Good Lit. Departments?

JWT86
Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:56:24 +0000

And some more…

"How important is the Carlton Lake Collection [at UT-Austin’s Ransom Humanities Research Center]? Florence de Lussy, conservateur en chef de manuscrits at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, had a straightforward answer… “Remarkable,” she said… “In certain areas, for example Paul Valery, the most important writer in 20th century France, you must go to Texas if you want to study the man thoroughly… Consequently, the Carlton Lake Collection is essential, and very well known here in France. I wish it were here and not there.”


from “A Gentle Madness”, Nicholas Basbanes


"Ranked among the top three American cultural archives of its kind — after the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library — the Ransom’s $1 billion collection contains 40 million rare books, manuscripts, photographs and works of art. The accumulation of so many gems, most collected during a 13-year period encompassing the 1960s, was attended by a fair amount of controversy. Critics abroad say the center drained Europe of its cultural heritage and sent it to Texas. "

http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/specialreports/ransom/17mainransom.html

"Scholars know the Ransom Center as one of the world’s pre-eminent research libraries… Though its holdings are appraised at more than $1 billion, much of its true value may lie in its ability to inspire the imagination. "

“They’re in the very top tier in the United States, which means they’re top-tier internationally as well,” said Barbara Shailor, director of the Beneicke Library at Yale. “They don’t specialize the way the Morgan Library or the Getty Museum do. They’re strong overall. They excel in so many ways.”

“There’s nowhere like it in the U.S.A., and its only rival for 20th-century material in Britain is the British Library,” said Ferdinand Mount, a former editor of The Times Literary Supplement of London who spoke at the Ransom Center recently. “I’m trying to wake up some zest from the British Library. They have the money but they’re not as proactive. The Texas people are very quick.”

A London newspaper, The Independent, has watched what it calls “the great trans-Atlantic manuscript race” with dismay. It warned in one article that “in a generation’s time, British scholars wishing to research the lives of our leading contemporary writers will be forced to travel to Texas.” In another article it lamented that whenever a desirable archive appears on the market, “American institutions like the University of Texas can just call up an oil-rich benefactor and ask him to put a check in the post.”

from “Lifting the Lid on a Treasure Chest”, STEPHEN KINZER, The New York Times (2/4/2003)

I think it’s safe to say UT’s library can compete quite well with Harvard and Yale!