Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > George Arents Collection

(A Supplement to the Checklist, 1957-1963 )

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PART I

"THE FIELD IS WIDE for adding to the Arents Collection, and it is happy hunting in the greatest of all sports," wrote Sarah Augusta Dickson at the close of the introductory survey of the original checklist of the books in parts published by The New York Public Library in 1957. It has indeed been "happy hunting" during the years that have followed. The purpose of this supplement is to make known the additions to the collection since 1957. With the death of Mr George Arents on December 13, 1960, and the retirement of Dr. Dickson as Curator in 1962, the collection lost irreplaceable sources of inspiration and guidance. It was indeed fortunate that Dr. John D. Gordan was willing, as Acting Chief, to lend his immense scholarship and rich experience to assure the continuing growth of the collection.

There is no need to repeat the reasons why Mr. Arents started to collect books in parts in 1923. Their definition and the scope of the collection were all amply covered by Dr Dickson in her original introduction. The wide diversity of the literature which was issued in parts is well known, and the collection represents almost every type of book, author, and subject (including chemistry, absent from the last listing). It is still the belief, as it was in 1957, that this is the only collection assembled on the principle that the books therein appeared serially, over a period of time, in separate parts, and are still in their original state.

It was not at first the intent to collect works in foreign languages printed on the continent of Europe, but during the last few years of his life Mr. Arents gradually expanded the acquisition policy in that direction. The collection remains a predominantly English-language collection, but increasing attention is now given to publications in other languages and of foreign imprint. The growth of the collection since 1957 has been necessarily slow. Works surviving unbound and complete as issued are few and hard to find. Yet several items of interest have been acquired in this period, including Harper's Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible; Ichthyology of South Carolina, by John E. Holbrook;

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