Centuries of Books and Manuscripts

In 1992 the Houghton Library celebrated fifty years of preeminence with an exhibition devoted to its riches. This work catalogs an astonishing range of books, manuscripts, and curiosities: a miniature stage set made for a 1975 Mabou Mines production of Samuel Beckett’s play The Lost Ones; manuscript scores and first editions of works by Faure, Schumann, and Beethoven, among others; pathbreaking prints from the hands of Piranesi and Delacroix; drawings and manuscript items from such figures as Edward Lear, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Ben Shahn; remarkable examples of medieval manuscripts and woodblock printed texts, as well as such primary examples of early letterpress as the Gutenberg Bible. Taken together, these items illustrate how a still-young institution becomes a repository of centuries of culture and memory.