John Milton collection puts University of South Carolina library: The largest in the world

The Robert J. Wickenheiser Collection of John Milton puts the University of South Carolina library among the worlds largest library.

[ClickPress, Wed Oct 25 2006] The purchase of more than 6,000 volumes of works by or about John Milton puts the University of South Carolina's collection among the largest in the world.

The Robert J. Wickenheiser Collection, built up over a thirty-five year period, has more than 6,000 volumes. It includes more than sixty first and other seventeenth-century editions of Milton’s own writings, and significant holdings also of 17th century Miltoniana.

Dr. Robert J. Wickenheiser started collecting Milton and other seventeenth-century poets as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the late 1960's. As a young professor at Princeton in the early seventies, he began focusing on the history of Milton illustration he visited and established friendships with many of the best-known antiquarian bookdealers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Since retiring, Dr. Wickenheiser has completed a full-scale illustrated catalogue of the collection, scheduled for publication for the 400th anniversary of Milton’s birth in 2008. The Robert J. Wickenheiser Collection has been purchased for the University with the leading support of Mr. William L. Richter and The William L. Richter Family Foundation.

In recognition and appreciation of this generous gift, the University’s Board of Trustees has approved naming a room in the library’s new Special Collections library.

Milton is best known for his epic poem "Paradise Lost." The collection includes title pages for the epic's first edition, published between 1667 and 1669, and all three versions of the first illustrated edition, printed in 1688. The $1 million collection of the 17th century English poet is among the "top 10 in the world," said Patrick Scott, director of special collections for the university's Thomas Cooper Library.

The library will introduce the works through Nov. 1 in its mezzanine gallery. Other works in the collection include the first edition of Milton's 1644 letter to Parliament about freedom of the press, and a leaf of Milton's first poem, a tribute to William Shakespeare, published in 1632 in Shakespeare's Second Folio.

Cataloging has started at the two ends of the collection--17th century editions, and modern scholarship. By late August over 300 formal catalogue records for items from the collection were already available in the library's online catalogue, at http://libcat.csd.sc.edu, and more become available each month. It is expected that it will take about 18 months to complete this cataloging. Cataloged items should also show up as held by USC in worldcat/OCLC but will not have any of the copy-specific information there that our own on-line catalogue adds for items in Special Collections.

Please visits our website http://www.universityofsouthcarolina.onlineuniversitydegreeprogram.info/index.html for enrolling at online university degree programs.

Bookmark this release: Del.icio.us - Digg - Furl - Blinklist - Reddit