Emory University has debuted the first major exhibition to celebrate the life and work of late Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney since his death, including rarely seen photographs, personal correspondence with other writers, and the surface of his one-time writing desk.
“Seamus Heaney: The Music of What Happens” opened Feb. 22, in the Schatten Gallery on level 3 of the Robert W. Woodruff Library, with a free public celebration in the gallery. The exhibition will run through November 25, 2014.
The materials on display, most of them from the Heaney collection held by Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL), include Heaney’s poems and drafts showing his handwritten revisions, rare publications, and artists’ books containing Heaney’s poetry. The exhibition also features recordings of his poetry read by Heaney himself and by other poets and well-known figures, including novelist Sir Salman Rushdie, whose papers are also held by MARBL.
