Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature Adds 50 New Recordings to Stream Online

From the Library of Congress:

Of course, our celebration of National Poetry Month wouldn’t be complete without our annual release of digitized recordings to the online Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature collection, and today’s your lucky day: We’re over the moon to announce that we’ve just added 50 newly streaming recordings for your listening pleasure.

First, a little history: The Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature dates back to 1943 and 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 started to digitize the collection, most of these recordings were only accessible to those who visited the Library of Congress and requested the magnetic reels in person.

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1. Here are the 50 new additions to the online Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature for 2020:
2. 1998 Witter Bynner Fellows Carol Muske and Carl Phillips reading their poems in the Montpelier Room, Library of Congress, Oct. 16, 1998
3. A total view of South Africa: a lecture by Alan Paton in the Coolidge Auditorium, November 22, 1977
4. A. Poulin reading his poems in the Recording Laboratory, Feb. 5, 1974
5. R. Ammons reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Oct. 22, 1963
6. Alice Fulton and James Galvin reading their poems in the Montpelier Room, March 14, 1991
7. An Evening of Russian and American poetry: marking the publication of The Human Experience with readings by Stanley Kunitz, Sharon Olds, F.D. Reeve, Henry Taylor, C.K. Williams, Oleg Chukhontsev, Yuri Kuznetsov, Yunna Moritz, and Vladimir Sokolov in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 3, 1989
8. Aram Saroyan reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Feb. 2, 1970
9. Archibald MacLeish reading his poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 29, 1976
10. Audre Lorde and Marge Piercy reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Feb. 9, 1982
11. Barbara Guest reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, June 2, 1969
12. Black perspectives concert: Michael S. Harper reading his poems to cello accompaniment at the University of Illinois, Urbana, May 12, 1971
13. Carolyn Forche and George Starbuck reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 26, 1982
14. Consultants’ reunion: readings by thirteen Consultants in Poetry in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 6, 1978
15. David Ignatow and Robert Creeley reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Nov. 25, 1974
16. Derek Walcott reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Oct. 20, 1964
17. Eavan Boland and Donald Justice reading their poems
18. Ellen Bryant Voigt reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Oct. 5, 1978
19. Gwendolyn Brooks reading her poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 19, 1961
20. Jim Harrison and Mark Strand reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Mar. 3, 1975
21. Joseph Brodsky reading his poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, April 16, 1984
22. Joseph Brodsky reading his poems in Russian in the Recording Laboratory, February 28, 1979
23. Josephine Jacobsen reading her poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 4, 1971
24. Julia Randall and May Swenson reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Feb. 16, 1970
25. Larry Levis and Thylias Moss reading their poems in the Montpelier Room, February 14, 1991
26. Louise Gluck, Robert Hass, and Gregory Orr reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, April 21, 1975
27. Marianne Moore reading her poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 21, 1963
28. Mark Strand reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Apr. 23, 1969
29. May Sarton and Romulus Linney reading from their work in the Coolidge Auditorium, Apr. 23, 1979
30. Metaphor as pure adventure: a lecture by James Dickey in the Coolidge Auditorium, December 12, 1967
31. Miller Williams reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 4, 1980
32. Mona Van Duyn and Elliott Coleman reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Nov. 22, 1971
33. National Children’s Book Week anniversary program: in observance of the fiftieth anniversary of National Children’s Book Week (November 17-21), writers read and discuss children’s poetry on November 17, 1969, in the Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress
34. Peter Taylor and John Updike reading and discussing their fiction in the Coolidge Auditorium, Nov. 13, 1967
35. Philip Levine and David Wagoner reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 17, 1975
36. Questions to an artist who is also an author: a conversation between Maurice Sendak and Virginia Haviland in the Coolidge Auditorium, November 16, 1970
37. Rainy Mountain Cemetery: N. Scott Momaday reading from his works in the Coolidge Auditorium, Jan. 18, 1971
38. Ralph Ellison reading from a novel in progress in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 28, 1983
39. Robert Earl Hayden and Derek Walcott reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 21, 1968
40. Robert Earl Hayden reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, July 25, 1978
41. Robert Earl Hayden reading his poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 3, 1977
42. Robert Hayden reading his poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 5, 1976
43. Robert Frost centenary: a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert Frost in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 26, 1974
44. Robert Penn Warren reading his poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 6, 1986
45. Robertson Davies reading from his forthcoming novel, What’s Bred in the Bone, in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 16, 1984
46. Russell Edson and James Laughlin reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 29, 1984
47. Ruth Stone and Constance Urdang reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Mar. 3, 1981
48. Susan Mitchell and Charles Wright reading their poems in the Montpelier Room, December 16, 1993
49. Three young poets reading at the Library of Congress: Elizabeth Alexander, Allison Joseph, and Karen Mitchell in the Mumford Room on February 10, 1994
50. Toi Derricotte and Marie Howe reading their poems in the Mumford Room, December 2, 1993
51. William Jay Smith reading his poems with comment in the Coolidge Auditorium, Dec. 1, 1969

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