Woodberry Poetry Room collection of commercial phonograph records

Series I: Poetry and Literature in English 

Composed primarily of twentieth-century English-language poetry read by the author, as well as historical literary works performed by twentieth-century speakers, this part of the collection includes recordings by W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, E. E. Cummings, T. S. Eliot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Archibald MacLeish, Marianne Moore, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, Edith Sitwell, Gertrude Stein, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams, and William Butler Yeats, among many others. Significant record labels include Argo (The English Poets from Chaucer to Yeats), Caedmon, Carillon, Decca Records (Yale Series of Recorded Poets), Folkways, the Library of Congress Recording Laboratory (Twentieth Century Poetry in English), the National Council of Teachers of English (Contemporary Poets Series), and Spoken Arts (The Spoken Arts Treasury of 100 Modern American Poets).  

In addition to poetry recordings, this series also includes, in smaller numbers: recordings of fiction, classical literature (in translation), scripture (in translation), interviews and conversations with writers and critics, and lectures on writing and literature.  

This series contains approximately 600 distinct recordings, with recording dates ranging from 1937-1976. Anthologies and compilations are arranged alphabetically by title. Single-author readings are arranged alphabetically by last name. 

Series II: Theater and Music in English 

Composed primarily of recordings of twentieth-century performances of English-language plays and musicals, this series also includes smaller numbers of lectures on theater and/or music, songs and musical works in which poems constitute the lyrics, and radio plays. 

More than half of the listings in this series are of performances of Shakespeare’s plays. Twentieth-century playwrights of note include Oscar Wilde, Anton Chekhov, Carson McCullers, Samuel Beckett, Eugene O’Neill, and Harold Pinter. The series also features authors from the Irish Renaissance including Sean O’Casey, John Millington Synge and James Joyce. There is also a small quantity of classical works, especially of Sophocles. Musical theater contributions especially highlight the collaborations between Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill.  

This series contains approximately 250 distinct recordings, with recording dates ranging from 1938 to 1973. 

Series III: Poetry and Literature in French, German, Spanish, and Additional Languages  

Composed predominantly of recordings of poetry and literature in French, German, and Spanish, as well as smaller numbers in Danish, Finnish, Gaelic, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latin, Navajo, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Swedish, Welsh, and Yiddish.   

Among the featured authors are Moliere, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Jean de la Fontaine, and Albert Camus (in French); Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann (in German); and Federico García Lorca and Octavio Paz (in Spanish). 

This series contains approximately 250 distinct recordings, with recording dates ranging from 1943 to 1968. The numbers of recordings in each language are as follows: Danish – 1, Finnish – 3, French – 78, Gaelic – 4, German – 75, Greek – 13, Hebrew – 2, Icelandic – 3, Italian – 4, Latin – 7, Navajo- 1, Persian – 1, Portuguese – 3, Russian – 10, Sanskrit – 1, Serbian – 2, Spanish – 34, Swedish – 1, Welsh – 6, and Yiddish – 1.  

Series IV: Miscellaneous Recordings in English.