One easy way of showing exactly how ubiquitious the Everyman’s Library was, is to highlight the fact that almost all of the different collections in Burns Library have at least one EML book among its holdings. From Irish to British Catholic Authors, Rex Stout to Peter Hebblethwait, they can be found among the personal libraries of some of the most influential 20th century writers and throughout our stacks. Following is a brief description of each collection, along with an example of an EML book from the collection.

Rex Stout Library

Rex Stout was born on December 1, 1886 in Noblesville, Indiana, but spent most of his youth in Topeka, Kansas. In March of 1929 he finished How Like a God, his first mainstream novel. Shortly after its publication the stock market crashed. It was at this time he began to consider his fiction as a way to make a living. After producing four novels he wrote the first Nero Wolfe novel Fer-de-Lance in 1934. It was the first of 72 novels and novellas he was to write about Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. These novels brought him fame and a measure of financial success. Stout spent much of the rest of his life creating Nero Wolfe novels, but still remained active in a number of organizations such as the Writers War Boards, the Society for the Prevention of World War III, The Authors Guild, the Writers Board for World Government, and Mystery Writers of America. He died on October 27, 1975 at the age of 89 in High Meadow, CT.

The collection consists of Stout’s correspondence, financial records, manuscripts of a number of novels and novellas, documentation relating to his political activities during and after the Second World War and his library of about 200 books. Also included are clippings and other material relating to Stout and some financial records. Manuscripts of many of Stout’s literary works comprise a large portion of the collection.

Peter Hebblethwaite Library

Peter Hebblethwaite was born on September 30, 1930 in Lancashire, England. In 1948 he became a novice in the Society of Jesus at Manresa, Roehampton. Graduating from Oxford in 1958, Hebblethwaite then taught for two years at Mount St. Mary’s, Spinkhill, and studied theology for four years at Heythrop College. Following the writing of Hebblethwaite’s first book Bernanos: An Introduction (1965), he failed his final examinations at Heythrop, and this precluded him from a career in lecturing. He was sent for a final year of Jesuit training in France and there he used his literary skills on the Jesuit magazine The Month. Hebblethwaite was sent to Rome to cover the final session of the second Vatican Council. In 1973, Hebblethwaite left the Jesuits, probably because of a clamp-down on the liberal views espoused by himself and other Month contributors. Hebblethwaite continued to write for a number of journals and newspapers on Vatican affairs and the Catholic Church for the rest of his life. He died in 1994.

The Peter Hebblethwaite Papers contain correspondence pertaining to the research and publication of Hebblethwaite’s books, published and unpublished writings, teaching materials, personal papers, and photographs, as well as an array of printed materials, sound recordings, and publications. Hebblethwaite’s personal library of over 2,300 books is also in the collection.

Joseph J. Williams, SJ ethnological collection

Joseph J. Williams was born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 1, 1875. In 1893 he entered the Society of Jesus at Frederick, Maryland. From 1912 to 1917 Williams served as a missionary in Jamaica. These five years laid the foundation for his studies in anthropology. Williams gathered archaeological and anthropological data during his stay on the island. Williams began lecturing in Boston College’s graduate school in 1932 and became widely known for his anthropological lectures. He helped establish the department of anthropology at BC. He also established an ethnological library containing Africana and Caribbeana; the library is named in honor of his father, Nicholas M. Williams and contains over 7,000 volumes. Williams died at Shadowbrook on October 28, 1940 after suffering a severe heart attack.

The collection compiled by Fr. Williams during his missionary and academic career primarily documents variations of the Jamaican Anancy (Anansi) folktale. Other materials pertain to Jamaica, other Caribbean islands, and/or Africa and include: writings about people, culture, and language; legal documents (e.g. wills, indenture agreements); government documents and correspondence between London and the British colonial government in Jamaica; maps; lithographs, engravings, and woodcuts.

Flann O’Brien Library

Flann O’Brien is a pen name of Brian O’Nolan, the Irish author, playwright and satirist, considered a major figure in twentieth century Irish literature. He was born in Strabane, County Tyrone and educated in Dublin. O’Nolan worked for the Irish Civil Service. Regulations generally prohibited Civil Servants from publicly expressing political views. This meant that writing in newspapers on current events was generally prohibited without departmental permission on an article-by-article, publication-by- publication basis. This is one reason that O’Nolan used pen names. He published his first novel At-Swim-Two-Birds in 1939. It is considered his greatest work, and is now recognized as one of the most significant Modernist novels before 1945 and a pioneer of postmodernism. In later years he won fame for his column “An Cruiskeen Lawn” in The Irish Times. O’Nolan died of a heart attack on April 1, 1966.

The Flann O’Brien Collection includes the papers of his wife, Evelyn O’Nolan, who managed his estate after his death, and his brother, Micheál Ó Nualláin, an illustrator and portrait artist. The papers comprise awards, correspondence, clothing, degrees, furniture and personal belongings, literary manuscripts, medals, notes, paintings, passports, photographs, scrapbooks, sketches, theater programs and O’Brien’s personal library of over 300 books.

Hilaire Belloc Library: King’s Land

The English writer Joseph Hilaire Peter Belloc was born in Celle Saint-Cloud, France, on 27 July 1870. His mother was an English citizen, and the family moved to England when Belloc’s French father died. Belloc published The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts (1896), a collection of nonsense verse that was so popular it sold out in four days. In 1902 he published Path to Rome, which is perhaps his most representative work for its combination of Belloc’s love for travel, as well as his fierce Roman Catholicism. Belloc was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1934 by Pope Pius XI for his devotion to Catholicism as a writer. Belloc published prolifically over the course of his life. On July 12, 1953, Belloc accidentally fell into his fireplace while sleeping beside it. He was badly burned and died soon afterward on July 16, 1953.

The bulk of the materials in the collection are published and unpublished writings of Hilaire Belloc, including manuscripts, typescripts, proofs, galleys, and reprints of various articles, essays, reviews, poetry, plays, prose, notes, and about eighty of Belloc’s books. Also contained in the collection is Belloc’s personal library of about 400 books, named after his house in West Sussex, Kings Land.

Graham Greene Library

Henry Graham Greene was born on October 4, 1904 in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. Greene endured a difficult childhood, characterized by depression and attempted suicide. Greene graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a BA in history in 1925 and published a collection of verse, Babbling April, the same year. In 1926 Green converted to Catholicism in order to get married. Catholicism and religion in general became key themes for Greene throughout his authorial career. Greene’s most famous novel, The Power and the Glory, was published in 1940 and cemented his place among the literary greats of the twentieth-century. In 1941 Greene joined the Secret Intelligence Service, which propelled him to write “spy thrillers”. From the 1950’s—70’s Greene travelled extensively and had multiple romantic relationships that influenced his works. Greene died from complication of a blood disease on April 3, 1991 in Switzerland.

The collection is composed mainly of manuscripts and correspondence of Greene. Correspondence is with a wide range of literary and other figures and includes copies of Greene’s outgoing letters. There are also various subject files which touch on travel, business and other issues important to Greene, articles about him, reviews, interviews, clippings, photographs, and his personal library of over 2,500 books.

British Catholic Authors: Gerard Manley Hopkins

The British Catholic Authors Collection features the manuscripts and published works of leading Catholic writers in the British Isles from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Noted especially for its extensive holdings on Francis Thompson, Hilaire Belloc, and Graham Greene, this collection also boasts strong holdings on John Henry Newman, Coventry Patmore, Alice and Wilfrid Meynell, Edith Sitwell, G. K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, Eric Gill, and Elizabeth Jennings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins attended Balliol College, Oxford University, where he excelled in academics. While at Oxford, he converted to Catholicism in 1868, and burned all of his poems. In 1875 he returned to writing regularly. In 1877 he was ordained as a Jesuit priest. It was only after his death in 1889 that his friend, the poet Robert Bridges, considered having his work published. Poems was published posthumously in 1918. He soon became known as one of the great religious poets, attaining a popularity which lasts until the present day.

The Hopkins Family Papers is composed of materials relating to members of the Hopkins family, especially Manley Hopkins, and his wife, Catherine (Kate) and their children. A number of items concern Manley Hopkins’ involvement with religious and political affairs in Hawaii. There are also a few pieces of correspondence by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Liturgy and Life Collection

This collection was established by the Boston College theologian and liturgical specialist William J. Leonard, S.J. in 1978 to document the liturgical movement in the American Catholic Church from 1925 to the introduction of the Second Vatican Council’s reforms. The collection has grown exponentially to include some 30,000 volumes, and is considered to be the most comprehensive archive in America on the pre-Vatican Catholic Church. The book collection is complemented by sizable holdings of manuscripts, pamphlets, ephemera, artifacts, and photographs.

Irish Collection

The Irish Collection at Burns is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind outside Ireland. Noted early on for its strong holdings of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals and landholding records documenting Irish history and society from the late 1700’s to the present, the Collection in recent years has made impressive gains in the areas of literature, art (especially the book arts), music, agricultural history, and economic history. Its literary collections of Samuel Beckett, William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney, for example, are ranked among the best in the world. To promote greater awareness and use of the impressive holdings, the University in 1991 established The Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies Chair, which is open on an annual basis to scholars who have distinguished themselves in the areas of Irish history, culture and life.