ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries

News from the Field ACQUISITIONS There is also a complete set of all publica tions of the Nonesuch Press, one of the finest • On September 27 Archbishop Fulton John commercial presses of all time, and 67 books Sheen, dedicated the Sheen Room to house his published by the Golden Cockerell Press, in personal and public archives which he has giv cluding its four-volume edition of The Canter en to St. Bernard’s Seminary, Rochester, bury Tales illustrated by Eric Gill and a spe N.Y. These consist of books and pamphlets cially bound copy of Keats’ Endymion. which he has written since 1925; about 1,500 There is a copy of Thomas Browne’s Urne tapes of sermons, retreats, lectures, and infor Buriall illustrated by Paul Nash, one of the mal talks; phono-recordings and TV tapes of most notable books published by Cassell in the “Life Is Worth Living” series, 1951-1957; London in the 1920s, and a copy of the ex radio and TV tapes of the Catholic Hour broad tremely rare translation of Homer’s Odyssey by casts, 1930-1952; newspaper clippings and T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), privately pub photographs; correspondence and memorabilia. lished by Bruce Rogers and Emery Walker. The dedication of the Sheen Room marked There are books from the Gregynog Press, the the beginning of a major library renovation for Eragny Press, and the Vale Press, many in un the 83-year-old seminary to house its 80,000- usually fine special bindings. plus-volume collection. The Sheen Archives The collection includes many books by fol have not yet been cataloged and will be subject lowers of the tradition of printing as a fine art, to standard archival practices. including the Heritage Press, the First Editions The Rev. Jasper Pennington, historiographer Club, the Folio Society, the Imprint Society, and priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Roches and a complete set of the books published by ter, is library director. A Sheen Chronology the Limited Editions Club from 1929 to 1972. and Bibliography has been published by the The collection contains complete runs of the librarian, and copies are available for two dol Fleur on and Colophon, two extremely rare pe lars each. riodicals in the field of fine book-making. The collection was assembled by Mr. Gold • Sam Goldman of Denver has given his man over a period of 50 years, and its acquisi personal library of approximately 5,000 books tion provides the university library for the first to the University of Colorado Lirrary at time with a collection of research strength in Boulder, the most important gift of books in book-making as a fine art. the history of the university. The collection con tains an important range of materials on music • Common Cause, the nonpartisan citizens’ and art, and a large number of first editions of lobby, has designated the Princeton Univer twentieth-century writers, including inscribed sity Library as the repository for its archives first editions of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theo and historical materials, beginning with its rec dore Dreiser, and Robert Frost. There are more ords for 1970 and 1971, which were recently than 2,000 albums of classical music, mostly received in the newly opened Seeley G. Mudd produced before World War II, which include Manuscript Library. performances by the greatest conductors and Common Cause was founded in 1970 by musicians of that time, including Toscanini, John W. Gardner, former secretary of health, Fürtwangler, and Koussevitsky, and recordings education and welfare, to promote openness, of the great performances of the Mozart operas responsiveness, and accountability in govern at Glyndebourne, England. ment, working with members of Congress and The largest concentration of the collection state legislators with the aid of professional lob is about 2,000 books from the revival of print byists in Washington and in the several states. ing as a fine art by the poet William Morris in James M. Banner, Jr., associate professor of 1891 to the end of that great movement, which history and a member of the national governing profoundly influenced contemporary book pro board of Common Cause, noted that the ar duction, in 1939. The collection includes all chives will add significantly to the university 53 books published by Morris’ Kelmscott Press, library’s collections of the papers of modern including the Kelmscott Chaucer. American public affairs organizations, which in There are 32 of the 40 books published by clude the archives of the American Civil Lib the Ashendene Press, and 42 books published erties Union as well as other holdings of related by the Doves Press, including an immaculate interest. Banner called Common Cause “one of copy of their five-volume Bible and a number the most influential and venturesome organiza of inscribed presentation copies by T. J. tions to take shape in the 1970s,” whose records Cobden-Sanderson to his wife. “will greatly enhance scholars’ ability to under 4 stand recent American political history. That of the board of regents of the Texas A&M Uni Princeton is to be their home is testimony to the versity System, in a special ceremony on No university’s growth as a major repository for vember 20. materials on modern statecraft and govern Considered by collectors to be “number one” ment.” among the top rarities in the literature of the The archives of Common Cause will include range cattle industry, Prose and Poetry of the correspondence and other documents dating Live Stock Industry of the United States (Den from its beginning in 1970 and relating to its ver and Kansas City: National Live Stock His founding; documents relating to its governing torical Association, 1905) was described by Dr. boards, staff, and internal affairs; papers con Irene B. Hoadley, director of libraries, as es nected with studies, reports, and memoranda pecially appropriate for addition to the univer issued by Common Cause; and press releases sity libraries’ collections during Texas A&M and other papers. Following the first install University’s centennial year because it records ment of noncurrent records, additions to the some of the first accounts of the colorful range archives will be made annually, with each new cattle industry which flourished in Texas a installment containing files dating from five century ago. years prior to their acquisition by the library. The donor, who owns ranchlands near Mid It is understood that the papers will be general land, Texas, is a past president of the Friends ly accessible to researchers as soon as the li of the Texas A&M University Library and is brary staff has been able to organize them and presently vice-president and president-elect of prepare the necessary cataloging. the organization. Two of Mrs. Driscoll’s sons are graduates of Texas A&M University, and • The Friends of the Columbia University she was instrumental in the organization of the Libraries celebrated their 25th anniversary Texas A&M University Mothers’ Club in Mid November 4. land, serving as its first president. A devoted group of some 500 private book The rare Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock collectors and scholar-benefactors, it constitutes Industry of the United States has been identi one of the oldest continuously active organiza fied by one book collector, Louis P. Merrill, as tions of its kind at a major American university. the “king of the book aristocrats” of the range The Friends have brought research materials cattle literature. In a recently published bibli worth more than $2.3 million to Columbia since ography of 120 “best books on the range cattle 1951 through purchases and gifts from their industry,” William S. Reese deems it to be “the personal collections. Their chairman is Gordon most desired and desirable book on the range N. Ray, president of the John Simon Guggen cattle industry.” heim Memorial Foundation. Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry The original Rockwell Kent drawings for of the United States joins a wealth of other Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass were for rarities in the university libraries’ Jeff Dykes mally presented to the university by the Range Livestock Collection, which is one of the Friends as a group. More than 165 members most extensive collections on the subject. The and their families made special contributions nucleus of this research collection, which now toward the purchase of the 127 drawings, in contains more than 9,000 items, was put to cluding Herman Wouk, Francis T. P. Plimp gether by Texas A&M University alumnus Jeff ton, William S. Paley, Corliss Lamont, Melville Dykes of College Park, Maryland. Cane, Paul Mellon, Mr. and Mrs. Helmut N. Friedlaender, and William S. Beinecke. A copy • Peter L. Oliver, librarian of the Andover- of the 1936 edition of Leaves of Grass, in Harvard Theological Library, has announced scribed by Kent, accompanied the gift. The the gift to the Harvard Divinity School of drawings “express with both strength and deli the Universalist Historical Society (UHS) Li cacy Kent’s sympathy for the poet’s celebration brary. A rare and valuable collection of some of America,” said Columbia rare books librarian 5,000 books, 2,200 bound periodicals, 672 vol Kenneth A. Lohf. The materials will become umes of manuscripts, and 1,600 pamphlets, the part of the extensive Rockwell Kent Collection UHS Library includes official records of the at Columbia, which numbers more than 5,000 Universalist Church of America, the Unitarian drawings and sketches. Universalist Service Committee, the Universal These and other selections from the gift col ist Publishing House, the Universalist Youth lection are being exhibited through February Fellowship, the General Sunday School Associa 24 on the third floor of Butler Library, 114th tion, as well as papers of Univeralist ministers Street and Broadway.

Load more