ABSTRACT
Long before Robert Hayden, the first African American poet to serve as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, reached that level of national recognition, he caught the attention of Rosey E. Pool, an eminent Dutch scholar whose interest in African American poetry dated back to her own youth in the early 1920s. Breman shared Pool's discernment of Hayden's importance and his hobby as a collector later developed into a commitment as a publisher. Subsequently, Paul Breman honored Robert Hayden by choosing A Ballad of Remembrance for the initial volume in the Heritage Series, the sequence of African American poetry books Breman inaugurated in 1962. Because Hayden had a sincere and abiding interest in people as unique individuals, he rarely forgot a long-ago meeting, a brief introduction, and a chance acquaintance. Hayden's 1976-78 distinction as the first African American Consultant in Poetry was not lost on him, but neither was he lost in it.
