Seton Hall University’s rare book collection is a literary treasure trove, featuring works that span centuries and continents. This collection includes ancient texts like a 1678 edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost and incunabula, the earliest printed books from the fifteenth century. The collection also prominently features modernist poetry, adding to its diversity, with many of these works personally inscribed to members of the Seton Hall faculty.
“Seton Hall’s collection of inscribed poetry books traces the evolution of Anglo-American modernist poetics, from Ezra Pound to Charles Olson to Joy Harjo,” said Sarah Ponichtera, assistant dean for Special Collections and the Gallery. “Aficionados of 20th-century poetry will find much to delight them, from well-known names to obscure but influential writers.”
Seton Hall has a long history of supporting poets and their work in an academic setting. The university’s poetry collection began with the Poetry in the Round series, initiated in the early 1980s by English Professor John Harrington. This speaker series has brought some of the best contemporary writers from around the world to Seton Hall University over the past three decades.
Harrington’s professional relationships with poetry icons like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Adrienne Rich, J.D. McClatchy, and A. R. Ammons led to their inscribed works becoming part of the Walsh collection. Notable poets who visited Seton Hall through Poetry in the Round include Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, Russell Banks, C.K. Williams, Nadine Gordimer, Jamaica Kincaid, John Ashbery, and many others.
The collection has grown through important donations, such as the 2006 gift of William Higginson’s personal library. Higginson, a poet and publisher from Paterson, NJ, was known for his work in haiku and was well connected in the contemporary poetry scene. His collection includes signed works by Margaret Atwood, Ezra Pound, Charles Olson, and Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.
Maria Gillan, a prolific poet from New Jersey and Paterson resident, also has a significant presence in the collection. An Italian American, Gillan has mentored many young poets and regularly shares their works with the Seton Hall community. Her poetry explores themes of cultural duality, love, loss, and the passage of time, with notable works like “Public School No. 18, Paterson, New Jersey,” reflecting the immigrant experience.
The collection also includes works from international poets, thanks to the late Sister Margherita Marchione, Ph.D., in Italian literature, who had connections with many poets worldwide. Among the collection are inscribed works by Clemente Rebora, an Italian poet and priest from Milan, and renowned Irish authors of the 1990s, such as John O’Donohue, Ciaran Carson, and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne.
Ponichtera highlighted the enduring value of these poetry collections, stating, “These books of poetry not only trace literary relationships but also personal ones, as their inscriptions reveal the ways that poets encountered one another. This collection shows that Seton Hall was a nexus of poetic encounter throughout the mid and late twentieth century.”
These poetry collections at Seton Hall serve as both a teaching tool and a lasting gift to future generations of students and faculty, ensuring that the timeless beauty of poetry continues to inspire.