College and Research Libraries


By HAROLD GODDARD RUGG 

Modern Authors 1n New England 
College Libraries 
Librarians, Friends, and others interested in 
contemporary and near-contemporary au-
thors will find below information as to some 
existing accumulations of the works of such 
authors. 

F ROM THE THREE SURVEYS published in the Library Quarterly, "Notable Ma-
terials Added to American Libraries ... , " 
covering the years from 1938-41, we learn 
that several college and university libraries, 
especially those at Southern California, 
Yale, and Dartmouth, have been acquiring 
first editions of modern American and Eng-
lish authors, some of which may or may not 
later seem of importance. 

It was felt by the writer that a census of 
such collections might be of value to scholars 
as well as to libraries not wishing to dupli-
cate holdings in nearby academic institutions. 
To secure information about these items 
from all college libraries in the United 
States, however, would have been in present 
circumstances an impossible task. It was 
decided, therefore, to prepare a census 
covering New England and the authors 
whose most notable work has appeared in 
the period since the beginning of World 
War I. This date was chosen to fit the 
classification used in the Dartmouth . Col-
lege Library, a classification adopted not 
long since as best fitting the needs of the 
English department. As a result of the 
use of this scheme, descriptions of several 
collections reported from the colleges are 
not included here. The names of Katharine 

Lee Bates, Kenneth Grahame, Caroline 
Hazard, Maurice Hewlett, Arthur 
Machen, Ge.orge Herbert Palmer, Vida D. 
Scudder, George Bernard Shaw, Stanley 
Weyman, Edith Wharton, George Wood-
berry, and W. B. Yeats are among those 
omitted. 

A questionnaire was sent to thirty of the 
larger New England college libraries. Re-
plies were received from all but three 
of these. The libraries were asked to re-
port in each case : 

I. Number of printed items 
2. Number of manuscripts and typescripts 
3. Whether it was a gift or purchase 
4· Whether additions were being made 
5. Whether it included other material, 

such as articles about the author, 
photographs, clippings, and letters. 

Answers were also sought to the following 
questions: Are such collections kept sepa-
rately or with other rare books or simply 
located in the stacks? What were the 
prime reasons for making these collections 
and what use is being made of them at the 
present time ? The librarians were also 
asked, if they did not have such holdings, 
to suggest the names of some modern 
authors whose works they would be glad 
to acquire if funds were available. Such 
data as were submitted and are significant 
are reported below . . 

Fifteen of the libraries, i.e., Amherst, 
Bennington, Boston College, Bowdoin, 
Clark, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, New Hampshire, 

54 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Norwich, Simmons, Smith, Trinity, Tufts, 
and Wesleyan, reported that they had 
no such collections. One or two felt 
that it was not in the province of small 
libraries to gather such material. Others 
stated that they would be glad to secure it, 
but were prevented by the lack of funds. 

In the libraries that t.old of holdings, 
seventy-nine modern American and English 
writers are being collected. Among au-
thors, Edwin Arlington Robinson leads, 
with collections in six institutions, and 
Robert Frost comes second, with material 
in five institutions, so that these two 
authors apparently possess rather general 
appeal. Of the rest, some are collected for 
special reasons, such as that the authors are 
graduates of the colleges reporting. Colby 
has collected the works of five authors pri-
marily because they are Maine people. 
Mount Holyoke reports that it has laid 
special emphasis on women writers, and 
Wellesley, on modern poets. It should be 
said that Wellesley has begun some collec-
tions which are not mentioned in this survey 
because the number of items represented 
was considered too small. 

Holdings Report ed1 

Conrad Aiken. H ar·vard: 88C, I8E, 3FK; 
Wellesley: sC. 

Winifred Ashton (Clemence Dane): Mount 
Holy oke: 20C. 

Leonard Bacon. We ll es ley: IgC, 3], 2L. 
Enid Bagnold. Mount Holyok e : sC. 
Stephen Vincent Benet. Yale: A , G, K. 
William Rose Benet. Wellesley: gC, IE, I]. 
Kay Boyle. Mount Holyoke: 3C. 
Gamaliel Bradford. Harvard: 20C, 22H, 

1 Explanation of Symbols 
A-All published works 
B-Coll ected works 
C-Printed item s 
D-Practically all printed works 
£-Manuscripts 
F-Volumes of manuscript nott:s 
G-Seve ral m anusc ripts 
H-Manuscript notebooks 
J-Typescripts 
K-Miscellaneous material about author 
L-Letters 
M-Several magazine a rticle s 
N - Correc ted proofsheets 

DECEMBERY 1944 

goooL (by or about him), 3600 volumes 
from his library. 

Anna Hempstead Branch. Wellesley: 5C, 
2E, 4L. 

Katharine Brush. Mount Holyoke: 8C. 
Witter Bynner. Harvard: 45C, 2E; Welles-

ley: 7C. 
James Branch Cabell. Yale: A, K. 
Erskine Caldwell. Dartmouth: 85C ( includ-

ing periodical "firsts"), Io]. Mount 
1-folyoke: IgC. 

Willa Cather. Middlebury: 2IC, 3L; Mount 
Holyoke: B, I 7C. 

Robert P. Tristram Coffin. Wellesley: 6C. 
Florence Conv~rse. Wellesley: I sC, IE, 2] l 

6L. 
A. E. Coppa rd. Yale: 30C. 
E. E. Cummings. Harvard: Considerable C 

and E. 
Olive Dargan. Wellesley: 5C, 6L. 
Walter de la Mare. Wellesley: 14C, IE, IL. 
Clarence Day. Yale: A, many L and re-

productions of L. 
John Dos Passos. Mount Holyoke: 15C. 
Norman Douglas. Dartmouth: 38C, 3E, I], 

6oL. 
T. S. Eliot. Harvard: On deposit , A, many 

E (some unpublished) , 300L; Wellesley: 
8C. 

William Falkner. Mount Holyoke: 18C. 
Rachel Field. Radcliffe : A. 
Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Vermont: D. 
John Gould Fletcher. Yale: A , H. 
Robert Frost. Brown: D; Dartmouth: 29C , 

sE, sL; Har v ard: 3IC, IE; Middlebury: 
22C, I] , 7L; Wellesley: 16C, 2E, 6L. 

Wilfred W. Gibson. Wellesley: I6C, 2L. 
Ellen Glasgow. Mount Holyoke: I8C. 
Abbie Carter Goodloe. Wellesley: 6C. 
Hermann Hagedorn. Wellesley: 7C, 3L. 
Ernest Hemingway. Mount Hol yo ke: I3C; 

Yale: A, K. 
Joseph Hergesheimer. Yale: 39C, D. 
Langston Hughes. Yale: A, large collection 

of E, K. 
Grace Humphrey. Wellesley: I6C. 
Aldous Huxley. Dartmouth: I02C (by and 

relating to) 
Rufus M. Jones. Colby: g8C (first editions 

and reprints), IE, several L, M. 
James Joyce. Harvard: I 7C, ms of the P or-

trait of the Artist as a Young Man. 
Ring Lardner. Harvard: 21C. 
T. E. Lawrence. Dartmouth: 64C, K. 

55 



William Ellery Leonard. Boston University: 
A. 

Sinclair Lewis. Mount Holyoke: 23C; Yale: 
A, IOE (novels), H, K. 

Vachel Lindsay. Harvard: 3SC, I 7 L; 
Wellesley: I7C, 2L. 

Amy Lowell. Harvard: 4SC, B (poems and 
articles in magazine form), 4E, II}, K; 
Wellesley: IgC, 3]. 

Archibald MacLeish. Harvard: 23C, 4E. 
John Masefield. Harvard: D, 40E, many 

L; Wellesley: 29C, IOL. 
Edgar Lee Masters. Wellesley: 12C, IL. 
Somerset Maugham. Yale: soC, 22E. 
H. L. Mencken. Dartmouth: I6SC (by and 

relating to), S], 3SL. 
Edna St. Vincent Millay. Brown: C ( prac-

tically all) ; Colby: .2oC, K; Middlebury: 
I6C, I}, IL; Wellesley: IgC. 

Merrill Moore. Harvard: gC, 3E. 
Brookes More. Wellesley: 6C, IE, I], IL. 
Charles Morgan. Yale: gC, I E. , 
Christopher Morley. Harvard: s8C and K; 

Yale: A, 2E; Wellesley: 3C, 4], IL. 
Alfred Noyes. Wellesley: I2C, I]. 
Eugene O'Neill. Yale: A, many E and K. 
Oliver Onions. Harvard: 4IC. 
Katherine Anne Porter. Mount Holyoke: A 

(except one) . 
Kenneth Roberts. Colby: I8C, several L, K; 

Dartmouth: 28C, I} (deposit). 
Edwin Arlington Robinson. Colby: 400C (by 

and about), ISE (poems), IH (Greek 
translations, unpublished), 300L and K, 
N, 200 volumes from his libt.:_ary; H ar-
vard: uoC, I400L; Middlebury: 22C, 
I8L; Wellesley: 2IC, sL; WilliamS': 
I46C, 7E and J, K, I8L, 3N; Yale: A, 
B, K, soL. 

Agnes Rothery. Wellesley: 8C. 
Ruth Barr Sanborn. Radcliffe: A. 
Carl Sandburg. Wellesley: sC, I]. 
George Santayana. Dartmouth: IJC; 

Wellesley: sC, 4L. 
Dallas Lore Sharp. Boston University: A. 
Gertrude Stein. Yale: D, IE, 2SO] (with 

corrections), G (deposit), K. 
John Steinbeck. Harvard: sgC, E ( unpub-

lished), I6L; Mount Holyoke: IJC. 
Ruth Suckow. Mount Holyoke: 8C. 
Sara Teasdale. Wellesley: I6C, 2L, IOO 

books from library; Yale: D, many E 
and L. 

H. M. Tomlinson. yale: I2SC, soE, K. 

Rebecca West. Mount Holyoke: I4C. 
Thornton Wilder. Yale: A, IE, K. 
Ben Ames Williams. Colby: 33C, IE, several 

L, K. 
Henry Williamson. Dartmouth: 40C (by 

and about), I], 20L. 
Thomas Wolfe. Harvard: A, IE (Look 

Homeward, Angel), documents and L re-
lating to Of Time and the River, mss of 
undergraduate plays. 

Virginia Woolf. Harvard: Considerable C 
and E; Mount Holyoke: 26C. 

Elinor Wylie. Wellesley: 7C. 

Of the materials reported, nearly all came 
to their institutions by gift. Colby and 
Dartmouth have secured all but one of 
theirs in this manner. Middlebury, how-
ever, has bought all the books in her four 
collections. Mount Holyoke's growing 
accumulations also have been received by 
purchase. Brown, too, has bought and is 
buying all printed items by American poets 
for its famous Harris collection. Harvard 
has purchased one collection and part of 
another. Three of Yale's collections came 
"from various sources." In most instances, 
the exceptions being those at Mount 
Holyoke and the University of Vermont, 
the materials have been segregated. 

The University of Maine raises several 
interesting points. One Maine library, it 
is reported from there, makes an effort to 
obtain for stack use editions not marked 
"first editions" on the verso of the title 
page. This is on the ground that books 
so marked, in the mind of ·the general 
public, are valuable and, therefore, are apt 
to be stolen. Specific questions are whether 
library collections of first editions ~hould 
conform to the standards of the book col-
lector and have uncut pages, dust jackets, 
and no library markings; whether librarians 
and scholars really should be actively con-
cerned about first editions. One point not 
to be forgotten here is that later editions 
often vary in text from the first as is true 
in the notable case of Melville's Typee and 

56 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



that scholars often want to see first editions 
with the exact text as it went to press for 
the first printing. 

Another point raised at Maine is "that 
the majority of books printed since I 870 
will have a relatively short life-span com-
pared to their predecessors." If, therefore, 
first editions are to be acquired, cannot 
writers, publishers,_ and librarians agree up-
on a better product of book making, to the 
end that at least a limited number of copies 
may be produced on durable paper for li-
braries and book collectors? 

Practically all the collections reported 
have been secured for research· purposes. 
Middlebury's reply regarding this, how-
ever, possibly indicates another aim: "Our 
main reason for collecting these modern 
authors is because they seem to us repre-
sentative of the best today in modern Amer-
ican literature, and our Abernathy library 
is a library of American literature." 
Nearly all the libraries also are making 
additions to their collections. 

A number of authors whose works are 
not represented in any New England col-
lections were suggested by various librar-
ians as worthy of being secured. Although 
only five librarians answered the question 
relating to this, the following writers were 
mentioned: Leonie Adams, Louis Adamic, 
James Truslow Adams, Hervey Allen, 
Sherwood Anderspn, W. H. Auden, 
Charles A. Beard, Brian 0. Donn-Byrne, 
Kenneth Burke, Van Wyck Brooks, Pearl 
S. Buck, Henry S. Canby, Mary Ellen 
Chase, Hart Crane, Cecil Day Lewis, 
Theodore Dreiser, E. M. Forster, Con-
stance Holme, Robinson Jeffers, D. H. 
Lawrence, Ludwig Lewisohfol, Katharine 
Mansfield, Lewis Mumford, George Jean 
Nathan, Donald C. Peattie, William Sa-
royan, the Sitwells, Upton Sinclair, Stephen 
Spender, Booth Tarkington, Carl Van 
Doren, Hendrik Willem van Loon, Wal-
lace Stevens, Mary Webb, Edmund Wilson, 
A. Yvor Winters, Hugh Walpole, and 
William Carlos Williams. 

University Library Charging Systems 
(Continued from page 53) 

there must even be a card involved, but 
the present authors lack the imagination to 
suggest a suitable substitute. 

Since the problem is thus reduced to one 
of finding a suitable sorting device, possible 
solutions begin to present themselves; for 
example, a mere pencil mark placed on the 
bookcard would permit sorting by means 
of a photoelectric cell, or a small non-
protruding steel clip would allow for sort-
ing by means of an electro-magnet. To 
these could be added other devices evolved 
from fundamental physical principles, but 
at this point the problem should be turned 
over to technicians who will probably have 

DECEMBER~ 1944 

to be found outside the profession. The 
time for calling upon such technicians for 
assistance is long overdue. Some library 
supply houses have set up research bureaus, 
the interest and activity of which should be 
solicited. Expert council should be sought, 
and a satisfactory solution would be - well 
worth the expenditure of the necessary 
funds. For this reason it is strongly urged 
that the Association of College and Refer-
ence Libraries take formal action, not to 
investigate the problem, but to seek a satis-
factory solution by means of perfected 
mechanisms adaptable . to the types of 
libraries involved. 

57