January 2, 1996
Press Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Public Contact: Janice Ruth (202) 707-5383
Manuscript Division Publishes 1993 Acquisitions Report
Philip Roth reveals the inspirations behind his recent
novels, while Judge John J. Sirica reveals the inside story of
the Watergate court proceedings in new acquisitions by the
Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, detailed in the
recently published 1993 issue of Library of Congress
Acquisitions: Manuscript Division.
The 91-page, illustrated report points up the breadth and
diversity of the Library's manuscript collections, as well as the
institution's commitment to build on its strengths. Many of the
acquisitions featured in the 1993 report represent important
additions to already valuable collections, while others break new
archival ground for the Library.
Roth added 16,000 items in 1993 to the Library's
comprehensive collection of his materials, a rich resource that
intimately documents the life and career of this leading post-war
author. The collection now includes manuscripts and notes for
all of Roth's books to date, as well as correspondence to and
from noted writers such as Saul Bellow, Joyce Carol Oates,
Wallace Stegner, William Styron and John Updike.
The papers of Judge Sirica, who compelled President Nixon to
release secret White House tape recordings that ultimately led to
his resignation under threat of impeachment, offer a unique
insight into that tumultuous period.
Other collections that were expanded in 1993 include the
papers of John Spencer Bassett, a historian and early expert on
Jacksonian America who fomented a national debate in 1903 when he
called black leader Booker T. Washington the South's "greatest
man" after Robert E. Lee; Adm. George Dewey, the Spanish-American
war hero who destroyed Spain's Asiatic Squadron in the decisive
battle of Manila Bay; and Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson Hughes,
another Spanish-American War veteran whose diaries and
correspondence provide detailed eyewitness accounts of that war
as well as of the bloody aftermath of Gen. George Custer's "last
stand" at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Also among the newly acquired collections are the papers of
Hannah G. Solomon, founder of the National Council of Jewish
Women; lawyer Winn Newman, a pioneer in the 1970s and '80s of
expanding pay equity and workplace rights for women and
minorities; and Harold C. Fleming, a white southerner who became
committed to civil rights and economic justice for black
Americans during World War II, where he commanded black troops.
Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1993
includes essays on each of these collections, as well as
descriptions of all the personal papers, microfilm acquisitions
and organizational archives received that year.
Researchers interested in consulting any of the Manuscript
Division collections are advised to write or telephone the
Manuscript Reading Room at (202) 707-5387 before visiting. Many
processed and nearly all unprocessed collections are stored off-
site and advance notice is necessary to retrieve these items for
research use.
# # #
PR 95-170
1/2/96
ISSN 0731-3527