Bertholf graduated from Bowdoin College and received a masters and doctorate under A. Kingsley Weatherhead at the University of Oregon.
Bertholf lead a cadre of young professors at the university, and was largely responsible for bringing an amazing troupe of poets and intellectuals as visiting professors or lecturers to Kent, including Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, Joel Oppenheimer, Harvey Bialy, Joanne Kyger and Ed Dorn.
Bertholf has written innumerable articles and books about American poets and poetry, including Wallace Stevens, Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, and other Black Mountain poets like Oppenheimer, Creeley and Dorn.
He received the Morton N. Cohen Award from the Modern Language Association with Albert Gelpi in 2003.
[1] After leaving Buffalo, Bertholf moved to Austin, Texas, where he continued writing books and articles on American poets.