Smith Rare Book Room

April 13, 1964

Director, Rare Book Room,                                                                                                  Grey Memorial Library,                                                                                                Davidson College,                                                                                                    Davidson, North Carolina

Dear Sir:

     I was greatly interested and delighted to learn that Davidson is to have a Rare Book Room, and wish very much that I could attend the formal opening on May 9.

The main purpose of this note is to say that I may be able to contribute some items. For some years I have been interested in the publications of the Golden Cockerel Press, and now have more than one hundred of their limited editions . . .I have no way of knowing whether Davidson would be interested in having all or part of this group, but would be very glad to hear from you about it. 

With every good wish, I am

Sincerely,

H.M. Marvin

A strength of the Smith Rare Book Room lies in its collections of beautifully printed, limited editions published at private presses in the early decades of the twentieth century. In addition to literary works of art from such presses as Ballantyne, Montague, Centaur, and Kelmscott, the Smith Rare Book Room boasts one of the finest existing collections of books printed at the Golden Cockerel Press in London, England.

The Golden Cockerel Press was established in the autumn of 1920. Its first printing was a 1921 first edition of A.E. Coppard's Adam and Eve and Pinch Me which proved to be an instant success. According to Humbert Wolfe in his introduction to A Bibliography of the Golden Cockerel Press (1936), "lovers of the fine arts owe a permanent debt of gratitude to the private printing presses, among which the Golden Cockerel takes a very high place indeed."

The vast majority of books in the Golden Cockerel Press Collection of the Smith Rare Book Room were printed on handmade paper and illustrated with wood engravings by Eric Gill and other artists. Of particular note is a copy of Four Gospels, printed in 1931 from type designed by Eric Gill, a British sculptor, engraver, typographic designer, and writer.

                Adam & Eve & Pinch Me                                       Four Gospels                                                   Canterbury Tales                       >

Bookplates by Bruce Rogers

Bruce Rogers' career as a typographer and designer of books spanned more than sixty years. The printed works he designed and the typefaces he created are among his legacies. So, also, is the vitalizing effect he had upon American and British printing in the early decades of the twentieth century. Contemporary accounts show the affection and respect which his colleagues felt for this humorous, strong-minded and skilled artist whom they always referred to as "BR." Harvard and Cambridge honored him with degrees, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him its gold medal in 1948.

In his book, Modern Fine Printing in America, A.E. Gallatin wrote:

No printer has shown as great versatility and variety in his work as has Mr. Bruce Rogers . . . his volumes are as distinctive as those printed at the Kelmscott, Doves, and other English presses. What Mr. Rogers has done, however, is a far greater achievement than that accomplished by any of these presses-- for one thing, and this is an important point, his books are meant to be read, and are not merely objects d'art.

The Bruce Rogers Collection of the Smith Rare Book Room exists because of the generosity of a Davidson alumnus, Dr. Harold M. Marvin, class of 1914, an eminent heart specialist, faculty member of the Yale Medical School, and enthusiastic bibliophile. The collection of Bruce Rogers items includes most of the "great" books and a number of rare ephemera. Many are personally inscribed to Dr. Marvin by Mr. Rogers, who was his longtime patient and friend.

                        Buddies Mr. Marvin and Bruce Rogers together one afternoon.

Pulled from the Archive:

Mr. Marvin's Correspondence on the Collection, Excerpt

September 21, 1964

Dear Doctor Davidson:->

I am now awaiting the arrival of Express Company's man, who will pick up almost the last group of books that I will have the privilege of sending for the Rare Book Room at Davidson. . .The set of Shakespeare by the Limited Editions Club, one play to each volume (37 volumes). Each of the 37 volumes is inscribed to me by Bruce Rogers, who designed them, and in the last (The Tempest) he has written:- "This is the only set signed by me in each volume. Bruce Rogers". (I am not certain of the exact phraseology, but that is the meaning.)

 Thomas Wolfe's Letters to his Mother        One of the Rare Book Room Shelves on the Collection       You Can't Go Home Again, Early Edition          

A magnificent addition to the library's holdings in literature is the Thomas C. Wolfe Collection of James Henry Hall, Jr. This collection was presented to the library in 1988 by Dr. and Mrs. Richardson Huddleston. Hall graduated from Davidson College in 1927 and was a professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia.

A longtime admirer of American novelist Thomas Wolfe, Hall spent the majority of his life collecting books, manuscripts, letters, and articles by the famous writer. His collection contains more than one hundred books related to Thomas Wolfe and many of the books are autographed. The collection also contains Wolfe's Pi Kappa Phi Membership Certificate, several photographs by Carl Van Vechten and Douglas Gorsline, a bound volume of the 1919-20 The Tarheel where Wolfe was the editor while he was a student at Chapel Hill, and a variety of items including newspaper clippings, playbills, and letters to Hall from authors of books about Thomas Wolfe. In 1997, the Smith Rare Book Room received another large collection of Thomas Wolfe items from Mrs. Sadler Hayes of Charlotte, North Carolina. Of particular interest are two scrapbooks that contain information on the family of Thomas Wolfe. In addition, several of the books in this collection are rare first editions that were autographed by Thomas Wolfe.

Some Highlights of Thomas Wolfe Materials in the Collection:

       Copies of the The Tar Heel (Wolfe was student editor)                             Wolfe's story, Child by Tiger, in Saturday Evening Post

Scrapbooks on Thomas Wolfe given by Hall

Wolfe's Yearbook Photo from 1920 Yakety Yak (The UNC Yearbook)               Privately-Published Letters and Writings by Wolfe

Images Above: books from the collection left to right Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Call of the Wild

Image Below: Mrs. & Mrs. Fugate with Library Director Leland Park (center) and Charles Dicken (lower right portrait). 

In the spring of 1992, Wilbur Lindsay Fugate, a graduate of Davidson College and the University of Virginia Law School,donate of one hundred first edition books to E.H. Little Library. The collection includes works by eighty three authors and represents highly acclaimed works in English and American literature.

A book lover and collector, Dr. Fugate modeled his collection on one by Frederick Loches, an Englishman who in 1886 made a collection of first editions in which "every book appeared to have been bought for a special reason and to form an integral part of he whole." First editions are significantly valuable because they give the reader a feeling of particular closeness to the author. As described by Fugate, "the first edition is the author's edition because it is the way the author wanted the book, first saw it and first took pride in it." 

The Fugate Collection contains those books, which as described by Henry VanDyke in his Companionable Books, are "the best sellers [because they] do not go out of print and are everybody's books." The collection is divided into twelve categories beginning with "Eighteenth Century Literature and Before" and ending with "From 1940 to the Present." 

Prior to his death in 1988, William Patterson Cumming was recognized as one of the world's leading authorities in early American cartography. Cumming graduated from Davidson College in 1921 and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Princeton University. He taught briefly at Williams College in Massachusetts before returning to his alma mater as an English professor in 1927. He remained at Davidson until his retirement in 1968.

Cumming's initial interest in cartography began in 1931 with the purchase of John Speed's 1676 map of Carolina. His interest in this map led him to research and publish The Southeast in Early Maps (Princeton University Press), a landmark book which established the importance of early maps in the study of pre-Revolutionary North American history. After his retirement, Cumming published the Discovery of North America(1971),The Exploration of North America (1974), and The Fate of a Nation: The American Revolution Through Contemporary Eyes (1976).

John Speed's 1676 Map of Carolina shows many early misconceptions, such as the savannah and a desert.

The collection consists of early maps and offprints by Dr. Cumming and other cartographers, map exhibition catalogues, and catalogues of map dealers. There also is a voluminous unpublished correspondence on cartographic subjects, as well as Cumming's personal lecture notes.  The collection is a historian's treasure chest for early maps on the American southeast, that demonstrates European colonial thoughts, attitudes, and conceptions of the New World but also includes some maps of other regions from Europe. Visit our Cumming Map Collection online library guide for more on this collection.