IN their semi-annual report, issued in July, the Friends of the Dartmouth Library stated that during the past year they had obtained more gifts for Baker Library than ever before. Especially helpful was a gift of $2,000 by Henry E. Cutler of Wilmette, Ill., in memory of his wife, Hattie M. Cutler. This and other contributions enabled the Friends to purchase more books, paintings and manuscripts than usual.
Among the purchases was a fine Robert Frost letter telling of his early days in Derry, a Daniel Webster letter, many Private Press books from the Ashendene, Grabhorn, and other presses, including a copy of vellum (from the Jean Hersholt library) of four original leaves from Shakespeare's four folios with letter press, many first editions, presentation and association copies including Shaw's copy of Saint Joan (1924) given to Barrie, Moxon's presentation of a book of poems to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, three George Meredith presentation copies, foredge paintings, three original watercolors by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), a book of original pen and ink sketches by Nicholas Bentley, a book of sixty watercolor drawings representing the garb of sixty Roman Catholic orders done in France nearly 150 years ago, many books of Americana, books of Spanish interest, and the Cunninghame Graham-Tschiffely correspondence.
Perc S. Brown of Orinda, Calif., chairman of the executive committee of the Friends for the past two years — in which position he has been succeeded by Victor Reynolds '27 of Ithaca, N. Y. — made two major gifts to the College during the period reported on. The first consisted of ten historically significant broadsides, a pamphlet relating to trade with the American and West Indian colonies, an edition of Hamilton and Jefferson's AmericanBudget, 1794, two Revolutionary documents signed by John Hancock, and a first edition of Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Some of the highlights of Mr. Brown's second gift included a sheet of White House stationery containing nineteen autograph signatures of Abraham Lincoln, a copy of Charles Dickens' famous American Notes, inscribed by Dickens to the Mayor of Boston, autograph letters of such prominent persons as John Adams, Oliver Cromwell and Charles Lamb, various rare items of Americana, a first edition of Byron's Don Juan, and first editions and presentation copies of the books of such authors as Hawthorne, Longfellow, Stevenson, Tomlinson, Wilde, and Florence Nightingale.
Richard H. Mandel '26 gave a collection of eleven Sinclair Lewis first editions, including an author's presentation copy of Free Air. From Mr. Mandel also came a biographical work on Lewis by Harrison, and a first edition of Rebecca West's The Thinking Reed. A gift of funds from Mr. Mandel made possible, too, the purchase of a very rare Mencken item on Baltimore, and other books.
Hamilton Gibson '97, provided the funds for the purchase of prints of early photographs from the Library of Congress collections of Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, and other prominent Dartmouth men of the period, to be added to the pictorial resources of the College Archives. Mr. Gibson's other gifts included first editions of Ten Nights in aBar Room, Barrie's Peter and Wendy, Baum's Marvellous Land of Oz, and presentation copies of Clement C. Moore's Poems and Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems, and current books for the general collections of the Library.
George T. Keating, of Los Altos, California, gave an inscribed first edition of Hergesheimer's Three Black Pennies, and a signed copy of the privately printed edition of Henry Adams' A Letter to American Teachers ofHistory, 1910. In addition a signed copy of a Mencken bibliography, together with an im- maculate first edition, inscribed, of Robert Frost's second book, North of Boston, and an inscribed limited edition of Frost's New Hampshire, with a long poem "On a Tree Fallen Across The Road" written by Frost in 1923.
George Matthew Adams made significant additions to the Stephen Crane collection and sent a first edition of Kipling's Kim.
Paul W. Cutler '28 added to his fund for the purchase of Americana, given in memory of Professors Stewart and Lingley, and W. J. Bryant '25 made extensive additions to the collection of Spanish works that he is building for the Library through the W. L. Bryant Foundation.
A great many other gifts of funds, books, manuscripts and valuable items were made through the Friends, and the foregoing partial list is intended simply to be representative of the extent to which Baker Library's collections are being enriched by the year-round, volunteer activities of the Friends, whose executive head in Hanover is Prof. Herbert F. West '22.
As is customary in their semi-annual reports, the Friends published a list of Desiderata which alumni or other donors might be able to contribute. These include: Barlow, Joel: Hasty Pudding, 1793. Arnold, Matthew: Thyrsis, 1866. Bennett, Arnold: Anna of theFive Towns, 1902. Browning, Robert: Pauline, 1833; Paracelsus, 1835; Men and Women, 2 vols., 1855. Bryant, William Cullen: Thanatopsis, 1817. Burke, Edmund: Thoughts onthe Present Discontent, 1770. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Watchman, 1796. Collins, Wilkie: The Moonstone, 1868. Connelly, Mark: Green Pastures, 1929. Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe, 1719. Dickens, Charles: TheSignal-Man, 1866. Dumas, Alexandre: TheThree Musketeers, 1844. Dunsany, Lord: Dreamer's Tales, 1910. Eliot, George: TheMill on the Floss, 3 vols., i860; Romola, 3 vols., 1863; Middlemarch, 4 vols., 1871-72; Daniel Deronda, 4 vols., 1876. Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying, 1930. Freneau, Phillip: Poems, 1786. Gaskell (Elizabeth Cleghorn), Mrs.: Cranford, 1853, first serialized in HouseholdWords. Gay, John: Beggar's Opera, 1728. Herrick, Robert: The Common Lot, 1904. Keat.s, John: Poems, 1817. Meredith, George: Ordealof Richard Fever el, 1859. O'Neill, Eugene: The Moon of the Caribbees, 1919. Peacock, Thomas Love: Headlong Hall, 1816. Whittier, John Greenleaf: Moll Pitcher, 1832.