Dec. 9, 1998
Contact: Jean Kempe-Ware, Director of Public Relations (503) 768-7963 (503) 768-7960 [email protected]
Poet William Stafford's Spirit Finds A Home
"There are rooms in a life, apart from others, rich with whatever happens, a glimpse of moon, a breeze. You who come years from now to this brief spell of nothing that was mine: the open, slow passing of time was a gift going by. I have put my hand out on the mane of the wind, like this, to give it to you."
--passage from the poem "Little Rooms" in "An Oregon Message" by William Stafford. Read by Brian Booth at the dedication of the William Stafford Room.
PORTLAND, Ore.-- The spirit of William Stafford (1914-1993) is alive and well and living at Lewis & Clark College.
Michael Mooney, president of Lewis & Clark College, honored the legacy of this giant of a poet, dedicating the William Stafford Room in the College's Aubrey R. Watzek Library and announcing the acquisition of a major collection of Stafford's work, Nov. 20.
During his lifetime, Stafford was Poetry Consultant for the Library of Congress (now known as National Poet Laureate), Poet Laureate of Oregon, winner of the National Book Award for "Traveling Through the Dark," and recipient of the Senior Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Program for extraordinary contributions to American literature over a lifetime of creative work.
Poet Robert Bly, who made a special effort to attend the dedication ceremony, read and commented on Stafford's poetry. Noting that Stafford wrote a poem every day for the last 30 to 40 years of his life, Bly said Stafford inspired him to do the same.
Literary pilgrims will find the William Stafford Room at the east end of the second floor of the library, overlooking the site of his former office. Thomas Hacker Architects designed the study space as an intimate place for students to encounter Stafford's legacy as "poet, teacher and witness for literature and peace." Permanent framed exhibits include revisions and published copies of his poems "American Gothic" and "Traveling Through the Dark," photographs, a satirical letter to a football coach, a talk he gave in Lewis & Clark's Agnes Flanagan Chapel and other memorabilia. The room also includes a display case for revolving exhibits of his work, a group study table and a couch, because Stafford created so many of his poems reclining on a couch.
Brian Booth and Robert Dusenbery, along with members of the Dusenbery family, helped fund the William Stafford Room. Friends of William Stafford and Thomas Hacker Architects also helped with the project.
In addition to dedicating a new room, the College also celebrated the acquisition of the William Stafford Collection of S. Carter Burden, a noted collector of first- and limited-editions of American. Burden, a member of the Vanderbilt family, set out to collect the finest copies of books by American authors and had amassed an extensive collection before his death. The College acquired the collection from New York bookseller Klaus Hill in November.
"With help from a discretionary fund at the College and the timely pledges of three donors, we have brought this work of Bill's home to the Watzek Library where it belongs," said Mooney.
The collection includes more than 100 first-edition books and broadsides, including volumes inscribed to Richard Hugo, Mark Strand, Stephen Sondheim and other friends, as well as classroom materials, speeches and other papers. The collection is housed in the Heritage Room of the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College.
"William Stafford's work lives on in his 67 volumes of poetry and prose and in the many lives he touched in his travels around the world as an ambassador for poetry, and equally as important, for peace," Mooney said.
A conscientious objector during World War II, Stafford attributed the four years he spent doing alternative service working in camps to shaping his perspective on life and his ability to find meaning in simple things.
At Lewis & Clark College, where he taught for 30 years, his students and colleagues knew him as "a man of resolute integrity and conscience" as well as "a writer of immense talent," Mooney said.
Among his many honors, Stafford received the Shelley Award from the Poetry Society of America, an Arts Endowment Creative Writing Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and the Melville Cane Award for "Someday, Maybe."
"He had a big influence on me and Lewis & Clark students," said Robert Dusenbery, professor emeritus of English at Lewis & Clark College.
"William Stafford's legacy extends well beyond traditional literary circles," said Brian Booth, literary patron and prominent attorney with Tonkon Torp Attorneys. "He involved himself in the total life of the community. He reminded us that it is important that 'awake people' stay 'awake.'"
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Note to reporters and editors: Photos available upon request.
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