M. L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists, 1806-1958 1830s-1930s

Creator
Parrish, Morris Longstreth, 1867-1944 [Browse]
Format
Manuscript
Language
English
Description
  • 108 boxes
  • 161 items
  • 12 Volumes
  • 72.9 linear feet

Availability

Available Online

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Special Collections - Manuscripts Archival. Special Collections Use Only C0171 Browse related items Request
  • Location note
  • Access to the original photographs granted for compelling circumstances only; consult the Curator of Manuscripts
    Special Collections - Manuscripts Archival. Special Collections Use OnlyRequest

      Details

      Subject(s)
      Creator
      Getty AAT genre
      Compiled/​Created
      1806-1958 1830s-1930s
      Restrictions note
      The collection is open for research.
      Biographical/​Historical note
      Morris Longstreth Parrish (1867-1944) was a respected Philadelphia businessman who painstakingly built up in the course of his lifetime an impressive library of Victorian novelists at his residence, called Dormy House, in Pine Valley, New Jersey. The phrase "Parrish condition" became a trade word among bibliophiles for the highest quality standard of first editions, as exemplified by Parrish's purchases. However, it was just as important to Parrish that his books be read and enjoyed, and not be preserved on his shelves as museum pieces. Parrish authored three, privately printed bibliographies based on his library collection: Victorian Lady Novelists (1933) on the Brontës, George Eliot, and Mrs. Gaskell, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes (1936), and Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade (1940). Parrish attended Princeton University briefly, as a member of the Class of 1888, but did not graduate. He received an honorary Masters of Arts degree from Princeton in June 1939. He bequeathed his entire library, including furniture and furnishings, to the Princeton University Library upon his death. The majority of printed books in the Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists is housed in the Parrish Room , a recreation of Parrish's library at Dormy House, which is located in the Special Collections Department of the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library. The manuscripts and artwork in the Parrish Collection, however, are housed in separate locations within the Department. A detailed summary of the growth of the Parrish Collection in the decade following its arrival at the Library was written by Alexander D. Wainwright, first curator of the Parrish Collection, who held the job until his death in January 2000. The following excerpts are from Wainwright's article entitled "A Summary Report and an Introduction," as published in The Princeton University Library Chronicle (Volume XVII, Number 2, Winter 1956, pp. 59-67): The Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists consists primarily of a series of more than twenty author collections. When it came to Princeton it contained over sixty-three hundred volumes and (exclusive of the nearly eighteen hundred Lewis Carroll mathematical manuscripts), approximately one thousand manuscript items, mostly letters-the latter a comparatively small figure since Mr. Parrish had no pronounced enthusiasm for manuscript material - as well as many theater programs, playbills, photographs, clippings, and other miscellanea (pp. 59-60). ...As a result of these purchases and gifts, the Library has added to the Parrish Collection during the past ten years over five hundred volumes and some nine hundred manuscript items, mainly letters (p. 60). ...The Library places, for obvious reasons, a greater emphasis on manuscript material than did Mr. Parrish; for every author it is interested in acquiring letters related to any aspect of the composition, publication, and reception of his work, for several authors it is interested in any significant letter, and one of the ultimate aims is the possession of the manuscript of at least one major work of each author (p. 61). *From "The Library of Dormy House" by John Carter (article reprinted in The Princeton University Library Chronicle , Volume VIII, Number 1, November 1946, p. 7): "... he [Parrish] cares... almost nothing for manuscripts.".
      Summary note
      • The Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists, consisting of the library of books, manuscripts, photographs, artwork, and ephemera as collected by Morris Longstreth Parrish, Class of 1888, came to Princeton University in 1944 as a bequest. This finding aid focuses on Parrish's original collection of manuscripts, both bound and unbound, and includes his correspondence (related to his collecting activities) and letters both to and from many of the Victorian authors, as well as the manuscript and related (non-book) items given to and/or acquired for the collection by the Princeton University Library in subsequent years.
      • Consists of letters, documents, manuscripts, and, occasionally, artwork of 27 Victorian novelists and some of their family members, particularly when these were also writers, such as the Trollopes, or devoted literary executors, Fanny Kingsley, Lady Ritchie, and Florence Emily Hardy, for example. Letters to and about the major authors are included, as well as a variety of related material such as illustrations by "Phiz," George Cattermole, and Henry Holiday, and adaptations, scrapbooks, and photographs. Authors most extensively represented include Charles Reade, with approximately 449 letters, many documents (often drafted by Reade himself) concerning publication and production agreements (and disagreements), real estate, law suits, etc., nine notebooks and 130 poster-size notecards, and signed stories, plays, and novels, including Griffith Gaunt , and a set of extensively corrected page proofs for The Cloister and the Hearth ; Wilkie Collins, with approximately 670 letters, and signed holograph manuscripts of two stories and four novels in weekly parts; Charles Kingsley, with approximately 702 letters, including over 100 to his wife, and signed holograph manuscripts of 40 sermons; Anthony Trollope, with 689 letters, signed holograph manuscripts (carbons) of his travel letters from Australia, and manuscripts, partly holograph, of two books. Other large holdings include over 590 letters of Edward Bulwer Lytton, holograph manuscripts (fair copies) of six novels by William Black, holograph manuscripts of five manuscripts by Charlotte Yonge, and a collection of C. L. Dodgson's mathematical manuscripts, approximately 1770 items. In addition, the collection has four albums of Dodgson's photographs, compiled by himself with autograph indexes, and the Household Words Office Book, listing title and author of all contributions to Dickens' periodical during its ten-year run. Other writers and artists significantly represented in the collection are William Harrison Ainsworth, J. M. Barrie, M. E. Braddon, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, George Eliot, Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hughes, Charles Lever, George Meredith, Ouida, Robert Louis Stevenson, and William Makepeace Thackeray. In addition, the collection contains M. L. Parrish's correspondence (39 boxes) relating to his activities in creating the collection, including correspondence with booksellers, bibliophiles, and friends. Among those well-represented in this series are Michael Sadleir, Carroll A. Wilson, I. R. Brussel, Walter M. Hill, Elkin Matthews, Maggs Bros., Quaritch, and E. P. Dutton & Co. Finally, it should be noted that approximately fifty manuscript items (letters, notes, drawings, etc.) contained within specific books in the Parrish Room have been indexed as manuscripts. Detailed Author Holdings: There are approximately 27 authors represented in the Parrish Collection. A brief biographical note for each author follows, with references taken from The Oxford Companion to English Literature and/or The Concise Dictionary of National Biography series. The individual entries in this series also incorporate excerpts from the descriptive catalogue of the Parrish Collection, a twenty-year-plus project of Alexander D. Wainwright, which is currently scheduled to be published in two large volumes in the year 2001. The catalogue entries by author can be viewed online at the following URL (in PDF file format): http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/parrish/ All direct quotations from Wainwright's catalogue that reference the manuscripts in the Parrish Collection are indicated between the ' ' marks. William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) - Ainsworth wrote 39 novels, mostly utilizing historical settings, and edited periodicals including Bentley's Miscellany and Ainsworth's Magazine . The original Parrish collection contained only one Ainsworth letter. Excerpt from Parrish catalogue: ' The collection now contains nearly 300 Ainsworth letters, including correspondence with Richard Bentley and Charles Kent, as well as [18] letters addressed to Ainsworth by John Forster and others. Also acquired were major parts of the autograph manuscripts of Chetwynd Calverley (1876) and Beatrice Tyldesley (1878), and leaves of several other manuscripts. ' The Princeton University Library has also acquired an oil portrait of Ainsworth that now hangs over the mantlepiece in the Parrish Room of the Library's Rare Books Department (replacing the "Alice" fresco that once hung in that spot in Parrish's library at Dormy House). Sir James Matthew Barrie, Bart. (1860-1937) - Barrie was a Scottish playwright and novelist who moved to London in 1885 and had many stage successes there, including The Admirable Crichton in 1902. He may be best known, however, for authoring the internationally popular children's play, Peter Pan , which was eventually published in book form in 1911. He was conferred the title of baronet in 1913. Excerpt from Parrish catalogue: ' Mr. Parrish had acquired 130 Barrie letters, most of which are addressed to the second Mrs. Thomas Hardy... An addition to the author's portrait file is a caricature of Barrie by Harry Furniss, in pen-and-ink, for the artists' series of "Celebrities in Their Old Age." ' William Black (1841-1898) - Black was a Scottish-born novelist who studied art in Glasgow before moving to London in 1864 where he worked as a journalist and editor. His novels include The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton (1872) and A Princess of Thule (1874). The original Parrish collection contained no manuscript material of Black. Excerpt from Parrish catalogue concerning the Library's manuscript additions: ' ... They include the autograph manuscripts of six novels: The Handsome Humes (1893), Madcap Violet (1876), Stand Fast, Craig Royston! (1890), Three Feathers (1875), White Heather (1885), and White Wings (1880); the autograph manuscripts of four short pieces: "The Ballad of Pilgrim James," "The Heaven of Sad Lovers," "Ladies' Clubs," and "Romeo and Juliet: A Tale of Two Young Fools"; and 238 letters written by Black, as well as a number of letters addressed to him by various correspondents. ' Brontë Family - The Brontë family is represented in the Parrish collection by: Charlotte (1816-1855), who published Jane Eyre in 1847 under the pseudonym of "Currer Bell"; Emily Jane (1818-1848), who published Wuthering Heights in 1847 (her literary pseudonym was "Ellis Bell"); Anne (1820-1849), who published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848 (she was "Acton Bell"); Patrick (1777-1861), the sisters' father who was an author as well as curate of Haworth, Yorkshire, in England, and who outlived all his children; and Patrick Branwell (1817-1848) , the brother who invented the imaginary kingdom of Angria with his sister Charlotte. Excerpt from Parrish catalogue: ' The collection is not strong in manuscript material, with the Library deferring to Mr. [Robert H.] Taylor who actively collected the Brontës. It only includes nine Charlotte Brontë letters and the manuscripts of two of her French exercises. ' Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) - Collins lived in London throughout his life and wrote novels, such as The Moonstone (1868), as well as plays and serial stories. He also collaborated with Charles Dickens on No Thoroughfare in 1867. He is credited for writing the first, full-length detective stories in English. Excerpt from Parrish catalogue: ' The manuscripts [additions] make a far more impressive showing. When it came to Princeton the collection included fifty-one Collins letters, an unusually large number, revealing Mr. Parrish's interest in the author. It now contains nearly seven hundred of his letters, including correspondence with Francis Carr Beard, Chatto and Windus, Hunter, Rose & Co., Alberic Iserbyt, Charles Kent, and Frederick Lehmann, as well as a number of letters addressed to Collins. Other additions include the autograph manuscr...
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