University of Virginia Library

Section B. Language and Literature.

In CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES the University of Virginia
Library has 9,164 volumes and a pamphlet collection of about
equal extent. The majority of the standard periodicals are subscribed
to; namely, Classical Journal, Classical Philology, Classical
Quarterly, Classical Review, Classical Weekly, Hermes, Hesperia,
Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft,
Journal of Hellenic Studies, Revue des Études
Grecques, Revue des Études Latines, and Romania. There are also
such sets as the Inscriptiones Latinae, the Thesaurus Linguae
Latinae, the Loeb Classical Library, and its French counterpart,
the Collection des Universités de France.

The Washington and Lee Library has an excellent general
collection of classical literature numbering about 3,300 volumes
and notable for collected and critical works. Smaller
but live collections of the `dead' languages are at William
and Mary, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Sweet Briar, and
the University of Richmond. It is an interesting fact that
the classical works in the State Library apparently form the
third largest collection in the libraries of the State. It is
also interesting to note how many available library sets there
are of Loeb's Classical Library.

What emphasis there is in the collections of AMERICAN
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE is on the South. The set of books
which one can most confidently count on finding is the Library
of Southern Literature; and many collections contain runs of
the Southern Literary Messenger. The University of Richmond
Library affords a fairly typical example in that it is definitely
collecting the works of John Esten Cooke, Marion Harland,
Mary Johnston, Thomas Nelson Page, Amélie Rives, and Paul
Laurence Dunbar, J. P. Kennedy, William Gilmore Simms, and similar
regional authors. The achievements of the State Library in
such quests are indicated in Dr. Earl G. Swem's invaluable
guide, A Bibliography of Virginia.[2] The collections at the
State Library, at William and Mary, and at the University of
Virginia are likely to gladden research seekers with obscure
works of minor authors. Another local collecting activity
that is not uncommon is illustrated by the material on Southern
folk-songs at Sweet Briar College.

Apart from this natural emphasis, the collections of American
language and literature tend to be general and standard.
Many of the larger public and college libraries have the
Dictionary of American English; the Cambridge History of American
Literature, Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of American Literature,
and Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature;
the works of Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Eugene Field, Benjamin Franklin, Bret Harte,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Mark Twain, and Henry D.
Thoreau - to choose ten of the most popular names. The largest
collection, that at the University of Virginia, numbered 8,079
when the count was made for this survey. Other fairly extensive
collections are at the State Library, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, the College of William

and Mary, and Randolph-Macon College.

The examination of the material on ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE in Virginia has resulted in no unexpected or startling
conclusions. There are a score of good collections available
for the general reader, and six or eight with at least
some material on the research level. Of course size of collections
may mean little for research purposes, except in so far
as it indicates the presence of the foundation materials. But
as reported, the largest collections, omitting public libraries,
are as follows: University of Virginia, 13,429 volumes; Sweet
Briar, 6,703 volumes; Randolph-Macon Woman's College, 4,633
volumes; State Library, approximately 3,800 or 4,000 volumes;
William and Mary, about 3,500 volumes; Hampton Institute, 3,465
volumes; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 3,017 volumes, University
of Richmond, about 3,000 volumes.

A different approach to an estimate of the research value
of the collections may be obtained by consideration of the holdings
of certain representative titles. To publish the results
of such a test is, of course, highly dangerous when, as in this
case, the findings were obtained rather casually. But with a
caveat as to undoubted inaccuracies, the results (which once
more demonstrate the scattered condition of research materials
in Virginia) may be indicated as follows:-

Anglia. At University of Virginia.

Anglistische Forschungen. At University of Virginia (incomplete
set)

Cambridge History of English Literature. At College of William
and Mary, Hollins College, Petersburg Public Library, Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, Richmond Public Library, State Teachers
Colleges at Farmville and Fredericksburg, Sweet Briar, University
of Richmond, University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, and Virginia State Library.

Camden Society. At Randolph-Macon Woman's College, University
of Virginia, Virginia State Library.

Chaucer Society. At University of Virginia, Virginia State
Library.

Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft Jahrbuch. At University of
Virginia.

Early English Text Society. At College of William and Mary,
Hollins, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, University of Richmond,
University of Virginia.

Englische Studien. At University of Virginia.

English Dialect Society. At University of Virginia.

English Journal. At Hampton Institute, Randolph-Macon Woman's
College, Richmond Public Library, State Teachers College at
Farmville, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, University of
Virginia.

Facsimile Text Society. At Sweet Briar, University of Virginia.

Grosart's Reprints. At University of Virginia.

Harleian Miscellany. At Union Theological Seminary, University
of Virginia, Virginia State Library.

Review of English Studies. At College of William and Mary,
Hollins, Sweet Briar, University of Virginia.

Scottish Text Society. At University of Virginia.

Shakespeare Society Publications. At College of William and
Mary, Randolph-Macon, Sweet Briar, University of Richmond,
University of Virginia, Virginia State Library.

Studien zur Englischen Philologie. At University of Virginia.
These location records are for large holdings, though not necessarily
complete ones. Furthermore, frankness demands the admission
that for several titles on this test list (Malone Society
and Spenser Society for example) there seemed to be no holdings
whatever in these libraries.

A note or two should be added to this consideration of
English language and literature collections in Virginia. At
the Alexandria Public Library, which has inherited books which
belonged to the old Alexandria Library and Free Reading Room
founded in 1794, there is a small group of English and American
volumes dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century. At
the College of William and Mary some emphasis has been laid on
the assemblage of critical material of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. At Sweet Briar there is an outstanding
collection of material on George Meredith. Blake and Leigh
Hunt are subjects of attention at the University of Richmond.
At Washington and Lee University there are two collections of
standard works in English and sundry interesting eighteenth
century items in the Franklin Society Library. The University
of Virginia is a subscriber to the film collection of books
printed in English prior to 1550.

The collections in Virginia of books in GERMANIC LANGUAGES
AND LITERATURES are chiefly of a scope for undergraduate instruction
in colleges. In several of the libraries, however,
systematic plans are in operation for increase in sets of
standard authors, in critical works, and in appropriate periodicals.
The most extensive collections seem to be at the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College and at the University of Virginia,
both of these totaling slightly under 3,000 volumes. Other
good working collections are at the Virginia Military Institute,
Sweet Briar, and William and Mary.

At the Randolph-Macon Woman's College there are complete
sets of the works of Auerbach, Börne, Chamisso, Feuerbach,
Fontane, Görres, Goethe, Grillparzer, Gutzkow, Hauptmann, Hauff,
Heyse, Hoffmann, Keller, Klinger, Laube, Lenz, Lessing, Liliencron,
Ludwig, Mörike, Nietzsche, Schiller, Scheffel, Seidel,
Stifter, Storm, Sudermann, Tieck, Vernhagen von Ense, Wagner,
Wedekind, and Wieland.

The University of Virginia Library, in addition to sets

previously listed,[3] contains the Codex Wormianus of the Prose
Edda, the Codex of the Flateyjahrbòk, Lüdike and Mackensen's
Deutscher Kulturatlas, the Sammlung Kurzer Grammatiken Deutscher
Mundarten, and Wilhelm's Corpus der Altdeutschen
Originalurkunden; also the Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen
Sprache und Literatur, Jahrbuch and Schriften der Goethe
Gesellschaft, Neue Rundschau, Wörter und Sachen, Zeitschrift
für Deutsche Mundarten, Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie,
and Zeitschrift für Deutsches Altertum.

The general statement made with respect to the Germanic
field can be repeated for ROMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES;
namely, that the present collections in Virginia are mainly
suitable for undergraduate instruction. But there is promise
that several of the collections will, in the not distant future,
afford attractive opportunity for research. The most obvious
deficiency seems to be in the periodical and society publications.

The brief and rather staccato notes which follow include
only the largest collections in the various languages. It will
be noted that the women's colleges are well and favourably
represented.

In FRENCH the Randolph-Macon Woman's College has 2,469
volumes, with emphasis on the so-called classical writers. The
collection contains a goodly number of sets of complete works,
some historical and critical material, and such works on the
language as Brunot's Histoire de la Langue Francaise des
Origines à 1900, Nyrop's Grammaire Historique de la Langue
Francaise, and Plattner's Ausführliche Grammatik der Franzosischen
Sprache.

The Mary Helen Cochran Library at Sweet Briar College has
2,192 volumes in French. The emphasis follows the curriculum
courses and is mainly on the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries; but material on the French theatre has been
assembled from the origins to the present. There are some
notable items on the bibliography and on the history of the
literature.

The collection of French books at the College of William
and Mary numbers about 1,850 volumes. The greatest stress has
been laid on the classical period and on types of literature;
and there are approximately 150 volumes of critical works.

The library which serves both the University of Richmond
and Westhampton College has a well chosen collection of the
works of the principal French writers, with some emphasis on
the modern French drama.

At the University of Virginia there are 1,611 volumes in
the French collection. A start has been made in the acquisition
of material on linguistics and of periodicals; and there
may be found such works as Godefroy's Dictionnaire de l'Ancienne
Langue Francaise, Meyer-Lübke's Grammatik der Romanischen
Sprachen, and the collections of the Classiques Francais de
Moyen Âge and of the Société des Anciens Textes Francais.

The library at Washington and Lee University also contains
a set of the Société des Anciens Textes Francais and a good
collection of standard authors. There are approximately 1,500
French works in this library.

The Walter Hines Page Library at Randolph-Macon College
has been enriched by the John Marvin Burton Collection of Romance
Languages and Literatures, the French section including
general and critical works numbering 1,013.

In ITALIAN the University of Virginia Library has 923 volumes.
The periodicals include the Archivio Glottolozico Italiano
and the Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, and
there are sets of the Scrittori d'Italia and the Storia Letteraria
d'Italia. Some special attention has been given to the
assemblage of editions and criticisms of Dante.

At Sweet Briar College the collection in Italian numbers
432 volumes. It is well adapted to the present needs of undergraduate
work, the main emphasis being on `the golden age' and
the nineteenth century.

Similar statements can be made concerning the collection of
250 Italian volumes at the College of William and Mary and the
collection of 243 volumes at Randolph-Macon Woman's College.

Of SPANISH books the University of Virginia has 2,140 volumes.
The periodicals include the Bulletin Hispanique, the Bulletin
of Spanish Studies, Hispania, the Revista de Filologia Española,
and the Revue Hispanique; there are several general sets,
such as the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, the Clasicos Castel
lanos, and the Grandes Escritores Argentinos; and sundry historical
and critical writings, as for example the Historia de la
Lengua y Literatura Castellana by Cajador y Franca and Roxlo's
Historia Critica de la Literatura Uruguaya. Emphasis has to
some degree been centered on Cervantes.

At the College of William and Mary there are approximately
800 volumes of Spanish. These include files of Hispania and of
the Revue Hispanique and such important sets as Nueva Bibliotheca
de Autores Españoles and Poetas Liricos Castellanos.

Smaller collections, chosen chiefly for undergraduate studies,
are located at Sweet Briar College, at Virginia Military Institute,
at the University of Richmond, and at Randolph-Macon Woman's
College. There is a file of the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies at
Sweet Briar College. Sweet Briar and the Randolph-Macon Woman's
College subscribe to Hispania. Sets of the Bibliotheca de
Autores Españoles are at Virginia Military Institute and at the
University of Richmond; and of the Clasicos Castellanos at Virginia
Military Institute and Randolph-Macon Woman's College.

Material in OTHER LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES is scattered and
small in amount with the exception of the collections of Semitic
and related languages at the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond
and at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria.
Some mention of this will be made in Section E, Religion.

In FOLKLORE the University of Virginia Library has 386 volumes,
which include runs of Folklore (London Folklore Society),
Folklore Society Publications, Journal of American Folklore, and
Transactions of the Folklore Society. Folklore of the South,
particularly of Virginia, and Negro folklore are emphasized. This
collection has been assembled in part to supplement the activities
of the Virginia Folklore Society and of Prof. A. K. Davis, Jr.,
author of `Traditional Ballads of Virginia.' The collection of
American, English, and Scottish ballads is fairly good.

Negro folklore and negro folk-songs are emphasized at the
Collis P. Huntington Memorial Library of Hampton Institute.
This collection contains about 200 volumes.

Four other institutional collections of folklore material
may be mentioned for Virginia, each numbering from 150 to 200
volumes. At the Richmond Public Library and at the State Teachers
College in Farmville special attention has been given to ballads;
at the University of Richmond the emphasis is on negro folklore;
and at the College of William and Mary the collection is general
in interest.