Library Benefactor

GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS ADDS TO HIS GIFTS OF RARE BOOKS TO BAKER

GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS of New York City, father of George Matthew Adams Jr. '31, has again given to the Dartmouth College Library some remarkable collections of first editions. Some time ago he presented fine Conrad and Melville collections. He is on the executive committee of the Friends of the Dartmouth Library, which is now led by Thomas W. Streeter '04, of Morristown, New Jersey.

Mr. Adams' most recent gifts include a 32-volume collection of the works of Vachel Lindsay. The high spots of this collection include the rare 1912 pamphlet Rhymes to be Traded for Bread; a perfect copy of The Congo, 1914; John Drinkwater's copy, inscribed, of TheGolden Book of Springfield-, an inscribed copy of The Art of the Moving Picture; and a fine copy of General Booth andOther Poems, 1913. All are first editions, fine or perfect copies, and many of them are inscribed.

Mr. Adams is particularly interested in nature books and has presented to Dartmouth his collection of the works of Richard Jefferies. This collection of 19 first editions includes an immaculate copy of The Story of My Heart, 1883, and a fine three-volume Bevis, 1882. All are noted for their pristine condition.

The Dartmouth Library recently purchased a first edition of Whitman's Leavesof Grass, 1855, and Mr. Adams augmented this particular collection with a gift of 16 editions, so that the Library's Whitman collection is developing gradually into a very respectable one.

Mr. Adams' most recent gift is a collection of the works of Michael Fairless, who is most famous for The Roadmender, a book which has sold more than half a million copies.

In May he sent to the Library a fine copy of Meredith's Evan Harrington in three volumes, and the well-known fourvolume illustrated Jarvis edition of DonQuixote in the original boards.

Mr. Adams was born at Saline, Michigan, in 1878, the son of a Baptist minister. He worked his way through high school at Grinnell, lowa, sweeping floors and working on farms. He took his bachelor's degree at Ottawa University, Kansas, in 1901, and was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by his alma mater in 1940. In 1907 he founded his newspaper syndicate and employed such writers as Kin Hubbard, Edgar Guest, Walt Mason, Dr. Frank Crane, Percy Crosby, Rex Beach and many others. His own Today'sTalk has appeared in more than a hundred papers for a period of over 22 years. His birthplace was bought by Henry Ford who erected it in his famous Greenfield Village at Dearborn.

Mr. Adams has a positive genius for spotting young writers. He is a famous book collector and a most generous giver. His W. H. Hudson collection, one of the best in the country, he presented to the Clements Library at the University of Michigan. His equally fine George Gissing collection went to Yale. Dartmouth has been the recipient again and again of his generosity. He lives in New York City, and summers at Grand Lake, Nova Scotia.

GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS, author and book collector, whose gifts have enriched the rare-book possessions of Baker Library.