A Library love story involving LBJ's sister spawned a poetry prize 10 years ago. This year, that prize, the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt prize, was awarded Oct. 22 to Frank Bidart. To commemorate the 10th year of the biennial prize, three former winners also read. James Merrill, who died three years ago, and A.R. Ammons, who was too ill to make the trip, are the two other past winners.
Prizes can be baloney.
A prize is as good as the people who win it. This prize has a wonderful, wonderful record. The prize is donated by the family of the late Mrs. Bobbitt of Austin, Texas, in her memory, and established at the Library of Congress. While she was a graduate student in Washington during the 1930s, Rebekah Johnson met O.P. Bobbitt when they both worked in the cataloging department at the Library. Bobbitt had matriculated to Washington from Texas by train on a ticket purchased from the sale of a cow.