Robert J. Bertholf is an author and professor at the University at Buffalo

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...

. He is the Charles D. Abbott Scholar-In-Residence and former curator of The Poetry Collection

The Poetry Collection

The Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, is devoted to 20th century poetry in English and English translation. Founded by Charles David Abbott, the University at Buffalo's first Director of Libraries, The Poetry Collection contains over 100,000 volumes...

 at the university.

Bertholf graduated from Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...

 and received his doctorate under A. Kingsley Weatherhead at the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

. In 1968, Bertholf joined the English Department faculty at Kent State University

Kent State University

Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...

 in Kent, Ohio

Kent, Ohio

Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeastern Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 27,906 at the 2000 United States Census and 28,904 in the 2010 Census...

. Bertholf lead a cadre of young professors at the university, and was largely responsible for bringing an amazing troupe of poets and intellectuals as visiting professors or lecturers to Kent, including Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

, Robert Duncan

Robert Duncan (poet)

Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...

, Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...

, Joel Oppenheimer

Joel Oppenheimer

Joel Lester Oppenheimer was an American poet associated with both the Black Mountain poets and the New York School. He was the first director of the St. Marks Poetry Project...

, Harvey Bialy

Harvey Bialy

Harvey Bialy is an American molecular biologist and AIDS denialist. He was one of the signatories to a letter to the editor by a group of AIDS denialists calling themselves the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis...

, Joanne Kyger

Joanne Kyger

Joanne Kyger is an American poet. Her poetry is influenced by her practice of Zen Buddhism and her ties to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat generation.-Overview:...

 and Ed Dorn

Ed Dorn

Edward Merton Dorn was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets. His most famous work is Gunslinger.-Overview:...

.

Devo

Devo

Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

 founders Bob Lewis

Bob Lewis (musician)

Robert Curtis Lewis was a founding member of the New Wave band Devo...

 and Gerald Casale

Gerald Casale

Gerald Vincent Casale , often known as Jerry Casale, is a vocalist, bass guitar/synthesizer player, and a founding member of the new wave band Devo...

 were students of Bertholf's at Kent, and Bertholf supported the nascent musical group by inviting them to perform at the university's creative arts festivals in 1973 and 1974.

Bertholf later moved to Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

 where he was the curator of the renowned poetry collection at the State University at Buffalo, and then the Charles D. Abbott Scholar and Professor. Bertholf has written innumerable articles and books about American poets and poetry, including Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...

, Robert Duncan

Robert Duncan (poet)

Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...

, Charles Olson

Charles Olson

Charles Olson , was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance...

, and other Black Mountain poets

Black Mountain poets

The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College.-Background:...

 like Oppenheimer, Creeley and Dorn.

as Author

• A Descriptive Catalog of the Private Library of Thomas B. Lockwood (1983)
• Robert Duncan, A Descriptive Bibliography (1986)
• Remembering Joel Oppenheimer (2005)

as Editor

• Credences]] (1977?-?)
• Robert Duncan, Scales of he Marvelous (with Ian Reid) (1980)
• William Blake and the Moderns (1982)
• Lorine Neidecker, From This Condensery]] (1985)
• Julian Stanczak: Decades of Light (additional text by Harry Rand and Rudolf Arnheim)(1990)
• A Great Admiration, H.D./Robert Duncan Correspondence 1950-1961 (1991)
• Jess, a Grand Collage, 1951-1993 (with Michael Auping and Michael Palmer
  Michael Palmer
  Michael Palmer is an American poet and translator. He attended Harvard University where he earned a BA in French and a MA in Comparative Literature. He has worked extensively with Contemporary dance for over thirty years and has collaborated with many composers and visual artists...
  
  )(1993)
• Robert Duncan, Selected Poems (1993, new edition 1997)
• Robert Duncan, A Selected Prose 1995
• Joel Oppenheimer, Drawing From Life (with David Landrey)(1997)
• Joel Oppenheimer, Collected Later Poems (1998)
• The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov (with Albert Gelpi)(2003)