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FROM SHAKESPEARE TO MORRISON: The sign for the famed Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company, left, and the original cover art for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” are among the rare items on display in a new exhibit at the Milberg Gallery of Princeton University Library.
By Anne Levin
Seven years after William Shakespeare died in 1616, his friends gathered the scattered texts of 36 of his plays into a folio edition. Among them: Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, and The Winter’s Tale — classics that would have been lost to posterity if not for the friends’ efforts.
Three copies of that “First Folio of 1623” are among the literary treasures on view at “In the Company of Good Books: From Shakespeare to Morrison,” at Princeton University Library’s Milberg Gallery through December 10. Along with the plays of Shakespeare, the exhibition includes representations of works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Sylvia Beach, Chinua Achebe, and several others, up until the time of Toni Morrison.
The breadth of the exhibition is unusual, said Eric White, Scheide Librarian and Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. “Universities like Princeton that have been around for centuries have had donors and graduates giving either books or funds,” he said. “There is a certain collecting power that comes from generations of, let’s call it privilege.”
White and colleagues Jennifer Garcon, Librarian for Modern and Contemporary Special Collections, and Gabriel Swift, Librarian for American Collections, collaborated on the exhibition. It has been planned along with complementary thematic programming at the University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Panel discussions, gallery shows, and talks will be held in conjunction with the exhibition.
Representing the four centuries between Shakespeare and Morrison, whose handwritten manuscript drafts of her play Desdemona are on view, is a wide-ranging selection of writers’ working manuscripts, books annotated by authors and inscribed for friends, correspondence from publishers, and original cover art. The painting Celestial Eyes, used as the dust jacket design for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is among them.
“Our visitors will not believe they are looking at page one of Fitzgerald’s handwritten manuscripts for The Great Gatsby,” said White. “Next to that is his own little scrapbook with reviews and clippings. And on the wall, we have the painting that the cover was based on, by Francis Cugat. It survives — the only one. It is world-famous, and it’s on the wall here.”
Another aspect of the show concerns the Bronte sisters of 19th century England — Emily, Charlotte, and Anne. “The smashing, unbelievable thing for a lot of viewers is going to be the little manuscripts written by three sisters when they were young — little stories they shared in the little world they made up,” White said. “They wrote them on little paper, and they weren’t published in their lifetime. They survived, and were published long after.”
Poets Walt Whitman, Frances Watkins Harper, and Emily Dickinson are additional representatives of the 19th century. Several 20th century authors, book owners, and publishers are also a focus.
“During the 1920s, two independent publishing ventures played significant roles in the shaping of modern literature: Sylvia Beach’s Paris bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, which emerged as a leading center for literary life, later establishing a publishing office; and Hogarth Press, established by Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard, in 1917, which provided creative leverage for authors pursuing experimental literary projects,” said Garcon in a press release. “Both publishing enterprises took on significant risks, gave opportunities to nonconformist authors, resisted mainstream publishing norms, and prioritized literary excellence over monetary rewards.”
White praises Garcon for making sure the exhibition “is not just some of the English literature names the older generation studied in school,” he said. “We have a great representation of people around the world, writing in English. Jennifer had the knowledge to make sure we had a broader introduction to literature, that didn’t stop with Fitzgerald. She brings us into the 20th century. There’s a little Shakespeare, a little Milton, and half an hour later you’re in with Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.”
The exhibition is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit library.princeton.edu/goodbooks for more information and details on related programming.
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