The Friends' Best Friend

The Dartmouth College Library onthe occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Friends of theDartmouth Library extends to Herbert Faulkner West an expressionof gratitude and indebtedness forhis services and achievements during a quarter century as Secretaryand Director of The Friends,1938-1963.

Prof. Herbert F. West '22 Honored for 25 Years As Director of Society Enriching Baker Library

This tribute, as a framed citation, was presented to Professor West on November 15 at a reception, fittingly held in the Treasure Room of Baker Library. A dinner honoring him was held that evening at the Inn.

Profesor West will retire June 30 both as Director of The Friends of the Dartmouth Library and as Professor of Comparative Literature. He has been a member of the Dartmouth faculty ever since the year of his graduation from the College in 1922. In his large and popular lecture courses he has taught thousands of Dartmouth students, and he will long be remembered by them; but the literary riches added to Baker Library through his personal efforts as Secretary and Director of The Friends will go on and on, long beyond the memories of so many students.

Some of these riches were impressively acknowledged by a major, eight-panel exhibition on the main floor of the Library, beginning with a display case devoted to the history of The Friends, including a drawing of Professor West by Ilse Bischoff of Hartland, Vt. The next two cases represented the earliest collections obtained by The Friends. Shown were letters, manuscripts, and first editions of H. L. Mencken, T. E. Lawrence, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, R. B. Cunninghame Graham, James Huneker, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, and Stephen Crane.

The fourth case displayed some of the many gifts which Professor West personally made to the Library: Cunninghame Graham manuscripts, books, and letters; Henry Miller materials; and collections of the works of Wilfred Scawen Blunt, Charles Doughty, Henry Williamson, and others. The next case showed gifts for the College Archives including letters by Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin; a document signed by the Earl of Dartmouth; the first published oration of Daniel Webster, published in Hanover in 1800; and a patent, signed by President John Adams, that was granted to Samuel Morey of Orford, N. H. for a steam engine.

Some of the rare editions obtained through The Friends were shown in the sixth display case. These included the now very scarce "Kilmarnock" edition of the poems by Robert Burns, a first printing of Milton's Paradise Lost, and one of only three or four existing first issue copies of John Galsworthy's The Island Pharisees.

Also on display were some of the original manuscripts the Library has received through The Friends including The LostWeekend by Charles Jackson, a first draft copy of Tobacco Road from the definitive Erskine Caldwell collection, and manuscripts by Pearl Buck, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Frost.

The final case included books donated to the College's art library and Stefansson Collection through The Friends, a representative volume from the large Spanish collection being built up for Dartmouth by the William L. Bryant Foundation, and the Verney family papers, contained on sixty rolls of microfilm.

A separate exhibition in six smaller cases along the Treasure Room corridor was devoted to the gifts of the late Perc S. Brown of Belvedere, Calif., a Dartmouth father and a generous donor to The Friends, who died very recently, on November 14. Included in the display of his gifts are letters, including unique items by Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin; items of Americana; historical and literary first editions, among them a first edition, first issue of Thomas Gray's ElegyWritten in a Country Churchyard; and presentation copies of books signed by the authors, including Walt Whitman, Ambrose Bierce, Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Dickens.

Professor West paid tribute to Mr. Brown in his special 25th Year Report, printed this fall. In citing the generosity of many individuals, he said Mr. Brown's gifts of books in the aggregate prove him to have been the most generous benefactor in the history of The Friends. Nonalumni such as George Matthew Adams, Mrs. Bella C. Landauer, Gilbert Verney, Mr. and Mrs. William B. Jaffe, and George T. Keating, and alumni Richard H. Mandel '26, Harold G. Rugg '06, William J. Bryant '25, Dr. Robert M. Stecher 'l9, and Thomas M. Beers '34 are among the hundreds of Friends mentioned by Professor West for their interest and generosity.

Modeled after the Yale Associates, The Friends of the Dartmouth Library began in 1938. With Librarian Nathaniel Goodrich's permission and financial help from Basil O'Connor '12, who also served as the first chairman, Professor West set out "...to get, when and where possible, complete collections, single rare volumes, manuscripts, diaries, letters, books and pamphlets which throw light on the cultural history of this or other countries; in other words, any original or rare material the Library could not be expected to buy with its own funds."

In his 25-year report Professor West goes on to cite the leadership contributions of the chairmen, men such as Thomas W. Streeter '04, Victor Reynolds '27, Mr. O'Connor, and Mr. Brown. Credit for the continuity of the program, however, goes to Professor West. "Ours has been a peculiarly one-man operation ..." he explains in his report, as indeed it has been.

Although only scholars who will use these materials in the future will truly determine the full value of the resources brought to the Library, Professor West's report gives some idea of value now when he says "... I would harbor a guess that the books and paintings The Friends have given Dartmouth would be valued at $2,000,000." He goes on to report that The Friends "must have spent well over $100,000 on individual books the Library wanted" and that "we were able to buy things that the Library could not justifiably buy with their own funds."

Professor West concludes his report with "sincere thanks for the loyal and generous support of some four hundred people who, over the years, have been interested in this side of the College."

Professor West (left) receiving from Edward C. Lathem '51, Associate Librarian ofthe College, a citation expressing appreciation for his services as secretary and director of The Friends. The citation appears at the top of column 1.