Search

This collection of autographed inscriptions and letters from noted 19th century musicians was assembled by Mason. The material includes the signatures of 85 composer, performers, and other musical people, most of whom were Dr. Mason's contemporaries and personal friends. There are 103 items the majority of which are bits of music in script with signatures, and a few autograph letters to Mason. Among those represented are Berlioz, Jenny Lind, Franz Liszt, MacDowell, Paderewski, Rubinstein, Saint-Saens, Samaroff, and the Schumanns.

Forty-eight autograph letters signed from William Gilmore Simms to Ferris, 1859-1870, and one manuscript poem; eight letters from Paul Hamilton Hayne to William Gilmore Simms and one letter to Ferris, 1867-1870. The letters are chiefly personal dealing with contemporary events, personal matters, and literary interests. Ninety-nine autograph letters signed to Ferris and one manuscript poem, 1850-1875. A great many of these letters are from literary figures of the day in response to requests from Ferris for manuscript poems and photographs to be reproduced in a volume he was planning. Some of the letters here present were to Simms and some to W. G. Cordray. 155 autograph letters to William Gilmore Simms, 1854-1870, chiefly personal in nature and from Simms' literary friends and others concerned with his literary activity and publication of his work.

The collection contains letters and manuscripts by and relating to Wilfred Owen, including seven letters (Nov. 5, 1917 to Oct. 10, 1918) written by Owen to Siegfried L. Sassoon (1886-1967) (English war poet, writer, and soldier). Additional correspondence includes 22 letters from the poet's mother, Mrs. Susan Owen to Sassoon (1921-1933); 28 letters written by the poet's brother, Harold Owen to Sassoon (1921-1966); one letter written by the poet's cousin, Leslie Gunston, to Sassoon (1921), and one letter (1930) to Edmund C. Blunden (1896-1974) (English poet, author and critic). There are also three letters from the Wilfred Owen scholar, Dennis S.R. Welland, to Siegfried Sassoon (1950). Finally, the collection holds one letter from Ian M. Parsons a partner at Chatto and Windus and one letter from the editor John Bell of Oxford University Press to Siegfried Sassoon (1946 and 1965).

Correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, and miscellaneous documents relating to the Westgate Signed Editions, a series of signed first editions of American and British authors, published in 1929-1930 by the Westgate Press, San Francisco, under the direction of Oscar Lewis. The collection contains correspondence from Sherwood Anderson, Havelock Ellis, Zona Gale, Lewis Mumford, Bertrand Russell, Wilbur Daniel Steele, Ruth Suckow, Frank Swinnerton, Rebecca West, and Virginia Woolf, as well as carbon copies of Oscar Lewis' replies.

Items written by or relating to the American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) as collected by Williams. There are three autograph letters signed from Whitman to Williams, 1884, 1887, n.d., regarding contributions by the poet to the PHILADELPHIA PRESS, as well as one postal card dated 1890. Also, two proofs of poems with corrections in Whitman's hand and four envelopes; a broadside containing lines from Whitman's poetry, five pages of manuscript notes on remarks made by Whitman on some occasion, two letters, one manuscript receipt, and three printed items concerned with a speech by Whitman, a testimonial, the choice of a speaker for his funeral, and the proposal to purchase the house in which he died, for a memorial. There are two prospectuses for books about the poet, and two placards advertising his books.

A single Voltaire manuscript: "Anecdotes sur l'arrivée du corps de Voltaire à Scelliers par Etienne Faireau", 1778

Letters and papers of Olcott. Among the subjects covered are the history of the Bank; banks and politics in New York during the Jacksonian era; the operations of the safety Fund Banking System; land acquisition in the West, particularly Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and western New York; the Boston and Albany Railroad; the Corning Land Company; and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. The papers are divided into the following groups: letters received, including correspondence with Martin Van Buren, Samuel P. Chase, William Henry Seward, William B. Astor, Silas Wright, William Kent, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Horatio Seymour; documents including land deeds, wills, leases, bonds, sureties, orders to pay, checks, bank ledgers, partnership agreements, earnings reports, tax assessments, and land sales; household bills and receipts; bank notes including excellent examples of early American currency; miscellaneous account books, photographs, and printed material; patents for Michigan and Ohio lands to William Thompson, Thomas W. Olcott, and Garrit Denniston signed by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren (proxy signatures).

Photograph albums containing photographs of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, their house at Cheyne Row, members of their families, and their friends in the literary and political worlds. Six of the volumes bear the notes and annotations of Thomas Carlyle. Also, there is a small group of Thomas Carlyle autographs; a seventh photograph album bearing the annotations of Carlyle's nephew, Alexander Carlyle; and copies of 33 photographs.

A collection of letters and manuscripts of Dreiser. Among the seventeen letters are four written to the American editor William C. Lengel, concerning the writing of THE "GENIUS." The collection also contains the holograph manuscripts of "Fulfillment" a short story published in the author's CHAINS in 1927, and "Some American Women Painters" a journalistic essay written ca. 1897 and apparently unpublished (see article by Ellen Moers, COLUMBIA LIBRARY COLUMNS, May 1966, pp. 10-24).