Gifts Recently Added To Baker Collections
IN a midwinter letter sent to Friends of the Dartmouth Library, Prof. Herbert F. West '22, Secretary, listed a large number of valuable acquisitions for Baker in recent months.
One of the most interesting gifts included 97 unpublished letters from Henry James, written between 1892 and 1911 from England, France and Italy to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Sargent Curtis of Boston. Mrs. Sylvia Curtis Owen, of Lyme, N.H., a granddaughter, presented them to the College through the Friends of the Library, along with letters from John Addington Symonds; Thackeray's daughter, Lady Ritchie; and Henry Adams; and other Curtis family correspondence. Dr. Leon Edel, the greatest living authority on James, came to Hanover to make a digest of the letters, which open up new avenues of study on this author and are now available to any reputable scholar.
The much-sought-after first edition of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom has come to Baker through the generosity of Perc S. Brown of Orinda, Calif. Among other valued gifts recently presented by him are letters from Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Makepeace Thackeray and Oscar Wilde. Mr. Brown's total gift consisted of fifteen holograph letters, an oil painting of Thackeray, and eighty rare volumes.
Harold G. Rugg '06, Associate Librarian Emeritus, has given the Library 200 copies of books inscribed or autographed by their authors, who include Longfellow, Thoreau, Conrad, Sherwood Anderson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and many others. Louis Jean Heydt 26 made a present to Baker of his father's fine collection of books, pamphlets and articles about tobacco. A unique collection _ given by Col. John L. Ames Jr. '16 - is made up of maps and texts of the recent Korean armistice.
Through acquisitions from the late author's estate, Dartmouth now possesses the finest Ben Ames Williams collection in existence. Manuscripts, scrapbook material, a fine Civil War library, novels and stories form a remarkably complete record of an author's methods of work and his productions.
awarded annually to that piece of undergraduate writing which most nearly meets those high standards of originality and integrity which Sidney Cox set both for himself and his students in his teaching and in his book, Indirections for Those WhoWant to Write."
Any kind of undergraduate writing may be submitted; there is no limit to the amount or variety of the material that any individual may submit. Manuscripts for this year's competition must be turned in before March 20.
Each year one member of the Committee will judge the manuscripts and make the award personally in Hanover. The judge's identity will not be revealed until he has reached his decision. The award this year will be made on April 17, when the members of the Committee will assemble in Hanover for an open discussion of the work submitted.
