Modern British and American literature

Statement of programs and library needs

Special Collections collects the literature of the Appalachian Region as comprehensively as possible. The majority of the works collected are printed works, although efforts have also been made to acquire manuscript materials. See, for example, the thorough collection of printed publications of Sherwood Anderson Collection. However, there are relatively few manuscripts available for comprehensive-level research in Anderson studies. In addition, the department has a good representative collection of 18th-century British literature, which emphasized major writers and genres.

Also represented in the collection is a growing collection of 19th-century American literature in which minor writers are emphasized, as well as Southern writers, genres, and topical literature (e.g. Civil War poetry). The majority of the materials represented and actively collected are printed. The department has endeavored to collect representative pieces from literary genres, such as speculative fiction, and topics from all of Western European literature -- expensive materials are not purchased in this area. Up until very recently, the department purchased first editions and especially printed editions of contemporary American and British writers. Because of increasingly higher prices for this material, the department no longer makes significant purchases in this area.

Because the field of literature is so broad, and the narrow areas of interest represented on the Virginia Tech campus are so numerous, Special Collections tries to maintain a balanced approach in purchases. As a consequence, none of the areas collected has the depth to support exhaustive research. As with all other areas of collecting in Special Collections, the assignment of a conspectus level must take into consideration the holdings of the rest of the library, particularly as regards reference works and secondary resources. In most areas of collecting, Special Collections does not collect heavily secondary and reference works.

I. Collection areas

A. Area: Modern British and American Literature

 

B. Classes and Levels

PR 4740-4758     Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)           Study
PR 5770-5778     H. G. Wells (1866-1946)            Study
PR 5900-5097     William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)   Study
PR 6000-6049     English Literature, 1900-1960      Basic
PR 6001 L4       Richard Aldington (1892-1962)      Study
PR 6001 U4       W. H. Auden (1907-73)              Study
PR 6003 A965     H. E. Bates (1905-74)              Study
PR 6003 E4       Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)           Study
PR 6003 E6       Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)         Study
PR 6007 A95      C. Day-Lewis (1904-72)             Study
PR 6007 O88      Norman Douglas (1868-1952)         Study
PR 6011 053      Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939)        Study
PR 6013 A5       John Galsworthy (1867-1933)        Study
PR 6013 R35      Robert Graves (1895- )             Study
PR 6023 E97      Wyndham Lewis (1886-1957)          Study
PR 6025 A316     Louis MacNeice (1907-63)           Study
PR 6025 A77      John Masefield (1878-1967)         Study
PR 6035 H96      Jean Rhys (1894-1979)              Study
PR 6037 P47      Stephen Spender (1909- )           Study
PR 6039 H52      Dylan Thomas (1914-53)             Study
PR 6039 035      H. M. Tomlinson (1873-1958)        Study
PR 6045 A34      Hugh Walpole (1884-1941)           Study
PS 1449 C85      Stephen Crane (1871-1900)          Study
PS 2110-2128     Henry James (1843-1916)            Study
PS 3501 N4       Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)      Research
PS 3501 S475     John Ashbery (1927- )              Study
PS 3505 A322     Erskine Caldwell (1903- )          Study
PS 3505 A87      Willa Cather (1876-1947)           Study
PS 3507 R55      Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)       Study
PS 3511 R94      Robert Frost (1874- 1963)          Study
PS 3515 E628     Joseph Hergesheimer (1880-1954)    Study
PS 3531 R78      Frederic Prokosch (1908-)          Study
PS 3535 1429     Conrad Richter (1890-1968)         Study
PS 3537 T92516   Jesse Stuart (1907- )              Study
PS 3545 E6       Eudora Welty (1909- )              Study
PS 3552 U4       Charles Bukowski (1920-1994)       Study
PS 3566 R54      Reynolds Price (1933- )            Study

C. Chronology

1600-present; chiefly 1700-1945.

D. Geographic Guidelines

Authors who lived and worked in the United States or Great Britain. The Appalachian Region has a special emphasis.

E. Languages

Primarily English; significant translations.

F. Treatment

First and other significant editions and translations of the works (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry), including important periodical articles and contributions to works of collective authorship. No secondary 2/13/07nd Appalachian literature.

G. Formats

Primarily printed materials are purchased, manuscripts are acquired selectively.

H. Multiple copies

Multiple copies are not collected, except for Sherwood Anderson.

II. Acquisition Strategy

Purchases focus on individual items needed to fill "gaps" in a collected author's works. Other authors may be added to the list of authors collected, but most of these will be added only if a significant private collection of an author's works is donated to the University Libraries.

III. Collection Notes

The literary collections are used by students in the Literary Research course taught by the English Department and required of their graduate students. These "laboratory-type" exercises requiring the use of primary iterary materials found in Special Collections form an important part of the course. To assist research and instruction in this area, materials representing a wide range of literary genre, styles, and types have been purchased.

Revised 11/2000