Cather Colloquium

Drew University
September 30 - October 1, 2005

 
 

The Willa Cather Collections
at Drew University

Drew University 's collection of Willa Cather materials encompasses five distinct collections: Adams, Caspersen, Brewster, Menuhin and Burroughs. The first two were formed systematically by scholars of the author's works: Frederick Adams and Finn and Barbara Caspersen. The Brewster, Menuhin and Burroughs collections grew naturally out of Willa Cather's long friendships with Earl and Achsah Brewster, Yehudi Menuhin and his family, and Louise Guerber Burroughs. These five collections, comprising hundreds of books and thousands of letters, together form a resource for research and teaching that is remarkable for its range and depth.

Because the Burroughs collection was acquired only recently, this exhibition focuses solely on the Adams , Caspersen, Brewster and Menuhin collections. The former two testify to both the persistence and perspicacity of these Cather scholars in acquiring materials that illustrate different phases of the author's life, and illuminate many facets of her work. The latter two provide a glimpse into the intimacies and exchanges within friendships spanning many years.

Frederick B. Adams, Jr. was the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1948 to 1969. A renowned bibliophile and passionate collector, he acquired extensive holdings of works by Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost and Karl Marx. His collection of Willa Cather's works-the largest in private hands-became the basis for Joan Crane's analytical bibliography of Willa Cather, published in 1982. Among the hundreds of items in the collection are first and early editions, presentation copies, letters to, from and about Cather, manuscripts, correspondence relating to Adams 's collection and to the publication of Crane's bibliography, and the notebook he kept to record and describe his holdings.

Barbara Caspersen, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Drew University and a longtime Cather scholar, wrote her doctoral dissertation on Willa Cather in 1990. Barbara and Finn Caspersen's collection of Cather's works is distinguished for its many first editions, original dust jackets, presentation and association copies, and letters that shed significant light on Cather's work and on her ties to her early life in Nebraska .

American expatriate painters Earl and Achsah Brewster lived in Italy, France and India during the first half of the twentieth century. Achsah Brewster had been the Smith College roommate of Edith Lewis, Willa Cather's companion, and they remained lifelong friends. Cather and Lewis's trips to Europe always included visits with the Brewsters, and many letters were exchanged between them. The Brewsters' daughter, Harwood, knew the writer and her companion as "Aunt Willa" and "Aunt Edith." Shown here are copies of the Brewsters' paintings, some of the novels that Cather or Lewis sent them, and letters illustrating how great a presence the writer was in their lives.

In 1930 Cather met Yehudi Menuhin through Isabelle and Jan Hambourg. An immediate attachment formed between Cather and the entire Menuhin family, and their frequent visits together were a constant source of pleasure until the end of her life. The presentation copies displayed here attest to Cather's efforts to balance with literature the Menuhin children's steady diet of music.

These collections came to the Drew University Library through the vision and generosity of Finn and Barbara Caspersen.

Exhibition Listing

Colloquium Program (in PDF format)

Lucy K. Marks
Special Collections Cataloger