T he Faculty and Alumni/ae Collections reflect the achievements of Exeter’s scholars and artists and contain works by prominent historians, novelists, essayists, poets

and playwrights. The Alumni/ae Collection contains more than 5,000 volumes and spans three centuries, beginning with a Fourth of July oration by George Sullivan 1783, delivered in Exeter in 1800. Important figures in history include Daniel Webster 1796, represented by an extensive collection of speeches, writings, and biographies; and Civil War general and one-time presidential candidate Benjamin Butler 1829.

The collection contains the works of a number of historians, among them George Bancroft 1811 (History of the United States of America, From the Discovery of the Continent), Jared Sparks 1809 (The Works of Benjamin Franklin), John King Fairbank ’25 (China: A New History), Richard W. Leopold ’29 (The Growth of American Foreign Policy: A History), Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ’33 (The Age of Jackson), and Henry F. Bedford ’48 (The Americans).

Scholars of note include Richard Little Purdy ’21 (works about

Thomas Hardy), Thomas P. Whitney ’34 (translator of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), F.D. Reeve ’46 (Russian scholar), Robert A.F. Thurman ’58 (Buddhism and Tibet) and classics scholars J.H. Finley, Jr. ’21, Brooks Otis ’25, and James T. Zetzel ’64.

Among important critics and journalists are Lincoln Kirstein ’25 (art and dance critic), George Plimpton ’44 (Paper Lion), and David Lamb ’58 (Vietnam, Now: A Reporter Returns).

The photographer Wallace Nutting 1880 is represented by numerous collections of his regional photographs, and the composer Anthony Davis ’69 is represented by recordings of his works.

Many Exeter graduates have made their mark writing fiction and poetry, beginning with Henry A. Shute 1875, whose young adult books entertained generations of boys and girls. Booth Tarkington 1889 and Gore Vidal ’43 are among the most prolific of alumni/ae authors in the collection. The Benchley family is represented by three writers: Robert 1908 (Of All Things), Nathaniel ’34 (The Off-Islanders), and Peter ’57 (Jaws). Others of note include James Agee ’28, John Knowles ’45, Donald Hall ’47, John Irving ’61, Roland Merullo ’71, Joyce Maynard ’74, Dan Brown ’82, and Chang-Rae Lee ’83.