new collections.
How many pieces are in the collection? Is it just poetry?
At this time there are 110,000 first editions of books and monographs of poetry beginning in 1900, and more than 7,000 broadsides in the collection. There are more than 5,000 runs of little literary magazines. There are more than 100 unique manuscript collections, including the manuscripts of James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, John Logan, Robert Graves, Clark Coolidge, Ted Enslin, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael Palmer, John Montague, Robert Kelly, Helen Adam, Basil Bunting, the archives of the Jargon Society, Kayak magazine, Intrepid magazine, Alcheringa magazine, The Wormwood Review, Score magazine and the archive of The Lost and Found Times. The collection also holds the archives of Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center and the Just Buffalo Literary Center. The list goes on, and it soon will be detailed, defined, explained and explored on a new Web site that we expect to have operational by midyear.
Since we are a research library, the collection has not forgotten its obligation to scholarship. We also collect books of criticism that deal with 20th century poetry in English to illuminate the poetry and promote the understanding of creativity. The study or understanding of how a poem gets from the poet’s mind to the printed page in a book and onto a shelf is a fascinating journey and that odyssey is important. We collect small-press archives that include the business and printing records of the press.
The collection, again in it entirety, is a research and educational tool, and resource to the understanding and the proliferation of poetry. And I must add that some poets are critics and some are novelists and some are also painters or musicians, and all of their activity is of significance to their poetry. Once you enter the conversation and company of the poem, you are in. Besides Pound and Joyce, we collect Jewell and Jimmy Carter.
Most people at UB are familiar with the Joyce Collection. What are some of the other notable, but lesser-known holdings?
We just acquired the papers of UB poet and former English department faculty member Jack Clarke. Clarke took over Charles Olson's teaching duties when Olson left Buffalo mid-semester in 1965. His archive will establish the Poetry Collection as the center of Olson scholarship. We also recently acquired the literary archive of Manroot, a San Francisco magazine that featured the gay poets of the San Francisco Bay Area. We soon will add a large installment of books and manuscripts by British poet Basil Bunting to our already fine holdings. We recently purchased the private library of poet Robert Duncan. A poet’s working library is often as important as a poet’s manuscripts in understanding the evolution of poetic creativity.
How has technology affected the Poetry Collection? Are any of the holdings accessible online?
The advent of online publishing has affected poetry and, hence, the Poetry Collection. There is much more fine press printing being done and more unique poetry being published in forms that can’t simply be transformed to a digital format. Publication runs are becoming smaller and more personal and regional. Poetry is given away and that makes it hard to collect. The economics of poetry publishing means that hard-cover poetry books are being produced without dust jackets. Therefore, blurbs, author bios and pictures only appear on paperbound copies. This presents a problem for a first-edition collection like ours that has always acquired hard-bound books. When our new Web site goes live, indexes or various complexities will be made available. Access to manuscripts will always be somewhat problematic because of copyright issues and complex literary estates. That said, our goal is to make as much accessible as quickly as we can. We catalog, order and index with the scholar's purpose in mind and the way that scholar approaches poetry. This is an item-by-item approach. Literary research is much different than other types of historical research, and we pay attention to our client base and its needs. As one of the capitals of poetry, this is our responsibility.
What is mail art and tell me about some of the mail art collections that are part of the Poetry Collection?
Mail art is an art form sent through the mail. It challenges the notion of art ownership and pretense and preciousness that sometimes goes along with poetry. Make it and give it away to a network of friends. By that act, an artist builds community, challenges form and if freed, forms the constraints and limits of those that publish poetry for prestige or profit. Mail art loves to thumb its nose at any limits. We have mail-art collections from the Flemish poet Luc Fierens to Cleveland’s Baron to New York City’s The Sticker Dude. We have thousands upon thousands of this fugitive poetic and artist art form.
What role is the Poetry Collection playing in the upcoming North American James Joyce Conference?
We are mounting a major exhibition drawn from our Joyce archive that will open in the UB Anderson Gallery during the conference. After that, we plan on touring more than 100 items from the Joyce Collection. While the touring dates and locations are still under consideration, we are working with the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia and the Special Collection’s library of the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.
I understand you’re an accomplished poet in your own right. Tell me about your work.
This is hard. My poetry is a poetry full of neologisms, fractures, sound-scapes, performance options, orchestration, visual constellations and musical cadence. I would say... improvisational possibilities are abundant and the poems are brimming with expressionistic organic possibility. I would always prefer the poetry to be its own explanation. Oh what a cop-out! I like to imagine my poetry as a collage of forms and a collage of performance possibilities. All things and anything in mind must be possible at any instance in the poetry. Go to UbuWeb for a small sampling.