New library to house major collection

Showcased in the new Plutzik Library for Contemporary Writing will be an important collection of contemporary prose and poetry recently acquired by the University from the poet and collector William Heyen of Brockport. This collection of approximately 10,000 items is considered to be one of the finest assemblages of inscribed first editions, manuscripts, and correspondence from major American writers over the past 30 years.

Authors represented in the Heyen collection include: Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Wilbur, Robert Penn Warren, William Stafford, Gwendolyn Brooks, Raymond Carver, Rita Dove, May Sarton, Archibald MacLeish, Elie Wiesel, and others.

A campaign to renovate a portion of the second floor of Rush Rhees Library for the writing center has begun. Family members of Hyam Plutzik, who was Deane Professor of Poetry and Rhetoric at the time of his death in 1962, have made significant gifts to this new project, and additional support is being sought.

The new Plutzik Library will serve as a complementary link to the well-known and long-standing Plutzik Memorial Poetry Series sponsored by the Department of English. The library will also house selected materials from the extensive Plutzik Archive donated in 1976 to the University by Tanya Roth Plutzik, the writer's widow, who lives in Pittsford.

The Heyen collection was formally acquired by the University in mid-January.

A portion of the interior space of the Plutzik Library will be named to honor recently retired English professor Jarold Ramsey, who served as director of the Plutzik Series for many years. Manuscripts and representative published works of Ramsey will also become a permanent part of the Plutzik Library.

"The University is very pleased to be able to commemorate Professor Plutzik's local and national legacy," said President Thomas Jackson. "The Plutzik Library will be a major addition to the resources offered by the library to students, faculty, and visiting scholars who are interested in contemporary and creative writing."

In addition, the Plutzik Library will "bring together the names of three gifted writers and teachers," said Ronald Dow, dean of River Campus Libraries. "We anticipate that this library will be a major asset to our campus, to the Rochester community of writers, and to scholars around the nation."

Before his death, Plutzik's career as a writer and poet witnessed much national and international critical acclaim through the publication of such major works as Aspects of Proteus, Apples from Shinar and Horatio. Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems was published by BOA Editions in 1987.

The Plutzik Memorial Poetry Series, established in 1962, is one of the nation's oldest collegiate-based reading series offering free public access to the work of contemporary writers. Since its inception, nearly 250 noted writers have come to the University to read and interact with the community.