Twentieth Century Poets In English: Nine Pulitzer Prize Poets Reading Their Own Poems

The Twentieth Century Poets in English series was initiated by the Library of Congress to preserve the voices of significant American literary figures for posterity. Released in 1963, this specific volume, cataloged as PL 29, serves as an audio archive featuring nine winners of the Pulitzer Prize. By capturing these poets reading their own compositions, the Library of Congress intended to create an authentic sonic record that captured the intended cadence, emphasis, and emotional texture of the verses as envisioned by the authors themselves.

The selection includes esteemed poets such as Archibald MacLeish, Theodore Roethke, and Robert Penn Warren, representing a cross-section of the mid-century American poetic canon. The design of the recording is purely functional, emphasizing archival clarity and academic documentation rather than commercial appeal. Upon its release, the record was primarily distributed to libraries, universities, and literary scholars, establishing itself as a foundational resource for the study of 20th-century American oral literature and the formal development of modern poetic expression.