March 21, 2011 by Maggie Kopp
Special Collections has comprehensive collections of printed works by and about American authors Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. These are some of the newest critical and biographical works we have acquired for these collections:
Richard Francis, Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia (2010)
Susan Cheever, Louisa May Alcott (2010)
William C. Spengemann, Three American Poets: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Herman Melville (2010)
John E. Seery, ed., A Political Companion to Walt Whitman (2011)
Matt Miller, Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass (2010)
March 1, 2011 by Maggie Kopp
150 years ago this month, London publishing firm Chapman and Hall issued the first monthly part of Anthony Trollope’s Orley Farm. This novel, which concerns a forged will and the corrosive effects of guilt, quickly became a blockbuster hit among the reading public. One factor in its appeal was the illustrations, done by famed pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais. Trollope personally felt that the plot of Orley Farm was one of his best, though some critics and readers debate whether he was right to reveal the main character’s secret in the middle, rather than at the end, of the tale.
Part one of Orley Farm was issued while Trollope had another novel being serialized in the magazine The Cornhill: his Framley Parsonage, which wrapped up monthly publication in April 1861. Orley Farm also faced major competition from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, which was being serialized in the magazine All the Year Round during Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861.
Special Collections contains a set of the original monthly parts of Orley Farm, pictured above, as well as a copy of the bound parts issued by the publisher in book form (volume 1 was released in 1861, volume 2 in 1862). Other significant editions include an 1862 American edition and an 1862 edition published by the German firm Bernhard Tauchnitz.
February 4, 2011 by Maggie Kopp
Mark Twain’s life and works have received renewed attention in recent months because of the recent publication of volume 1 of his autobiography (University of California Press, 2010) and one publisher’s decision to censor the language of a planned edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Special Collections owns over 150 early and fine press editions of Mark Twain’s works, including many first editions housed in the American Rare Literary Authors Collection. Holdings include first editions of works like Roughing It and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, first printings of stories like “Eve’s Diary” in magazines, and posthumous collections of previously-unpublished stories and letters. These items can be found in the library catalog; to look for first editions specifically, follow these steps:
- Go to the library catalog. Click on “Other Searches” (found in the box to the right of the main search form).
- Enter in the search string “Johnson Mark Twain” and hit the “Citation” button. This will search for early editions listed in Merle Johnson’s Bibliography of the Work of Mark Twain. Researchers may consult a print copy of this source in Special Collections. Other print bibliographies of Twain include Johnson’s American First Editions and the Bibliography of American Literature, also available at the library.
- Please note that most Twain first editions are only accessible to researchers between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday – Friday.
January 21, 2011 by Maggie Kopp
Special Collections contains a small number of books by American poets from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Highlights include editions of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems, Joel Barlow’s Vision of Columbus, and early works by Lydia Huntley Sigourney. Special Collections also owns a copy of Samuel Kettell’s 1829 Specimens of American Poetry, an important early bibliography and anthology of American poetry which covers a range of poets, both obscure and well-known, from Cotton Mather to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
These books can be found by searching the library catalog. Limit the search to Special Collections, and use the genre/form button to search on the phrase “American poetry.”
December 27, 2010 by Maggie Kopp
Before Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, there was a market for books as gifts during the Christmas season, but for the most part, these books were not Christmas themed at all. The success of A Christmas Carol led English publishers to issue Christmas titles in a similar format: short, heavily-illustrated tales priced at 5-6 shillings. Eventually the final three months of the year became the biggest book-buying season in Victorian England, and authors and publishers arranged to have their books issued near the holidays – especially in the case of children’s books. For example, most of Lewis Carroll’s titles were published at Christmastime. Fairy stories were popular fare for authors of children’s literature, and the adults buying books for children. Many of these stories were didactic but others had more serious meanings.
Juliana Horatia Ewing’s The Brownies and Other Tales (1870) is an example of the didactic fairy book. The Girl Scouts took the name “Brownies” from Ewing’s title story. It is about children whose family supposedly had a “Brownie” that once helped the family prosper economically by doing many of the chores. They learn that they can be “Brownies” in their own home by doing chores and being helpful to their family. Many of the other stories in the collection also teach lessons: a big brother learns to make amends for breaking his little sister’s toys; a spoiled little girl wanders into the land of the dwarfs, where she learns through trials to be unselfish and considerate of others; magic shoes teach a little boy to be obedient.
The Mayhew brothers’ The Good Genius that Turned Everything to Gold, or, The Queen Bee and the Magic Dress: a Christmas Fairy Tale (1847) is a fairy tale with a deeper moral. It is the story of a poor woodcutter named Silvio, who meets a fairy who gives him a magic coat. She promises to appear every time he wears it and fulfill his wishes. Each time he makes a wish, he finds that ambition gets the best of him. He needs food and a bigger house. He falls in love with a princess and wants to be a prince so she’ll fall in love with him. Silvio gets so wrapped up in the pleasures of being king of his own city that he imposes too many burdens on his subjects and they rebel and force him and his family out of the city, and he loses the magic coat. Silvio regains his coat and his kingdom and reaches out to reconcile his family with his father-in-law, whose country has been rocked by famine. Silvio promises to end the famine, but, once again, he loses access to the coat, and the King nearly burns Silvio at the stake before the fairy arrives and causes the ground to burst forth with ripe crops. Again and again, the fairy helps him until at last he is learns to be driven by generosity rather than ambition. The lesson of generosity is underscored by the fact that the British Isles were plagued with famines in the early decades of the 1800′s — so the fairy tale highlights the very real problem of hunger and poverty in Victorian England.
December 9, 2010 by Kristi Young
Charles Dickens is well known for A Christmas Carol. He also wrote other Christmas books for his family. For at least nine years he participated with a variety of other Victorian authors, probably most famously Wilkie Collins, on a series of tales for Christmas. Like a Christmas journal, the issues contained more than one story. However, these tales did not take Christmas as their subject. They covered a variety of topics and were sold as tales to be read and enjoyed when the family was gathered at Christmas.
Some credit Dickens with modern Christmas. With more people moving to cities, there was not the time that rural people once had for a series of Christmas activities on a variety of days. Novels such as A Christmas Carol painted a beautiful picture of Victorian Christmases which came to be accepted. Elements of Victorian Christmases such as families gathering together playing games, feasts, and festive decorating continue today. Many find reading or viewing A Christmas Carol part of their yuletide celebration.
Charles Dickens is one of the authors in the Literary Worlds exhibition currently on display.
November 29, 2010 by Maggie Kopp
Special Collections has recently added a number of penny dreadfuls to its Victorian Collection. The term “penny dreadful” refers to a genre of popular fiction which had its heyday in mid- to late-Victorian Britain. Penny dreadfuls were cheaply-produced, often second-rate novels issued in parts, which were consumed by working-class readers. Each part usually cost a penny. The earliest of these novels tended to be gory “shockers,” including gothic fiction and tales of true crime. Later in the Victorian period, publishers issued suspense novels, including adventure stories aimed at teenage boys, although the penny dreadful genre also encompassed romance and historical novels. Penny dreadfuls are quite scarce today, because they were printed on cheap paper and often were handled by multiple readers (people would pool money together to purchase the penny parts).
Special Collections contains examples of penny dreadfuls in loose parts as well as bound sets. They can be found in the library catalog by searching for “penny dreadfuls,” “suspense fiction,” or “street literature” using the “genre/form” search button.
November 9, 2010 by Maggie Kopp
BYU’s Special Collections does not actively collect 18th century English literature, apart from the work of Robert Burns and his circle. However, there are numerous works from the 18th century among our literary holdings. Perhaps the most valuable books in our collections are a first-edition copy of Henry Fielding’s The history of Tom Jones and a copy of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy signed by the author. Special Collections contains copies of other Fielding novels as well as novels by Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson, Fanny Burney, and Charlotte Turner Smith. The work of 18th century poets like Alexander Pope, Thomas Gray, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Chatterton, Felicia Hemans, and Ossian (James Macpherson) are found in Special Collections, as are editions of prose works by Daniel Defoe, Sir Richard Steele, James Boswell, and Horace Walpole — including copies of periodicals like The Guardian and The Spectator.
These 18th century works and others can be found in both the Rare and Vault collections. For more information about specific titles and authors in Special Collections’ holdings, search the library catalog or visit Special Collections.
October 25, 2010 by Maggie Kopp
October 17th marks the 100th anniversary of the death of poet and reformer Julia Ward Howe. Howe is probably best known for writing the text of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862.
Howe was born to a wealthy New York family in 1819. Julia was only five when her mother died, leaving her and her siblings to be raised by their overprotective father. Julia developed her intellect on her own and through the influence of her older brother, whose circle of friends included many of the leading minds of the 1830’s. In 1843, Julia met and quickly married Samuel Gridley Howe, a physician and reformer some 20 years her senior. Their marriage was tumultuous and unhappy; Samuel disapproved of his wife’s ambitions outside the sphere of motherhood. They separated in 1852.
Julia began publishing poems despite her estranged husband’s disapproval. Her first book of poetry, published anonymously in 1854, deals frankly with her marriage and was considered controversial. Julia also became engaged in reform movements including women’s rights and abolition. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” made her famous and launched her as a leading figure in American letters and the reform movement. After her husband died in 1876, Julia lectured all over the world on causes of reform. She edited a woman’s suffrage journal and helped to create Mother’s Day. She died in 1910, aged 91.
Special Collections owns several items related to Julia Ward Howe, including books and a letter which she wrote to newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. These items can be found in the library’s catalog by searching Special Collections’ holdings.
October 7, 2010 by Maggie Kopp
Janet Little (1759–1813) was a contemporary, and admirer, of poet Robert Burns. She was a servant in the household of Frances Dunlop of Dunlop, a patron and correspondent of Robert Burns. In 1789, Little sent Burns some of her poems. Burns was slow to respond to Little (one critic surmises that Burns might have found Little’s poems a little too much in imitation of his own).
Like Burns, Little wrote in both Scots and English. One of Little’s poems even amounts to hero-worship, excitedly describing a visit to Burns’ house in 1791. Burns did subscribe to the book of poetry Little published in 1792, The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid. James Boswell (the biographer of Samuel Johnson) was also a subscriber.
L. Tom Perry Special Collections has recently acquired a copy of Little’s Poetical Works – one of only 800 copies printed. Little’s poetry interests scholars not only because of its association to Robert Burns, but as an example of Scottish vernacular and working-class literature.
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