Scope and Contents

This was the second half of an exhibition curated by Rodney Phillips which included original manuscripts of 100 poets in chronological order from e.e. cummings to Julia Alvarez. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents The two-part exhibition "The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters" was organized by Rodney Phillips, curator of the Berg Collection, as part of the Centennial celebration of The New York Public Library. This catalogue is based on the exhibitions which presented writers from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries with drafts, letters, diaries. photographs and memorabilia in a personal and intimate setting. An essay by Dana Gioia, "The Prado of Poetry: A History of the Berg Collection" describes the background of Dr. Albert and Dr. Henry Berg and how their collection became one of the world's primary sources for literary research on American and English writers. In a scholarly introductory essay, "The Magical Value of Manuscripts," Dana Gioia writes, "The manuscript of a literary work became more than words; it represented a direct and unmediated physical link between viewer and author - a holy relic or shamanistic fetish...The scholarly alibi of libraries that...