Robert Kelly (BardCorps)
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Interviewee Role
Faculty/Staff
Years Active
1961-2023
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Academic Program
Division of Languages and Literature; Written Arts
Interviewer
Andrea Berger '00, '26
Description
In this interview, Bard Professor Emeritus Robert Kelly discusses his early life and education, travel, how he came to teach at Bard, the faculty and administrators at the college in the early 1960s. He also speaks about his love of linguistics and geology, his poetics, and his practice as a teacher.
Keywords
David Antin; Hannah Arendt; John Ashbery; W.H. Auden; Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones; Barrytown; Andrea Berger ‘00, ’26; Black Mountain College; Paul Blackburn; Blithewood Manor; Heinrich Blücher; The Blue Yak; Boston; Irma Brandeis; Brooklyn; Buddhism; SUNY Buffalo; Cal Tech; Billie Chernikoff ‘78; City College of New York; Columbia University; Common Course; Robert (“Bob”) Creeley; Ed Dorn; Robert Duncan; George Economou; Marvin Gelfand; Geology; Fred Grab; Jonathan Greene ‘65; Greenwich Village; Remy Ingalls Hall ‘64; Cole Heinowitz; Hypnogeography; Identitarian poetics; Michael Ives; Elizabeth Frank; Pierre Joris ‘69; Margaret Kelly; Samuel Kelly; Patricia Kelly; Reamer Kline; Burt Kosen; Mark Lambert; Gerrit Lansing; Ann Lauterbach; Joan Lasker; Emanuel Lasker; Paris Leary; Nancy Leonard; Linguistics; Robert (“Cal”) Lowell; Nancy Matthews; Massena; William Maurice; Marie Mencken; Eugenio Montale; Muhheakantuch; Paul Murray; Betty Olson; Charles Olson; Daniel Manus Pinkwater ‘64; Elizabeth Robinson ‘85; George Rose '64; Justus Rosenberg; Jerome (Jerry) Rothenberg; Carl Sauer; Saw Kill Creek; Armand Schwerner; Frederick Q. Shafer; Peter Sourian; Charles (“Chuck”) Stein; Bernie Stambler; Elizabeth Stambler; Dylan Thomas; Helene Tieger ‘85; Trobar (journal); Tufts University; Wagner College; William Weaver; Yale University; John Yau ‘72
Interview Date
11-5-2024
Interview Duration
1:17:11
Recommended Citation
Kelly, Robert, "Robert Kelly (BardCorps)" (2026). BardCorps -- All Oral Histories. 87.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/oral_hist/87
Robert Kelly Transcript
Significant Quote
“It’s not about me. It’s about them. They went on and did wonderful work..there are students of mine who have long ago retired, who’ve passed away from old age. There are students of mine who are still in their twenties. And when I think of that, over sixty years of opportunity I had– or more than sixty years, to have had the privilege of working with– ringing the doorbell of so many houses, so many minds.”