"Nineteenth-Century American Poetry," an anthology compiled by English Professor William Spengemann and Jessica Roberts '97, and due out in October, is a book that almost never came into existence.
Spengemann received an offer from Penguin Books to put together the anthology, but he originally turned it down.
"It is absolutely killing work to put together an anthology," he said. "I did not want to get involved because I was busy with other things."
Roberts became involved in the project through a fortunate coincidence.
She approached Spengemann the same day he turned down the offer, and asked him if he had any project with which she could help him.
Spengemann said he told Roberts he was not working on anything. "I didn't just want her to carry my books from place to place," he said. "I didn't want her to be doing something worthless like that."
After going home that night and thinking about it, Spengemann said he realized the Penguin anthology would be a perfect project for the two of them to complete.
"Anthologies are supposed to be created and designed for the student, but more often than not, the information and contents are geared towards the instructor," Spengemann said. Roberts' input "was the perfect way for students to get the information they want."
He said he then told Penguin he would complete the anthology with Roberts' assistance.
"I had taken a course with Professor Spengemann during my sophomore fall, and I had fallen in love with him," Roberts said. "I really wanted to work with him as a Presidential Scholars Research Assistant."
The Presidential Scholars program enables qualified students to work individually with professors to complete research projects.
"The Penguin project required that the work be done expediently, so we decided to go ahead and do it my sophomore spring and summer," she said.
"The work involved in putting together this anthology was easily as much as taking a fourth class," Roberts said. "During my sophomore summer, I used the project as an independent research class."
Her involvement in the project took on several forms.
"I did research on the poetry itself and for the biographical notes that precede each author's selections," Roberts said. "I also edited Professor Spengemann's introduction and helped with the explanatory notes in the back of the book."
Roberts also aided in the selection of the poems to be included in the anthology.
"I gave her copies of all the poetry we were considering for inclusion, and we both read it," Spengemann said. "Then we both picked out the poems we liked and felt should be included and squabbled until we came up with a list that was agreeable to the two of us."
Roberts said in addition to arguments about which poems should be included, there were disagreements about which poets to include.
"We got into a big fight about whether to include Stephen Crane," she said. "So Professor Spengemann told me that I had to find something else to fill the 30 pages he wanted to devote to Crane."
Roberts said she chose works by Sydney Lanier to fill the pages Spengemann had intended to be devoted to Crane.
"I had wanted to include Crane because he is always anthologized," Spengemann said. "Everyone expected for him to be included in the volume, but Jess convinced me to leave him out."
Roberts also proved to be influential in including one of the anthology's two female poets -- Sarah Morgan Pyatt.
"This is the first time that Pyatt's poetry will be published in the 20th century," she said.
Spengemann said Pyatt had been virtually forgotten despite having written more than 18 volumes of poetry.
"It was all a matter of the way the gender winds blew," Spengemann said. "Pyatt's husband, who was also a poet, is remembered for his work, but she just got overlooked because of her sex."
Spengemann said works by Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson are the main focus of the volume.
"We concentrate on them to show their differences from their contemporaries, and to suggest that they are still read with pleasure because they seem to be the torchbearers for 20th century poets," Spengemann said.
Spengemann said he decided to include Roberts' name on the cover of the volume, but did not immediately tell her about the decision.
"She did such an incredible amount of work that her name simply belonged on the cover," Spengemann said.
Roberts said when she saw her name on the cover, she cried.
"I keep expecting the letters of my name to rearrange themselves and form someone else's," Roberts said.
In putting together the anthology, Roberts said she not only learned how to read and listen to poetry, but also gained a mentor.
"I found someone who has really served as a mentor to me and has become an enormous figure in my life," she said. "Professor Spengemann has become more than a prof to me."
Spengemann said he felt his involvement with Roberts exemplified what the Presidential Scholars Research Assistant was supposed to be.
"It was truly a relationship as colleagues rather than teacher-student," Spengemann said. "I didn't think that kind of a relationship could be established so early in a student's educational career until I worked with Jess."
Roberts' involvement with the anthology has carried over to a senior thesis. She is currently working to put together a volume of Pyatt's complete works.
"I'm completing the same steps that I took in putting together the anthology, but now they're taking a different direction," she said.
