ISSUE No. 39, June 2007 ISSN 0840–5565 Robarts Library Staff Pick Their Favourites Collection Development at UTL This issue, besides the regular spring issue staples, features articles by members of the Collection he Collection Development Depart- ment of the University of Toronto Development Department and Order Section of the Robarts Library on recent acquisitions for the Library, since its inception as the Book Fisher Library, which they thought would be of particular interest to our readers. TSelection Department in 965, has enjoyed a strong working relationship with the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and its staff. Established in response to the unprec- edented growth of the graduate programs at the University, the Department’s main responsibility was and remains the selection of research–level and undergraduate materials housed in the central campus libraries, includ- ing the collections in the Robarts Library for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Gerstein Science Information Centre. Staffed by librarians with subject and language exper- tise, the Department acquires titles through a combination of broadly–based approval plans (where book dealers around the world are authorized by the Library to select and supply new publications of research quality, the plans being based upon detailed written profiles that outline the parameters of our collecting interests), as well as librarian–initiated orders, and the generous support of donors. While most selection activities of the librarians in the Department are focused on building the general collections in the main libraries, Freedman’s dust jacket design for Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. opportunities do arise to acquire material for the Fisher collections. Through grants and gift Barnett Freedman Claire Leighton, Reynolds Stone, and Robert and trust funds, staff members in Collection he period between the two world wars Gibbings created stunning images that dra- Development have over the years acquired was a golden age for British book matically enhanced the texts they illustrated. significant material for the Fisher Library. production, and in particular book Barnett Freedman (90–958), a Londoner The books chosen from the Fisher Tillustration. Using a variety of techniques, and eldest of five children born to Russian collections by members of the Collection artists such as Edward Bawden, the brothers Jewish immigrants, was an important member Development Department and described Paul and John Nash, Eric Gill, David Jones, of that group. On leaving the Royal College of below are a small representation of an enormously rich and diverse library built through the efforts of a dedicated library staff IN THIS ISSUE and the generosity of the many donors who share an appreciation of a cultural heritage of Robarts Library Staff Pick Their Favourites Manuscript Acquisitions in 2006 this nature. The only difficulty was choosing From A to Z (almost) or, An Idiosyncratic Members of the Friends of the Thomas Fisher a single work about which to write. Alphabet Rare Book Library 2006 – 2007 Graham Bradshaw Collection Development Department Donors of Gifts–in–Kind to the Thomas Events and Exhibitions Robarts Library Fisher Rare Book Library in 2006 2 Above left: Freedman’s poster for Shell. Above right: Freedman’s illustration of Speransky from War and Peace. Below right: Freedman’s poster for London Transit and the Post Office. Art in 925, Freedman’s unsuccessful attempts there are 50 black and white pen drawings to earn a living through easel painting throughout the text. made it necessary for him to find work as a Although best known for his work as a book commercial artist. His first major foray into illustrator, Freedman also enjoyed success in book illustration was a commission from the other areas of graphic art. Throughout his publishing house Faber and Faber to produce career he produced prints, posters, newspaper an illustrated edition of Siegfried Sassoon’s advertisements, and designs for packaging. highly popular autobiographical novel of his Freedman was one of several prominent First World War experiences, Memoirs of an designer/illustrators who worked on advertis- Infantry Officer. Published in 93, the new ing material for Shell and London Transport. edition included book jacket, binding cloth, His posters for these companies remain strik- endpapers and plates, all lithographed by ing examples of this type of art prominent in Freedman, as well as his black and white line the 930s and 940s. Interestingly, Freedman’s drawings. The work completed for Memoirs design was chosen for the 935 commemorative brought Freedman widespread publicity and stamps issued by the Post Office to celebrate many more assignments to illustrate books the silver jubilee of King George V. and design jackets for well–known publishers Barnett Freedman: the Graphic Art by including Cassell, Batsford, and John Murray. Ian Rogerson (Upper Denby, Huddersfield: Often employing autolithography, a tech- Fleece Press, 2006) provides a much–needed nique by which the artist draws directly onto evaluation of the artist’s place in twentieth– the lithographic stone or plate, Freedman’s century British design and book illustration. designs are distinctive and immediately This first book–length treatment of Freedman recognizable, the dramatic use of colour and his work was conceived, designed and and shading creating strong images of bold published by Simon Lawrence at Fleece Press, imagination. Arguably his most impressive an English private press. The book’s thought- work was done for George Macy’s Limited ful commentary, elegant layout, many colour Editions Club of New York, established in reproductions and fold–out plates are a fitting 929. Macy aimed to produce beautifully tribute to Freedman. It is also appropriate printed books at affordable prices, illustrated that Barnett Freedman: the Graphic Art was by the foremost artists of the day. Of the four purchased with money from the David Esplin Limited Editions Club books illustrated by Gift Fund. David Esplin was the first head Freedman, the six–volume edition of Tolstoy’s of the University of Toronto Library’s Book of many important titles that scholars now War and Peace (938) must rank as his finest Selection area and oversaw the rapid expan- consult in the Fisher Library. achievement. In addition to the designs on sion of the research collections in the 960s Graham Bradshaw the bindings and endpapers, each volume and 970s. His foresight and book collecting Collection Development Department has five full–page colour lithographs, and acumen were responsible for the acquisition Robarts Library 3 Ivan Cankar was bought up and burned by the bishop of and his chief book illustrators, Matija Jama n 200 the University of Toronto Libraries Ljubljana. Cankar’s plays and prose fiction (872–947) and Hinko Smrekar (883–942). received a large gift of books from the were often received by critics with anger, shock, This partnership coupled with their collective Laurentian University among which was or incomprehension. They declared his works experience living and working in Vienna Ia remarkable collection of first editions by the blasphemous, cynical, ugly, and corrupt, his resulted in beautifully produced books with Slovene writer Ivan Cankar (876–98). These characters unreal, his style affectatious, and lovely Secession or Art Nouveau graphic books along with several first editions from his themes indecent and hallucinatory. elements. Jama, a representative of the the stacks of Robarts Library were recently In 907 Lavoslav Schwentner (865–952), Association of Free Artists known as Sava, transferred to the Fisher Library. Cankar’s principal publisher, issued his illustrated Cankar’s Knjiga za lahkomiselne After the national poet France Prešeren, Krpanova kobila (Krpan’s Mare), a collection ljudi (Book for Frivolous People, 90), Za Ivan Cankar is the second–most revered of polemical articles and stories that are the narodov blagor (For the Good of the People, writer in Slovenia. His poetics and politics culmination of lengthy exchanges between 90), and Ob zori (At Dawn, 903). Smrekar, were part of the aesthetic program of Cankar and one of his most vocal critics, a member of the Vesna Group of artists who Slovenska moderna, the first modern Slovene the writer and playwright Fran Govekar drew their inspiration from Slovenian folk artistic movement that was active from (87–949). In 905 Govekar adapted Fran art, designed many frontispieces and covers 895 to 94. His works reflect elements of Levstik’s tale Martin Krpan (858) for the to Cankar’s works, including his most widely fin–de–siècle European literary currents, Ljubljana stage. The audience welcomed it with including decadence, naturalism, symbolism, enthusiasm; not so much for its quality, but and, with his last work Podobe iz sanj (Dream because of a mare that appeared in the play, Visions, 97), expressionism. around whose neck they even hung a garland Cankar’s poems, stories, novels, plays, after the performance. This event provoked a satires, and essays deal thematically with reaction by Cankar, who in Krpanova kobila the disintegration of provincial values at a criticized Govekar and his folk plays as well as time of growing industrialization and the his theatre management (he favoured his own advance of capital, while at the same time plays over those of Cankar). Cankar’s work they reveal Cankar’s preoccupations with considerably influenced Slovene reception of his own inner problems. The works reflect Govekar. He had to resign from his position both the fate of a small nation in the chaos as the city’s theatre manager in 906 due to of the contemporary political and economic negative public opinion. struggle, and his personal fate within that Though Cankar’s writings were misunder- nation—the fate of a creative artist working in stood by most critics during his lifetime, he the pettiest provincial atmosphere. He was a was a central personality in a small Slovene victim of this atmosphere throughout most of literary and artistic circle.