Happy National Poetry Month to you and yours! Here at the Library of Congress, we’re kicking off our celebration with the addition of 50 newly digitized recordings to the online Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature. This collection, which dates back to 1943, contains nearly 2,000 audio recordings of poets and writers participating in literary events at the Library of Congress, along with sessions recorded in the Recording Laboratory in the Library’s Jefferson Building. Until 2015, when we began digitizing the collection, most of these ARPL recordings were only available to those who visited the Library of Congress in person. Including this month’s release, there are 265 recordings from the archive now streaming online—easily accessible to anyone in the world with an internet connection.
Among the 50 newly added recordings are readings and lectures by poets laureate Josephine Jacobsen, William Meredith, Anthony Hecht, Robert Hass, Daniel Hoffman, Reed Whittemore, Stanley Kunitz, and Stephen Spender. For the first time streaming from the archive, you can now listen to recordings from Edward Field, Afaa M. Weaver (Michael S. Weaver), Susan Shreve, Eve Merriam, Katherine Chapin, E. Ethelbert Miller, and many more.
If you really want to keep track, here’s a list of all 50 new additions to the online Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature:
- Adrian Henri reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Nov. 2, 1976
- Adrienne Wolfert reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Nov. 13, 1978
- Ann W. Hafen reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 17, 1961
- Anthony Hecht reading from his poetry on October 3, 1983, in the Coolidge Auditorium
- Carl Bode reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, April 27, 1960
- Charles G. Bell reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, June 9, 1965
- Charles Tomlinson reading his poems in the Recording Laboratory, April 18, 1960
- Daisy Aldan reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, April 14, 1980
- David McAleavey and Susan Shreve reading from their work in the Coolidge Auditorium, Dec. 2, 1980
- Ethelbert Miller and Michael S. Weaver reading their poems on February 13, 1989, in the Coolidge Auditorium
- Edward Field and Michael S. Harper reading and discussing their poems on March 31, 1975, in the Coolidge Auditorium
- Edwin Honig reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Mar. 15, 1965
- Elisavietta Ritchie reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, May 30, 1973
- Eve Merriam reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Oct. 19, 1961
- Gene Baro reading his poems in the Recording Laboratory, May 20, 1960
- Harriet Zinnes reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, April 18, 1978
- Henry Rago reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Dec. 4, 1961
- Jascha Frederick Kessler reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Apr. 1, 1974
- Jascha Kessler reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 19, 1960
- Jonathan Williams reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, June 18, 1965
- Katherine Garrison Chapin reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Nov. 30, 1960
- Katie Louchheim reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 5, 1968
- Laura Furman, James D. Houston, and David Michael Kaplan, authors of three of the “ten best” short stories in the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project, read their stories on November 29, 1990, in the Montpelier Room
- Lee Anderson and Josephine Jacobsen reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Apr. 27, 1970
- Leslie Ullman reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, May 30, 1979
- Loren C. Eiseley reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Mar. 13, 1974
- Melville Cane reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Mar. 25, 1960
- Melvin Beaunorus Tolson reading his poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 18, 1965
- Others–shock troops of modern poetry: lecture by Daniel Hoffman in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 6, 1974
- Patricia Beer reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory on November 2, 1976
- Phyllis Armstrong reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, July 11, 1960
- Poets and anthologists: a look at the current poet-packaging process, with historical asides: a lecture by Reed Whittemore in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 6, 1985
- Robert Conquest reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, April 21, 1960
- Robert Dana reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Feb. 19, 1974
- Roger Hecht reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Apr. 3, 1967
- Ruthven Todd reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Apr. 9, 1975
- Stanley Burnshaw reading his poems in the Recording Laboratory, Nov. 28, 1962
- Stanley Jasspon Kunitz reading one of his own poems and poems by other poets in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 6, 1975
- Suresh Dalal reading translations by Jagdish Joshi of Mr. Dalal’s poems in Studio B, Recording Laboratory on June 19, 1978
- Surly verses for the holidays, from D.H. Lawrence to E.E. Cummings and far beyond: readings in the Mumford Room, December 7, 1989
- Sybil Kein reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 11, 1978
- The cultures of American poetry: lecture by Robert Hass in the Montpelier Room on May 2, 1996
- The cultures of American poetry, part 2: lecture by Robert Hass in the Montpelier Room on May 2, 1996
- The imagination in the modern world: three lectures by Stephen Spender in the Coolidge Auditorium, February 26, 27, and 28, 1962
- The uses of criticism: a lecture by William Meredith in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 5, 1980
- Walter Lowenfels reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Dec. 17, 1962
- William Meredith reading his poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 2, 1978
- William Meredith reading his poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 2, 1979
- William Packard reading his poems and excerpts from his plays, with comment, in the Recording Laboratory, Apr. 23, 1964
- X.J. Kennedy reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, June 28, 1962
We’ll keep you posted on all that’s in store for the rest of National Poetry Month. In the meantime, we hope you have fun exploring the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature!
Comments
Stanley “Jasspon” Kunitz! Wonderful. Who knew? A mammoth job here. Can’t wait to dive in.
Shirl
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