The Hand of the Poet

Author: Rodney Phillips

Publisher: Rizzoli (1997)

The Hand of the Poet provides a personal, intimate connection with poetry and its creation. One hundred poets, ranging from John Donne and William Blake to Stanley Kunitz and Julia Alvarez, are represented by biographical sketches, illustrations (all from the Library's collections), and poetry excerpts. Emphasis is on poetry-as-process, with many poems shown in early drafts; some of these poems would undergo extensive revision before, and even sometimes after, their first appearance in print. The volume also includes essays by poet Dana Gioia about the value of literary manuscripts and the history of the Berg Collection, and a bibliographical essay by Rodney Phillips offering suggestions for further reading.

Inspired by an enormously successful exhibition organized by The New York Public Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The Hand of the Poet provides a personal, intimate connection with poetry and its creation. One hundred poets, ranging from John Donne and William Blake to Stanley Kunitz and Julia Alvarez, are represented by biographical sketches, illustrations (all from the collections of The New York Public Library), and poetry excerpts. Emphasis is on poetry-as-process, with many poems shown in early -- sometimes wonderfully messy -- drafts; some of these poems would undergo extensive revision before, and even sometimes after, their first appearance in print.

The personal side of poets and poetry is shown through manuscripts of a poem written by Elizabeth Bishop for Robert Lowell, and the poem he wrote for her in response; a typescript of a poem Muriel Rukeyser wrote for her son, accompanied by a snapshot of the poet with the newborn child; photos of Robert Lowell with his daughter, Randall Jarrell with the cat to whom he gave his wartime meat rations, Donald Justice (who abandoned a music career for one in poetry) at the piano, and James Schuyler in his poetically cluttered Chelsea Hotel apartment. Also illustrated is an assortment of realia from the Berg Collection: a pencil made by Henry David Thoreau in his family's pencil factory, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's slippers and lorgnette, a wild flower pressed by Edward Thomas into a manuscript notebook, and poet and civil servant Humbert Wolfe's CBE medal.