COLLECTIONS A-Z

• Andrew Carvely collection of books, journals and ephemera on T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
  Consists primarily of printed works by and about T.E. Lawrence, collected by Andrew Carvely, and purchased from his estate in 1998. The collection comprises four categories: books by Lawrence including forwards, introductions, and translations, books about Lawrence including compilations of his letters, association copies, and ephemera including journal articles, newspaper articles, programs, brochures, posters and an original oil painting by Glen Schomburg commissioned by Andrew Carvely. The collection is particularly strong in works in arabic and hebrew. Gifts and purchases continue to augment the original collection.
  This collection supplements holdings of T.E. Lawrence editions acquired earlier from the library of Francis H. Chafee, including the 1926 subscriber's edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
  The collection is at present uncataloged. A list is available in the library's collection files. Further information about the collection and the collector is available in a catalog produced for an exhibition at the John Hay Library, March 2 - April 30, 1998: T.E. Lawrence: A 20th century retrospective by Kathi Frances McGraw and Andrew Carvely. [May 2002] ...more information
  
  
• Brownell (Henry Howard) papers, 1827-1871
  The Henry Howard Brownell papers, dating from 1827-1871, include short prose articles and stories in manuscript, poetry manuscripts, verse translations from Homer's Aeneid and a scrapbook of Brownell's poems. Brownell was a poet and lawyer from Connecticut. ...more information
  
  
• Buchan (John) collection, 1898-1958
  This collection includes several thousand editions of the published works of John Buchan, British statesman, author and Governor General of Canada. Buchan was a prolific author of, among other works, adventure and suspense novels (the most notable of which is The 39 Steps, made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock). Among the non-fiction works is Buchan's study of South Africa under British rule, entitled The African Colony: Studies in Reconstruction (London, 1903), written in the immediate wake of the Boer War. The John Buchan papers contain approximately 150 items covering the years 1898-1958. Most of the collection contains letters written by John Buchan to W. M. Colles and Sir Henry Newbolt. A selection of 5 published works by John Buchan are included as well as photographs. ...more information
  
  
• Chambers Dante Collection
  The Chambers Dante Collection of approximately 1,700 volumes was formed by the English Scholar William F. Chambers during a long residence in Florence. The collection was donated to Brown by Henry D. Sharpe, Class of 1894, through the intercession of Brown Prof. Courtney Langdon. The collection's strengths are in scholarly editions of the 15th through the 19th centuries of Dante's works, in particular the Divine Comedy, commentaries (chiefly in Italian), translations, and other reference, biographical and historical works. Prof. Langdon's literary and critical manuscripts have been added to the collection. ...more information
  
  
• Corbett (Scott) papers, 1884-1984
  The Scott Corbett papers contain a variety of material related to his career as a writer as well as personal memorabilia from his childhood and service in the United States Army during World War II. These papers also include Elizabeth Corbett’s personal and business papers and artwork by the illustrator and author Don Freeman. ...more information
  
  
• Crosby (Harry) papers, ca. 1919-1955
  Harry Crosby (born 1898) was an American poet and publisher also known as Henry Sturgis Crosby or Henry Grew Crosby. An American expatriate in Paris in the 1920s, his work expresses his disapproval of Puritan hypocrisy and his fascination for the cult of the sun. His Black Sun Press published special editions of James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and other contemporaries. Crosby committed suicide in New York on 10 December 1929.The collection includes 19 letters to Constance Atherton, Comtesse de Jumilhac; letters from Atherton and related correspondence; two notebooks with letter and unpublished aphorisms addressed to Atherton; book belonging to Harry and Caresse Crosby; ten manuscript notebooks; page proofs (bound) for Shadows of the Sun and for Chariot of the Sun; other writings; two albums of photographs; and Caresse Crosby's correspondence with several writers/editors/publishers. The collection also includes Crosby's last will and testament; typescript (carbon) of his The De Geetere Maldoror; and a biographical sketch of him written by his wife, Caresse Crosby. ...more information
  
  
• Cutter (Bloodgood H.) papers, 1886
  The Bloodgood H. Cutter papers consist of 47 manuscripts of poetry which were published in the collection of poems, The Long Island farmer's poems, New York, 1886. ...more information
  
  
• Damon (S. Foster) Festival papers, 1967-1968
  The S. Foster Damon Festival papers consists of approximately 50 items from 1967-1968 relating to the 75th birthday party of S. Foster Damon and the S. Foster Damon Festival at Brown University. S. Foster Damon was an American poet, William Blake scholar, Brown University professor of English (1927-1963), and curator of the Harris Collection, Brown University Library (1930-1963). ...more information
  
  
• Damon Blake Collection
  Blake scholar S. Foster Damon's collection of ca. 300 editions of William Blake's works, and critical and historical works about Blake. The collection contains original editions of some of Blake's source materials, a few of his own works, and works on which Blake collaborated. There are also such items as an excellent collection of sheet music for Blake's poems, a wide variety of prints, and a Blake Bible. The collection also has value for its marginalia by Foster Damon, along with his Blake notebooks, correspondence, and unpublished manuscripts. The Blake collection has been supplemented by modern editions of Blake, Trianon Press editions, and other fine printing. 1972 bequest of S. Foster Damon. ...more information
  
  
• Eigner (Larry) papers, 1958-1978
  Larry Eigner was an American poet associated with the Black Mountain Poets of the 1950s, and his work was included under that heading in the landmark 1960 anthology The New American Poetry, edited by Donald M. Allen. Formally, Eigner's poetry marks an important development in the use of line and page introduced by the Modernists in the 1920s. The Eigner papers consist of over three hundred items including manuscripts, carbon copies and photocopies of typewritten manuscripts, carbon copies and photocopies of typewritten manuscripts. Eigner's correspondence illustrates his view of contemporary poetry and poets, his comments on the publication of, and about, his work, and his personal thoughts. Eigner died in 1996 from complications related to pneumonia. ...more information
  
  
• H.P. Lovecraft Collection
  Lovecraft, the eccentric Providence author of fantasy and horror tales for the pulp magazines of the 1920's is now recognized as one of the seminal figures in the development of the science fiction genre. The collection includes extensive holdings of manuscripts, letters, editions of Lovecraft's works in all languages, periodicals, biographical and critical works, and many supportive collections of manuscript and printed materials of Lovecraft friends and associates. There are more than 1,000 books and magazines, in 20 languages, containing material by or about Lovecraft plus over 2,000 original letters and manuscripts of his essays, fiction and poetry. Many of the papers were deposited in the library a few months after Lovecraft's death in 1937; others have been added by gift and purchase over the years. ...more information
  
  
• Hanna (Muriel Marjorie Boos) papers, 1922-1989
  The Muriel Marjorie Boos Hanna papers consist primarily of poetry by Muriel Hanna (dating from 1976 to 1989), drafts, notes and a draft of a compilation of poems, as well as a printed collection. An active member of the Rhode Island State Poetry Society, Hanna wrote of nature, family, and personal experiences in her poems. Included in the papers are poems by Hanna's grandmother, Emma Doan (Evans) Nicholas, whose poems describe her life a farm in New Jersey, provide information about the Grange, and gender roles in rural life in the early twentieth century. ...more information
  
  
• Harold L. Tinker Collection
  3,000 volumes of 19th and 20th century American prose fiction, donated by Harold L. Tinker, Class of 1921.It included numerous first editions by Sinclair Lewis, J. P. Marquand, Kenneth Roberts, Booth Tarkington, Frank Norris, Thornton Wilder, and Thomas Wolfe. Also included are early editions of Lardner, London, Melville, Mencken, Steinbeck, Dreiser, Dos Passos, and Wharton. The collection is particularly rich in works by women authors including, among others, Mary H. Catherwood, Sarah Orne Jewett, Laura E. Richards and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
  
  Card file in shelf list area in the John Hay Library; Books arranged alphabetically by author. ...more information
  
  
• Hay (John) Collection
  The John Hay collection documents the life of John Milton Hay (1838-1905), Brown Class of 1858, and consists of two major components: A collection of books, and Hay's personal papers.
  
  The John Hay book collection comprises approximately 2,000 books by or about Hay and his period. Much of this material was given by members of the Hay family.
  
  The John Hay Papers consists of over 9,100 items encompassing Hay's correspondence with his family and with literary, diplomatic, and political contemporaries; diaries kept by Hay as Lincoln's White House aide and as Secretary of the Legations in Paris, Vienna, and Madrid, 1866-1870; manuscript poems; galley proofs; personal letterpress copy books. Subjects include: Civil War; Lincoln and his administration; Reconstruction; court life in Paris; the bi-metal monetary standard; the Canadian boundary settlement; the fur seal question; Japanese naval activity; Chinese-American relations; the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars; British and American politics. A microform copy exists of this material. ...more information
  
  
• Hay (John, b. 1915) papers, 1939-2004
  The collection represents a portion of the letters, journals, manuscripts and research materials of the Burroughs medal winning naturalist, writer and poet John Hay (born 1915). ...more information
  
  
• Inman (Arthur Crew) papers, 1856-1963
  Correspondence, poems, fiction, drama, essays, galley proofs, and printed notices or reviews of the published work of an Atlanta-born 20th century American poet. Collection includes transcripts of correspondence of Gen. George Pickett and his wife, LaSalle Corbell Pickett, from which Inman prepared an edited volume. Correspondents include George P. Baker, Alice H. Bartlett, Gamaliel Bradford, Abbie F. Brown, Edgar Guest, DuBose Heyward, Walter Lippmann, Josephine Peabody, H. L. Mencken, Bliss Perry, and Edward A. Robinson. ...more information
  
  
• James Laughlin Collection
  Bequest of James Laughlin, poet and publisher of New Directions Press, and the gifts of his widow. It is composed of approximately 5,000 volumes from his personal library, and focuses on editions of William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Thomas Merton, and other major 20th century literary figures. At Mr. Laughlin's invitation, Library staff specifically selected authors and titles from his extensive collection for the express purpose of adding complementary prose titles to the Harris Collection's holdings of 20th century poetry and plays. Uncataloged. Lists available ...more information
  
  
• John Preston
  John Preston authored over 30 books, ranging from fiction and erotica to such important non-fiction titles as Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong. The Preston archive is especially important in that it contains many thousands of letters between Preston and a vast array of authors that comment upon matters both literary and socio-historical. Among Preston's most prolific correspondents was Ann Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles, whose papers provide insight into the link between straight/gay and erotic/mainstream fiction. ...more information
  
  
• Jose Rodrigues Migueis Archives
  The Jose Rodrigues Migueis Archives contain the personal papers and selected volumes from the private library of the late Portuguese writer, donated by his widow. The collection includes drafts and typescripts of his writings, personal and professional correspondence, notebooks, postcards, diplomas, calendars, diaries, photographs, legal and medical documents, drawings, newspaper clippings, book reviews, and monographs. Migueis' correspondence includes letters to Camara Reys, Raul Proena, Jaime Cortes, Mario de Castro, Antonio Sergio, Manuel Mendes, Mario Dionsio, Manuel Rodrigues Lapa, David Mour Ferreira, Jacinto Baptista, Mario Neves, Jose Gomes Ferreira, Jose Cardoso Pires, Natalia Correira, Raul Hestnes Ferreira, Jorge de Sena, John Austin Kerr, Aquilino Ribeiro, and Jose Saramago among others. A finding aid and a microfilm copy of the collection are available to researchers. Restrictions on access and reproduction apply.
  Uncataloged; Filed in accession # order; MUCs filed alphabetically ...more information
  
  
• Kinter (William L.) papers, 1958-1965
  Chiefly letters to William L. Kinter from William Everson, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Denise Levertov, and other modern poets; also photographs, play bills, postcards, and clippings. ...more information
  
  
• Linton (William James) papers, ca. 1848-1896
  The William James Linton Papers of Brown University contains material reflecting the three major spheres of activity--literary, artistic, and political--to which Linton chiefly devoted himself during the course of his long life. The literary manuscripts, correspondence to and from Linton, sketchbooks, drawings, and photographs, which comprise the chief part of this collection, are materials which will serve the researcher in good stead in attempting to understand Linton's various achievements. When considered in conjunction with the large holdings of printed Linton materials in various collections elsewhere within the Brown University Library, the papers comprising the Linton Papers described here take on added significance, insofar as they serve well to complement those printed holdings. Special interest may attach to some of the literary manuscripts in this collection, "Love's Diary", "Mr. Joseph", and "Blue-Beard", which are as yet unpublished. The researcher may also be especially interested in the correspondence involving noteworthy personalities, such as Winslow Homer, Christina Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, et al. ...more information
  
  
• Lownes (Albert Edgar) collection on Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1965
  The Albert E. Lownes Collection on Henry David Thoreau was received in 1967 as a gift from Albert E. Lownes, Class of 1920. It consists of over 1,000 items, and includes books by Thoreau, later editions of his writing, biographical and critical works, and books from his personal library. It contains first editions for each of Thoreau's separately published books and pamphlets as well as a virtually complete selection of his contrib utions to periodicals. Of particular note are a number of annotated volumes from Thoreau's personal library and original manuscript fragments from his Journals, The Maine Woods, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
  
  There are also periodicals, engravings, photographs, a striking original sketch of Thoreau, maps, broadsides, museum objects, and other memorabilia. The Collection includes a number of Thoreau letters, college papers and journal excerpts.
  
  Especially noteworthy is an album entitled "Concordia", a collection of autograph letters, portraits, and original sketches of Concord personalities, compiled by Rev. Moncure Daniel Conway. ...more information
  
  
• Luce (Nancy) papers, 1725-1964 (bulk 1833-1889)
  The Nancy Luce Papers comprise manuscripts poems, accounts, journals, photographs, family papers and clippings that cover the period from 1725 to 1964. ...more information
  
  
• Maas (Willard) papers, 1931-1967
  The Maas Papers consist of approximately five hundred letters, manuscripts, page proofs, photographs, drawings, play scripts, and film scripts from the period 1931-1967. ...more information
  
  
• Masters (Edgar Lee) papers, 1928-1946
  The Masters papers consist chiefly of letters to his son, Hilary T. Masters; along with poems, short stories, sketches, and two letters from H. L. Mencken to Hilary Masters. ...more information
  
  
• Murrary (Caroline D.) collection on Robert Hayden and his poetry, 1938-2006
  This collection consists chiefly of study guides to Robert Hayden's poetry. There is some correspondence, photographs, print outs, photocopies of Hayden's poems, extracts from interviews with Hayden, newspaper clippings and a bibliography of both primary and secondary sources. ...more information
  
  
• Niccolo Machiavelli Collection
  The Niccolo Machiavelli Collection is a major collection of first and early editions, dating from 1523, with an emphasis upon his political and historical works. Acquired by purchase in 1990. Interfiled with LC Starred Books. ...more information
  
  
• Old Man and the Sea Collection (Brown University)
  The Old Man and the Sea Collection consists of editions of Hemingway's novel, including translations into many languages, plus critical and biographical works on Hemingway. Notable is the first printing of the work in Life magazine in 1952.
  
  Gift of Lyman G. Bloomingdale, class of 1935, in 1978. ...more information
  
  
• Perelman (Sidney Joseph) Papers, 1914-1987
  Correspondence, working files, notes, drafts, clippings, and documents pertaining to Perelman's work as a humorist, as well as to his family life. Contains manuscripts jointly authored with his wife, the writer Laura West Perelman, and brother-in-law, the writer Nathaniel West. Also includes books and journals from the personal library of S. J. and Laura West Perelman. (Perelman was a member of the Brown Class of 1925; Laura Perelman was Pembroke Class of 1930). ...more information
  
  
• Romance Novels by Brown and Rhode Island Authors
  The romance novels included in this database, along with the working papers of their authors, were acquired in conjunction with the establishment of the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive, which is "dedicated to preserving and the continued collection of materials documenting the history of women in Brown University and Pembroke College, the post-graduate lives of Brown University and Pembroke College alumnae, and the lives of Rhode Island women." The authors are Barbar Kieler, Jo Ann Ferguson, Patricia Coughlin, and Sylvia Baumgarten. In addition to works by the Brown and Rhode Island authors listed, works by over 30 other romance authors appear in the database in cases where they have been anthologized with these four authors. The novels include titles translated into many languages ...more information
  
  
• Sidney P. Albert - George Bernard Shaw Collection
  In 1991 the Brown University Library acquired a collection of George Bernard Shaw material formed by Sidney P. Albert, professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University-Los Angeles. The collection is rich in manuscript material, including autograph and typed letters, post cards, notes, inscriptions and signed photographs as well as costume designs and a fragment of music in Shaw's hand. There are more than 2,000 books by and about Shaw and a strong collection of ephemera - pamphlets, "rough proof" rehearsal copies of plays, programs, press clippings, film stills, posters, publicity photographs, recordings, photographs of Shaw's 1933 visit to Hollywood, and publications of Shaw societies in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. More than 200 periodicals containing pieces by or about Shaw round out the collection.
  The Brown University Library also holds the correspondence between Shaw and his American publisher, Dodd, Mead & Company. ...more information
  
  
• The Barton Levi St. Armand Collection of Dickinson Family Papers, [ca. 1851-1908]
  Includes the following material, some of which relates to Emily Dickinson: [1] 125 letters of Edward (Ned) Austin Dickinson to William Austin Dickinson and Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson; [2] scrapbook of Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi; [3] scrapbook of Mary M. Warner (afterwards Mrs. Edward Payson Crowell) ...more information
  
  
• The Daniel J. Leab Collection of Books and Manuscripts by and about George Orwell
  In 1997 Daniel J. and Katharine Kyes Leab donated one of the largest and most important gatherings of George Orwell material in private hands to the Brown University Library. Consisting primarily of printed works by and about Orwell, the Leab Collection contains first and subsequent editions of all of his books, from Down and Out in Paris and London to Nineteen Eighty-Four. In addition, the Leab Collection contains a small, select group of manuscripts, as well as books owned by the author, including school books signed "Eric Blair," Orwell's birth name, and a considerable body of ephemeral material.
  
  In 1992 Daniel G. Siegel, Class of 1957, donated to the Brown University Library the manuscript of George Orwell's last novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Containing almost half of the published text of Nineteen Eighty-Four this is the only substantial Orwell manuscript which was not destroyed by the author.
  
  Bibliographic access to this material is available via Josiah, the Library's online catalog, thanks to a gift from Lyman G. Bloomingdale, Class of 1935. ...more information
  
  
• Tyler (Parker) correspondence from Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, 1930-1959
  The Parker Tyler correspondence consists of forty-two letters from Ezra Pound (1885-1972) and William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), addressed to Parker Tyler, a young American poet and literary critic. This small but rich body of correspondence serves a dual function: it sheds light on Tyler's development and reputation as a writer; and, most importantly, it offers valuable insights into the personal lives and the poetic theories and techniques of two major figures in American literature. ...more information
  
  
• Wellman (Manly Wade) papers, 1908-1997
  The Manly Wade Wellman papers consist primarily of his fiction and nonfiction manuscripts (originals, carbon copies, and page proofs), personal and professional correspondence, and financial records. Also included are a small collection of manuscripts and correspondence belonging to his wife Frances Wellman. ...more information
  
  
• Wells (H.G.) Collection
  Collection of ca. 565 books and pamphlets by and about H.G. Wells, purchased from antiquarian bookdealer Glenn Finley in 1988. Finley amassed the collection in order to gain firsthand experience with comparative bibliography. The prospectus included with the collection was created by Finley as a preliminary annotated bibliography. The prospectus is divided into: books and pamphlets by Wells (405 items), collected letters (10 items), parodies (4 items), collected editions (1 item), periodical appearances (9 items), ephemera (4 items), biography & criticism (57 items), bibliography (13 items), and later editions and reprints (62 items). The collection is strong in British colonial editions and in unrecorded editions, issues and variants, and includes first and early editions of virtually all of Wells's work. Gifts and purchases continue to augment the original collection.
  List available ...more information
  
  
• Whitman (Sarah Helen) papers, 1816-1878
  Sarah Helen (Power) Whitman (1803-1878) was a Rhode Island poet and essayist best known for her brief engagement to Edgar Allan Poe in 1848. Whitman hosted a salon in Providence that attracted many (including George William Curtis, John Neal, and John Hay) and corresponded with a number of literary luminaries. While living in Boston, Whitman became interested in Transcendentalism and other movements of the period, including woman's rights, spiritualism, mesmerism, Fourierism, and the progressive educational methods of Bronson Alcott. The papers include correspondence, poetry, genealogical information, and legal documents. ...more information
  
  

Image Source: Bookplate of the Daniel J. Leab Collection of Books and Manuscripts by and about George Orwell. Drawing of George Orwell by Terry Belanger.

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