217 Rare Volumes In Gift to Library
BAKER LIBRARY last month received through the Friends of the Dartmouth Library, a major gift of more than 200 rare books from Perc S. Brown of Newark, N. J. Mr. Brown is the father of two Dartmouth graduates, Bruce L. Brown '41 and Gordon S. Brown '42.
The 217 items in the Brown Collection were hailed by Prof. Herbert F. West 22, secretary of the Friends of the Dartmouth Library, as one of the most valuable and encouraging contributions made to the College through his organization. Nearly all the volumes in the gift are first editions, some of them exceedingly rare.
Outstanding is an inscribed presentation copy of Charles Dickens Bleak House. A nine-volume set of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy and a fine copy of Thoreau's first book, A Week on the Concordand Merrimac Rivers, are also prized items.
Other valuable first editions included in the gift are Confessions of Faith by Francis Bacon; Buried Alive by Arnold Bennett; Table Talk (two volumes), TheFriend and Zapolya by Coleridge; HardTimes and Sunday Under Three Heads by Charles Dickens; Humphrey Clincker by Smollett; Huckleberry Finn and TheJumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain; Autocrat of the BreakfastTable by Oliver Wendell Holmes, with an autograph letter; Uncle Tom's Cabin and a presentation copy of Old Town Folks by Harriet Beecher Stowe; and a signed copy of Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts.
