Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Mostly testimonial letters from satisfied clients of A.P. Watt, praising his services. Many of the letters were published in promotional brochures. Two of these books, COLLECTION OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO A.P. WATT BY VARIOUS WRITERS (London, 1893) & LETTERS ADDRESSED TO A.P. WATT (London, 1894), are included in the collection. There were other editions published in 1889, 1898, 1899, 1924, 1929, etc.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and printed material. Among his correspondents represented in the collection by at least 75 items are: William Archer, Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor, Augustin Daly, Austin Dobson, Hamlin Garland, Bronson Howard, William Dean Howells, Henry Arthur Jones, Henry Cabot Lodge and Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury. There are bound volumes of letters from Henry C. Bunner, Andrew Lang, Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Roosevelt, miscellaneous letters to Matthews, and Matthews' editorial correspondence with the North American Review. There are three boxes of manuscripts, including poems by 21 authors; essays on drama; and plays by Henry Arthur Jones, Don Marquis, and Matthews; bound volumes of manuscripts of Matthews' plays and his book, "Development for the Drama." Also included are 17 boxes of his manuscript notes for his many lectures, articles, and books; and memorabilia, primarily from the theatre and from his life at Columbia. Material on the Dunlap Society, which was devoted to printing works relating to the theater, of which Matthews was co-founder with Laurence Hutton, includes documents and correspondence, much of which is between then secretary Evert J. Wendell and members on meetings and other Society business around 1914. In addition, there are notes and correspondence of Herbert Kleinfield relating to his research on Matthews.

Research Materials related to Gift of Eric Sherman (Dec. 2014 and Oct. 2015) of books related to A.C. and E.F. Benson and to Rudyard Kipling Books included 218 volumes related to Bensons and 200 volumes related to Kipling, and were cataloged into the main Library of Congress rare book sequence in 2019-2020.

The collection consists of letters from celebrities in various fields, largely addressed to Harry Harkness Flagler. Included are letters of Ambrose Bierce, Thomas A. Edison, Edwin Forrest, Andrew Jackson, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Mansfield, John D. Rockefeller, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Ruskin, Constantin Stanislavsky, and George Washington. Especially noteworthy are five letters of Charles Dickens, bound together in one volume.

Correspondence and publishing agreements for many of their authors in the pre-World War I period.

A collection of letters, manuscripts, proofs, and drawings of English and American authors, including 33 letters from Alan Gabriel Barnsley (Gabriel Fielding) to Derek Stanford; a letter from James Boswell to George Colman the younger; a letter from Wilkie Collins; a letter from James Fenimore Cooper to William Buell Sprague; a letter from Dinah Maria Mulock Craik; letters from E.M. Forster; letters from Sarah Grand to James B. Pond; letters from T.B. Macauley; a letter from Hester Lynch Piozzi to James Robson; letters and cards from G.B. Shaw; letters from R.B. Sheridan to Thomas Grenville and to C. Ward, and a letter from Elizabeth Ann Linley Sheridan to R.B. Sheridan; a letter from William Wordsworth to F.W. Faber; a letter to Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Benjamin Disraeli; letters from Anthony Trollope written to Frederic Chapman, Mary Christie, J.T. Fields, Frederic Harrison, and others; letters from Ellen Terry and Rhoda Broughton, and postcards from Evelyn Waugh to Graham Ackroyd. The manuscripts include examples by Max Beerbohm, Arnold Bennett, Elizabeth Bowen, John Burroughs, Ivy Compton-Burnett, A.E. Coppard, Baron Corvo, Cecil Day Lewis, Ronald Firbank, E.M. Forster, George Gissing, Sarah Grand, A.P. Herbert, Rudyard Kipling, Edward Lear, Henry W. Longfellow, Amy Lowell, John Wilmot 2nd Earl of Rochester, G.B. Shaw, Edith Sitwell, and Logan Pearsall Smith.

Correspondence and inscribed photographs sent to Paul Palmer. Mr. Palmer has collected portraits of film and theater notables and other celebrities since the 1920s. Many of the photographs are inscribed to him and there is some correspondence as well as lobby display cards. Among the cataloged names are: Katharine Cornell, Lillian & Dorothy Gish, Rudyard Kipling, Gertrude Lawrence, Sir Compton Mackenzie, Mary Pickford, Constance & Norma Talmadge, Dame Sybil Thorndike, and H. G. Wells

Correspondence of Johnson with literary and other prominent people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are letters from Annie Fields, John Burroughs, Witter Bynner, Mary Mapes Dodge, Edmund Gosse, Helen Hunt Jackson, Rudyard Kipling, Emma Lazarus, S.W. Mitchell, John Muir, Joseph Pennell, James Whitcomb Riley, Tommaso Salvini, Carlo Sforza, and William Watson. The correspondence deals with the business affairs of the CENTURY MAGAZINE (earlier SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE), the American Copyright League, the American Embassy in Rome, and Johnson's interest in conservation. There are 600 letters between Johnson and his wife, Katherine McMahon John, which are not only personal but also concern literary and business matters. Among the manuscripts are poetry and prose of Robert Underwood Johnson and Katherine Johnson, poetry of Sir William Watson, Mary Mapes Dodge and John Muir, and sets of corrected proof of Mrs. Humphry Ward's (Mary Augusta Ward) SIR GEORGE TRESSADY. Also, one box of miscellaneous correspondence, American Copyright League materials, photographs, and printed memorabilia.