Studies in English, New Series Volume 7 Article 22 1989 The Bibliographer as Biographer: Accounting for the Unpublished Endings of Hamlin Garland’s Early Works Mark William Rocha Glassboro State College Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Rocha, Mark William (1989) "The Bibliographer as Biographer: Accounting for the Unpublished Endings of Hamlin Garland’s Early Works," Studies in English, New Series: Vol. 7 , Article 22. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new/vol7/iss1/22 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Studies in English at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in English, New Series by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Rocha: The Bibliographer as Biographer: Accounting for the Unpublished E THE BIBLIOGRAPHER AS BIOGRAPHER: ACCOUNTING FOR THE UNPUBLISHED ENDINGS OF HAMLIN GARLAND’S EARLY WORKS Mark William Rocha Glassboro Slate College I had the good fortune in early 1987 to locate Hamlin Garland’s two elderly surviving daughters who have since authorized a new biography of their father and turned over to me six boxes of previously unexamined manuscripts, letters, and memorabilia—a bibliographer’s dream, to be sure. One day as I was at the Garland home cataloguing these materials, Garland’s adult granddaughter expressed amazement at my enthusiasm in what she considered the painstaking task of describing each of the hundreds of items stuffed into boxes. At first, I could give her no better explanation of myself than, “Well, you see, I’m a bibliographer.” But then I returned her amazement by asking why no one before me had done this bibliographic work.