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  • The Written Word

Items in The Written Word

  • Detail of frontispiece of Shakespeare's portfolio showing an engraving of the author in 17th-century dress. Above it reads: Published according to the true original copies.

    The Written Word Introduction

  • Cuneiform tablets

    Cuneiform tablets

  • Woodblock print of a standing figure wearing a patterned kimono and holding a paintbrush, writing calligraphy on a desk

    Brush (Fude) by Yashima Gakutei

  • Charles Dickens’s paper knife fashioned from the claw of the family cat, Bob.

    Charles Dickens’s paper knife

  • A printed book open to show two pages of text that have been underlined, eliminated, and augmented by the author in blue ink

    Charles Dickens’s reading copy of David Copperfield

  • Gray box reading Image Not Available

    “Man Reading,” or “Man Liberated by Books”

  • Book displayed open, printed in black ink on off-white paper. The text is in Spanish and is printed in a variety of font sizes and there is an image of a religious figure on the left hand page.

    Segvndo volvmen de las obras de Soror Jvana Ines de la Cruz (Second volume of the works of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz)

  • Open spread showing two pages of naskh script written in black ink on off-white paper

    Diwan (Collection of Poems)

  • Slender walking stick with a curved handle, made of light-colored wood

    Virginia Woolf's Walking Stick

  • A sheet of lined paper with handwriting, some of which has been crossed out

    Julia Alvarez’s Draft of Sonnet 33 

  • A sheet of paper featuring four sketches of plants with handwritten notes

    Annie Proulx’s “Caprock State Park TX”

  • Printed book, with off white paper. The book is displayed open with a printed verse on the left-hand page and a black and white engraving of William Shakespeare.

    Shakespeare's First Folio

  • A sheet of paper with typed text and a handwritten signature at the bottom

    Gwendolyn Brooks’s "The Sermon on the Warpland"

  • Wood desk, writing slope, lamp, desk calendar, and wooden chair

    Charles Dickens's writing desk and chair

  • Black-and-white photograph of a man with his gaze towards the viewer

    Portrait of James Baldwin

  • A sheet of paper with handwritten notes in blue ink. The paper has some yellowing, creasing, smudging, and slight tearing

    Holograph preparatory notes for Go Tell It on the Mountain

  • A sheet of yellowing paper featuring a full page of typescript, with some revisions scatter throughout in green marker

    James Baldwin’s draft of Go Tell It on the Mountain

  • Two long and narrow sheets of typescript on yellowing paper displayed side by side. The left sheet contains the title, author’s name, and publishing information of the book, and the sheet on the right side shows page 91 of the text. There are some handwritten annotations and signs of wear and tear

    “Author’s 1st Proof,” Go Tell It on the Mountain

  • Illustrative cover of a novel, depicting five people walking on a city street in front of a red and brown building with a sign that reads “Temple of the Free Baptised.” Across the street is a row of multicolored townhouse-style apartment buildings with various architectural details including fire escapes and handrails on the front stoops

    1953 edition of Go Tell It on the Mountain

  • Illustrative cover of a novel, depicting three figures in front of a large window of a brick building. The window has a sign that reads “Church of the Fire Baptised.” In the foreground, a man wearing a hat and a yellow shirt with a cigarette in his hand is standing closely behind a woman wearing a red shirt and red lipstick. Another young man wearing a striped shirt stands in the background, looking at the other couple

    First paperback edition of Go Tell It on the Mountain

  • Cover of a novel featuring the title with black lettering in a vertical red block along the left side, adjacent to a black-and white three-quarter portrait photograph of a Black man with his gaze forward

    James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son

  • A white postcard with handwriting in black ink, five postmarked purple stamps featuring an image of the Statue of Liberty, and a blue Air Mail sticker

    Postcard sent by James Baldwin to Beauford Delaney 

  • Newsletter with a typewritten article underneath the blue nameplate of the publication “Howard University News”

    Howard University News, May 6, 1955

  • Sheet of paper with typescript writing and some handwritten revisions in black ink

    James Baldwin’s revisions to draft of “Notes of a Native Son”

  • Sheet of paper featuring a typescript title page with handwritten revisions in black pencil

    James Baldwin’s revisions to title page of Giovanni’s Room

  • Sheet of paper with typescript and handwritten revisions in black pencil

    James Baldwin’s draft of Giovanni’s Room

  • Illustrative book cover with two men, one sitting on a chair with his gaze forward and the other lying shirtless on the floor, set against a white background

    1969 edition of Giovanni’s Room

  • Illustrative book cover depicting two men, one seated at a table with a cigarette in his hand and the other shirtless in the background looking at the other man

    1977 edition of Giovanni’s Room

  • Photographic portrait of James Baldwin.

    Photograph of James Baldwin in Paris

  • Black-and-white photograph of a man wearing glasses sitting behind a typewriter on a desk

    Photograph of James Baldwin at work

  • Sheet of paper with typescript and handwritten annotations

    James Baldwin’s revisions to Another Country

  • A two-page spread of a journal, with typescript writing. There is an advertisement overlaying the left page

    James Baldwin’s “A Letter to My Nephew”

  • Sheet of white paper with typescript writing and handwritten revisions in black ink

    James Baldwin’s revisions to “Down at the Cross: A Letter from a Region of My Mind”

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    1963 issue of TIME

  • Six strips of black-and-white photographs, each strip containing six thumbnail photographs featuring headshots and protest images

    Photographs of James Baldwin from the National Day of Mourning

  • Letter from Leonard Woolf to Vita Sackville-West concerning Virginia Woolf’s death.

    Letter from Leonard Woolf to Vita Sackville-West concerning Virginia Woolf’s death

    Not currently on view

  • Page from Henry David Thoreau’s manuscript draft of Walden.

    Page from Henry David Thoreau’s manuscript draft of Walden

    Not currently on view

  • Letter from Mary Wollstonecraft to Catharine Macaulay

    Letter from Mary Wollstonecraft to Catharine Macaulay

    Not currently on view

  • Handwritten letter in brown ink on cream-colored paper

    Letter from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Sir Richard Phillips

    Not currently on view

  • Charles Dickens’s reading copy of A Christmas Carol with strikethroughs and marginalia.

    Charles Dickens’s reading copy of A Christmas Carol

    Not currently on view

  • Vladimir Nabokov's notations and detailed drawings of butterfly wings taped to a scrapbook page

    Pages from Vladimir Nabokov’s butterfly scrapbook

    Not currently on view

  • Vladimir Nabokov with butterfly book, photographed for Life magazine

    Vladimir Nabokov with butterfly book, photographed for Life magazine

    Not currently on view

  • Handwritten page from Jane Austen’s Winchester Races.

    Jane Austen’s “Winchester Races”

    Not currently on view

  • First edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems

    First edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems 

    Not currently on view

  • Virginia Woolf’s manuscript draft of The Prime Minister. The origins of Mrs. Dalloway are found in this notebook.

    Virginia Woolf’s manuscript draft of “The Prime Minister”

    Not currently on view

  • A page of paper covered with handwritten script; the author has scribbled out each line on the bottom half of the page

    Page from Frances Burney’s manuscript of Cecilia

    Not currently on view

  • William Blake’s Milton, a poem in 2 books, featuring a hand-colored relief-etching of a man seen from behind.

    William Blake’s Milton, a poem in 2 books

    Not currently on view

  • Jack Kerouac’s proposed cover design for On the Road. Graphite and ink over typescript.

    Jack Kerouac’s proposed cover design for On the Road

    Not currently on view

  • Photograph of Jack Kerouac by John Cohen. Gelatin silver print.

    Photograph of Jack Kerouac by John Cohen

    Not currently on view

  • Page from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s manuscript draft of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

    Page from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s manuscript draft of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

    Not currently on view

  • A scrapbook open to show two pages on which have been affixed eight different photographic depictions of Walt Whitman, each numbered and most accompanied by handwritten captions

    100 Whitman Photographs

    Not currently on view

  • A photograph of Minister Malcolm X in Harlem, New York, with a graffiti star and crescent moon on a brick wall behind him.

    Photograph of Minister Malcolm X by Richard Saunders

    Not currently on view

  • Malcolm X’s briefcase, brown leather and brass, ca. 1965 or earlier.

    Malcolm X’s briefcase

    Not currently on view

  • Photograph of Malcolm X speaking at a Marcus Garvey Day Celebration by Cecily Layne

    Page of Malcolm X’s unpublished autobiography chapter entitled “The Negro”

    Not currently on view

  • Portrait of Oscar Wilde in a velvet vest and jacket and tall boots leaning against an ornate wall by Napoleon Sarony.

    Portrait of Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony

    Not currently on view

  •  A Serious Comedy for Trivial People, an early manuscript draft of The Importance of Being Earnest.

    Oscar Wilde’s A Serious Comedy for Trivial People

    Not currently on view

  • Gray box reading Image not Available

    Letter from Langston Hughes to Joel Spingarn

    Not currently on view

  • Samuel L. Clemens’s manuscript of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

    Samuel L. Clemens’s manuscript of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

    Not currently on view

  • Typewritten page from James Baldwin’s draft of a speech entitled The Novel.

    Page from James Baldwin’s draft of “The Novel”

    Not currently on view

  • Charlotte Brontë’s writing desk. Wood, mother of pearl, metal, and velvet.

    Charlotte Brontë’s writing desk

    Not currently on view

  • Open photograph album; on the lefthand page is a portrait of Virginia Wolf in profile. At right, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, is a horizontal portrait of Woolf and her father

    Album with portraits of Virginia Woolf and her father

    Not currently on view

  • Righthand page of a diary with an entry handwritten in blue ink

    Virginia Woolf’s diary

    Not currently on view

  • Back side of a letter written in blue ink and signed by Virginia Woolf

    Letter from Virginia Woolf to David Garnett

    Not currently on view

  • Four photographs matted together showing T.S. Eliot at various ages, as a child standing and seated reading in a rocking chair, as an adult leaning against a wall with a cane, and as an older man seated with a book on a porch

    Four photographs of T.S. Eliot

    Not currently on view

  • Typescript page heavily marked with pencil and ink notations

    T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land with revisions

    Not currently on view

  • Cover of The Dial that also lists its content and page numbers, the paper now a light rust color

    The Dial, including the first American publication of The Waste Land

    Not currently on view

  • Printed book open to pages 6 and 7; page 7 has a handwritten correction

    The Waste Land, with Eliot’s autograph corrections

    Not currently on view

  • Front side of a typescript letter printed on the letterhead of “The Criterion: A Quarterly Review”

    Letter from T.S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf

    Not currently on view

  • Black-and-white photograph of T.S. Eliot wearing a suit and tie, standing between a bulletin board and an American Airlines poster, holding a lit cigarette and looking off to his right

    Portrait of T.S. Eliot by George Platt Lynes

    Not currently on view

  • Gray box reading Image not Available

    Portrait of James Joyce by Berenice Abbott

    Not currently on view

  • Teal book cover with white writing that reads in all capitals “Ulysses by James Joyce”

    Ulysses (No. 455 of 1,000)

    Not currently on view

  • The righthand page of open book bearing a handwritten inscription by James Joyce to James Stephens

    Ulysses (No. 474 of 1,000)

    Not currently on view

  • Bright magenta cover of The Little Review, with the magazine’s title printed at the top and, at lower left, “’Ulysses’ by James Joyce

    The Little Review: A Magazine of the Arts

    Not currently on view

  • Gray box reading Image not Available

    Letter from Ezra Pound to an unidentified recipient

    Not currently on view

  • Color woodblock print in shades of green and blue depicting a temple complex, with handwritten poetry in Japanese at top

    Katsushika Hokusai’s Contest of Genroku Poems on Seashells

    Not currently on view

  • Color woodblock print executed mainly in blues and oranges showing a woman holding a book and her assistant holding a kettle, both kneeling over a basin

    Keisai Eisen’s print of Ono no Komachi with her assistant

    Not currently on view

  • Print showing a seated woman holding a long pipe and reading a book, with script in Japanese printed over her head.

    Yorozu yoshi (Everything Is All Well)

    Not currently on view

  • Watercolor illustration of a woman dressed in classical Greek robes and sandals and leaning against a waist-high pillar, on top of which she positions a lyre

    Watercolor by Charlotte Brontë

    Not currently on view

  • Two-page spread covered in script of brown ink

    Charlotte Brontë’s manuscript of “Adventures of Ernest Alembert”

    Not currently on view

  • Portrait of Charles Dickens by Jeremiah Gurney

    Portrait of Charles Dickens by Jeremiah Gurney

    Not currently on view

  • Jorge Luis Borges's manuscript draft of "La lotería en Babilonia" on a notebook open to show the first page of his writing.

    Jorge Luis Borges’s Manuscript of “La lotería en Babilonia”

    Not currently on view

  • Right-hand page of printed book bearing the title of the work and a list of the principal actors’ names, including, listed first, William Shakespeare

    Shakespeare’s First Folio

    Not currently on view

  • Right-hand page of printed book with header “A Catalogue” followed by a table of contents

    Shakespeare’s First Folio

    Not currently on view

  • Printed horizontal view of London around 1600. The Thames River runs just below center from left to right, separating the two banks, hosting many ships and crossed by a bridge. Buildings are numbered and keyed to a legend at the bottom.

    17th-Century View of London

    Not currently on view

  • Open spread of printed book showing the final two pages of The Tragedie of King Lear, with the left page numbered 38 and the right 309

    Shakespeare’s First Folio

    Not currently on view

  • Printed book displayed open to a printed verse on the left-hand page and a black-and-white engraving of William Shakespeare on the right-hand title page

    Shakespeare’s First Folio

    Not currently on view

  • Printed book open to a spread; the left-hand page notes “the actors names” and the right the beginning of “The Life of Henry the Fift.”

    Shakespeare’s First Folio

    Not currently on view

  • Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. The book is displayed open with a portrait of Phillis Wheatley on the title page.

    Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

    Not currently on view

  • Typescript poem with dedication and signature of the author handwritten in blue ink on a diagonal at lower right

    Gwendolyn Brooks’s “Malcolm X: For Dudley Randall”

    Not currently on view

  • Front side of a typescript letter printed on the letterhead of “The Criterion: A Quarterly Review”

    Gwendolyn Brooks’s “Medgar Evers”

    Not currently on view

  • Gray box reading Image Not Available

    Pablo Neruda’s article about Watergate

    Not currently on view

  • Gray box reading Image Not Available

    Annie Proulx’s watercolor sketchbook

    Not currently on view

  • A watercolor painting of a forest and lake landscape in a color palette of green, yellow, pink, and purple hues

    Annie Proulx’s watercolor “Arrastre L.”

    Not currently on view

  • Manuscript written in brown ink on off-white paper

    Manuscript of Mary Shelley’s poem “The Choice”

    Not currently on view

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    Letter from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

    Not currently on view

  • Grayscale drawing of a woman and man approaching a man in the waves as two other men, one holding a torch, look on

    Discovery of Percy Shelley’s Body

    Not currently on view

  • Several brown, jagged-edged fragments of varying sizes encapsulated in a mylar sleeve

    Fragments of the skull of Percy Bysshe Shelley

    Not currently on view

  • Long-sleeved white shirt with elongated triangular collar panels, backlit to highlight show the embroidered text that covers the fabric

    The August 23rd Blouse

    Not currently on view

  • Black-and-white print showing a man in a toga-like garment and cape holding a dagger in one hand as another man cowers on the floor

    Thomas Potter Cooke performing the role of the monster in Frankenstein

    Not currently on view

  • Black-and-white print showing a man in a toga-like garment holding a young girl in one arm while another man sinks to one knee and seems to plead with him

    Scene from Le Monstre et le Magicien

    Not currently on view

  • Lock of brown hair encapsulated in a mylar sleeve

    Lock of Mary Shelley’s hair

    Not currently on view

  • Scratchboard black-and-white portrait of Mary Shelley, depicted looking at the viewer and holding a needle and thread with which she sews her left hand onto her arm

    Illustration of Mary Shelley by Mark Summers

    Not currently on view

  • Printed title page of Frankestein; or, the Modern Prometheus, in Three Volumes, dated 1818

    First edition of Frankenstein

    Not currently on view

  • Title page of book printed in black ink

    Second edition of Frankenstein

    Not currently on view

  • Handwritten letter in black ink on cream-colored paper

    Letter from William Godwin to George Bartley

    Not currently on view

  • Printed broadside playbill with title, description, and case of the play Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein

    Broadside playbill for Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein

    Not currently on view

  • Printed book laid open, with an engraving overlaid on the lefthand page titled Juliet and depicting a woman in a gown, kneeling and looking up at the moon

    Mary Shelley’s “Transformation,” published in The Keepsake

    Not currently on view

  • Manuscript written in brownish-black ink on off-white paper

    Mary Shelley’s manuscript draft of “Transformation”

    Not currently on view

  • Closed cover of a book featuring a black and white photograph of Frankenstein’s monster as depicted in the 1931 film

    Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus

    Not currently on view

  • Photograph of two comic books, one open to show illustrations and the second closed to show the cover, which is tan with red title text and a rendering of half of a woman’s face

    Korean comic book 메리 고드윈 [Mary Godwin]

    Not currently on view

  • Detail of frontispiece of Shakespeare's portfolio showing an engraving of the author in 17th-century dress. Above it reads: Published according to the true original copies.

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