Special Collections contains a small number of books by American poets from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Highlights include editions of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems, Joel Barlow’s Vision of Columbus, and early works by Lydia Huntley Sigourney. Special Collections also owns a copy of Samuel Kettell’s 1829 Specimens of American Poetry, an important early …
October 17th marks the 100th anniversary of the death of poet and reformer Julia Ward Howe. Howe is probably best known for writing the text of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862. Howe was born to a wealthy New York family in 1819. Julia was …
The Rare American Literary Authors collection contains a number of works by important African-American writers, dating from the era of slavery to the Harlem Renaissance. In honor of Black History month, we highlight three titles from our holdings: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave (Boston, 1845) Douglass, an orator, …
In conjunction with the opening of the Florence Nightingale exhibit on Floor 3 of the HBLL, which features a number of rare books and manuscripts from Special Collections, I’d like to highlight the work of several authors who served as nurses in the American Civil War. Clara Barton was a Civil War nurse who was …
Books were a common Christmas gift for 19th-century children, just as they are today. Authors and publishers in England and the United States marketed a variety of titles each Christmastime. For younger children there were picture books, ranging from cheap paperback editions of popular tales to deluxe books with color lithographs. For older children who …
Special Collections’ dim-lit stacks hold rare copies of some of the most famous tales of horror, mystery, and otherworldly terror! I thought I’d highlight a few in the spirit of Halloween: 1. Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the wanderer: a tale (second edition, 1821). This famous Gothic novel, by the great-uncle of Oscar Wilde, tells the …
With the assistance of the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library, Special Collections recently acquired a first-edition copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous classic, Tarzan of the Apes. The novel spawned some two dozen sequels, a comic strip and comic books, radio and television programs, and numerous film adaptations. Burroughs was a prolific author …
Early science fiction novels make up an important part of the literary collections in L. Tom Perry Special Collections. The Victorian and Rare Book Collections contain first and early editions of science fiction classics like Edwin Abbott’s Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars Books, and the works of H.G. Wells — …