Bertholf, Robert J.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Received Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—University Libraries-Poetry/Rare Books, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus, Buffalo, New York, 14260-1600. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Kent State University, Kent, OH, faculty member, until 1979; State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, curator of poetry/rare books collection at University Libraries' Special Collections Unit, 1979–2004, Charles D. Abbott Scholar of Poetry and the Arts, 2004–; Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, lecturer in department of American culture, 1994–95.

AWARDS, HONORS: Banta Award, Wisconsin Literary Association, 1986, for From This Condensery: The Complete Writing of Lorine Niedecker.

WRITINGS:

A Descriptive Catalog of the Private Library of Thomas B. Lockwood, State University of New York, University Libraries (Buffalo, NY), 1983.

Robert Duncan: A Descriptive Biography, preface by Robert Creeley, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1986.

Contributor of essay to art catalogue Jess, a Grand Collage, 1951–1993, Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), 1993.

EDITOR

(With Ian W. Reid) Robert Duncan, Scales of the Marvelous, New Directions (New York, NY), 1979.

(With Annette S. Levitt) William Blake and the Moderns, State University of New York Press (Albany, New York), 1982.

From This Condensery: The Complete Writing of Lorine Niedecker, Jargon Society, 1985.

(And transcriber) Robert Edward Duncan, Notebook Poems, 1953, three drawings by Jess, Press in Tuscany Alley, San Francisco State University (San Francisco, CA), 1991.

A Great Admiration: H.D./Robert Duncan Correspondence, 1950–1961, Lapis Press (Venice, CA), 1992.

Robert Duncan, Selected Poems, New Directions (New York, NY), 1993, revised edition, 1997.

Robert Duncan, A Selected Prose, New Directions (New York, NY), 1995.

(With David W. Landrey) Drawing from Life: A Selection of Joel Oppenheimer's Work from the Village Voice, Asphodel Press (Wakefield, RI), 1997.

(With Albert Glepi) The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Poetry and writing scholar Robert J. Bertholf has edited several books focusing on poets such as William Blake, Joel Oppenheimer, and especially Robert Duncan. Commenting on Bertholf's collection of Duncan's poems in Selected Poems, a Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the editor's "selections are so attuned to the essentials of Duncan'" that it can be appreciated even by those well familiar with the poet's verses. Bertholf also served as editor of A Selected Prose, which includes prose writings by the poet that have never before been published. Greg Burkman, writing in Booklist, called the collection "elegant."

Bertholf also edited, with Albert Gelpi, The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov. This book contains the complete correspondence from 1952 to 1985 between the noted poets and includes five hundred letters. Scott Hightower commented in Library Journal that it is "a big book for those looking for insight into [the] nature of poetry." In a review in Artforum, Ammiel Alcalay added, "The letters are filled with … revelatory passages, as provocative and fresh now as they were then."

In Drawing from Life: A Selection of Joel Oppenheimer's Work from the Village Voice Bertholf and coeditor David W. Landrey gather ninety-two columns written by the poet Oppenheimer for the Village Voice between 1970 and 1984. The columns focus on the poet's favorite subjects, including baseball and politics. Of this work, a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "partly ephemeral, partly endearing, [Drawing from Life] helps capture a period in changing America and a changing bohemia."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Artforum, spring, 2004, Ammiel Alcalay, review of The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, p. 41.

Booklist, April 1, 1995, Greg Burkman, review of A Selected Prose, p. 1373.

Library Journal, September 1, 1997, William Gargan, review of Drawing from Life: A Selection of Joel Oppenheimer's Work from the Village Voice, p. 192; September 15, 2003, Scott Hightower, review of The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, p. 58.

Publishers Weekly, February 15, 1993, review of Selected Poems, p. 232; January 9, 1995, review of A Selected Prose, p. 52; July 14, 1997, review of Drawing from Life, p. 74.