Press Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Public Contact: Janice Ruth (202) 707-5383

January 2, 1996

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.

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PR 95-170
1/2/96
ISSN 0731-3527

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