John Bidwell on the Morgan Library's Collection
John Bid\xadwell is Astor Cur\xadator of Prin\xadted Books and Bind\xadings at thePier\xadpont Mor\xadgan Lib\xadrary, before which he was Cur\xadator of Graphic Arts in the Prin\xadceton Uni\xadver\xadsity Lib\xadrary. He has writ\xadten extens\xadively on the his\xadtory of paper\xadmak\xading in Eng\xadland and America.\xa0
The Prin\xadted Books and Bind\xadings col\xadlec\xadtion at the Mor\xadgan con\xadtains works span\xadning West\xadern book pro\xadduc\xadtion from the earli\xadest prin\xadted eph\xadem\xadera to import\xadant first edi\xadtions from the twen\xadti\xadeth cen\xadtury. Hold\xadings encom\xadpass a large num\xadber of high points in the his\xadtory of print\xading, often exem\xadpli\xadfied by a lone sur\xadviv\xading copy or a copy that is per\xadfect in every way. Areas of strength include incun\xadables, early children\u2019s books, fine bind\xadings, and illus\xadtrated books.\xa0
The col\xadlec\xadtion is foun\xadded upon acquis\xadi\xadtions of Pier\xadpont Mor\xadgan, who sought to estab\xadlish in the United States a lib\xadrary worthy of the great European col\xadlec\xadtions. Among the high\xadlights are three Guten\xadberg Bibles, works by Lord Byron, Charles Dick\xadens, Edgar Allan Poe, John Ruskin, Mark Twain, Her\xadman Melville, and Wil\xadliam Mor\xadris, and clas\xadsic early children\u2019s books. The Carter Bur\xadden Col\xadlec\xadtion of Amer\xadican Lit\xader\xadat\xadure, a major 1998 gift, strengthens the Morgan\u2019s twentieth-century hold\xadings with authors such as Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Vladi\xadmir Nabokov, Ger\xadtrude Stein, and Ten\xadnessee Williams.\xa0
I talk with John Bid\xadwell about the col\xadlec\xadtion, what it con\xadtains, how it was acquired.