T he American Letters collection offers first editions and personal papers of leading authors from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection includes a first edition of Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851), given by Peter G. McNally, father of Aaron McNally ’87, and a complete set of Melville’s works (London: Constable and Company, 1922-1924). Henry David Thoreau is represented by a first edition of Walden

(1854), a 20-volume set of the complete works under the title Writings (1906), and first editions of other works.

An author’s edition of The Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (1876) is signed by Whitman. Works by Sarah Orne Jewett include a signed first edition of Deephaven (1877), her first published work, first editions of other books, and letters from the author.

An extensive collection of works by Henry James, given by David Granger ’19, offers a number of first editions and limited editions, including one signed, and personal papers or letters signed by the author. The H.L. Mencken Collection and the Willa Cather
pages from an illustrated
version of Cather's Death Comes
for the Archbishop Collection were both given by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. ’37. The Mencken Collection consists of 49 early editions, many inscribed, and a selection of Mencken’s letters to Knopf between 1943 and 1947. The Cather Collection features 24 first editions, many signed by the author.

Other volumes of note include inscribed and first editions by Robert Frost and first editions by T.S. Eliot, including a signed first edition in a limited print run of Ash Wednesday (1930).


Cover of O'Neill's The
Hairy Ape