{"id":4186,"date":"2025-04-01T15:27:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=4186"},"modified":"2025-07-30T10:29:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T14:29:32","slug":"fales-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2025\/04\/01\/fales-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Americana in Manuscript and Type: Piecing Together the Edward C. Fales Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alex Rienerth, \u201925, MA in Literary History, 2024-2025 Graduate Assistant in Rare Books<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

The Edward C. Fales collection<\/a> was a bit of a mystery to me when I started working with it last semester. Many of the collections in rare books<\/a> are extensively documented, including records from collectors that express their motivations and intentions (e.g. the Morgan Collection in the History of Chemistry<\/a>), or otherwise have apparent commonalities among their individual holdings (e.g. Author Collections<\/a>). Fales is a little more difficult to pin down: where did these books come from? Why are they organized this way?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start, Archives & Special Collections received the books for the Fales collection in fall 1971 from—you guessed it—Edward Fales, a rare book dealer from New Hampshire. There isn\u2019t a lot of information on Fales, either online or in our records. According to the New Hampshire Historical society<\/a>, of which he seems to have been an active member in his lifetime, Fales specialized in Shaker materials and spent at least 24 years in the book dealing business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Two<\/a>
The Fales Collection on the shelves today!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, a lot of our clues for the bookseller come from the Fales file, detailing the libraries\u2019 acquisition of the collection. The file includes a bookseller\u2019s catalogue, three typed lists of books, and a series of letters between Edward Fales and a previous head of the library\u2019s special collections, Richard W. Ryan. First, this kind of record-keeping helps keep track of invoices and ensure that we actually have all the books promised by the seller. For my purposes, though, this gives some context on how and why we acquired this collection. In one of his letters to Fales, Ryan notes the collections\u2019 value to OHIO in its diversity (by this, I think he meant “sheer number”) of authors and for covering a period he felt rare books was lacking: American texts from 1840 to 1940. (This alone speaks to how much our rare books collection has changed since then!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The booksellers\u2019 catalogue, Americana in Manuscript and Type<\/em>, bears the name and address of Fales\u2019 business, and we find the description of our collection on its first page: a listing under the title \u201cPoetry Collection\u201d for \u201csome 1300 volumes from the library of a collector of first editions covering a large variety of authors.\u201d Notes in the margins indicate phone conversations between the writer (Ryan?) and the bookseller (Fales). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Edward<\/a>
Edward C. Fales\u2019 Americana in Manuscript and Type <\/em>Catalogue (left) and three book lists: one listing all of the books from Fales (bottom), one made for our cataloguing\/processing purposes (middle), and one listing the signed books in the collection (top). On the \u201csigned books\u201d list, you\u2019ll notice my notes, checks for signed books. On the middle list, you can just make out some of the notes by others who have worked with this collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What interests me here is that, compared to the Edmund Blunden<\/a> and Morgan collections, named directly after the people who curated and organized these holdings, the \u201cEdward C. Fales Collection\u201d is kind of a misnomer. Fales did acquire them, somehow, from the original curator, but was not the collector himself. As he explains in a letter: \u201c[the original owner] has passed away and left an elaborate file system of cards and what not but no one knows why he marked prices in the books.\u201d So, either he bought them directly from that original owner or received them (by purchase or otherwise) from whoever inherited these volumes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I read that there was \u201can elaborate file system of cards and what not,\u201d what I\u2019m guessing corresponds to some original organizational structure, I was pretty taken aback! I\u2019m not going to pretend that access to this filing system would\u2019ve magically communicated what the collector was thinking. More than likely, it would\u2019ve been more confusing to me than for Fales. Still, having access to records like these helps us start to imagine what these books meant to their collector: the fact they had an \u201celaborate\u201d system tells me there was some <\/em>meaning they gave to these materials.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same letter, Fales writes that before sending them to OHIO, \u201cthe books have been individually examined to make sure they are free of all life and have been checked against the list.\u201d Of course, he\u2019s discussing a very necessary process of making sure no bugs or mold have gotten into the book, but it\u2019s vague enough that there\u2019s a bit of irony there; however attached the people who owned them before were to these books, their presence is more or less deliberately removed (save for library stickers), the penciled-in price on the cover, and the authorial inscriptions in many of our copies.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Letter<\/a>
Letter from Fales to Ryan, sent July 26, 1971.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Fales<\/a>
Fales provides an update on preparing the collection for shipment to Ohio University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despite the relative lack (or loss) of context for the Fales collection, we can still evaluate what we have and make some guesses on how to understand these materials as a composite whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After browsing through the collection, Fales\u2019 decision to advertise this group of books in a catalogue of Americana makes a lot of sense. The collection includes well-known American writers like Walt Whitman, but most of the books come from authors who aren\u2019t as well known today. Still, it\u2019s usually best to maintain some skepticism when trying to categorize a collection as one thing <\/em>or totally representative of a place\/time. For example, even as these rarer, lesser-known poets might provide perspectives we don\u2019t always get from a history textbook (or a late-night Wikipedia deep dive) this is still a collection curated by someone (even if we don\u2019t know who), then acquired by another person who made a decision to label these books (and sell them) as \u201cAmericana.\u201d What does that imply?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Whitman\u2019s Leaves of Grass<\/a><\/em> (including a reader\u2019s annotation!) and Folsom\u2019s Love-Lyrics, <\/em>just two examples of the (currently) well known and lesser known authors of this collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a>
Folsom\u2019s cover of Love Lyrics<\/a><\/em> is a favorite of mine for the seemingly hand-painted skull and gold stamping on the cover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Reading poems from these authors, and, as a special (and relatively frequent!) feature of our collection, seeing some of the inscriptions to people in their social circles could broaden our sense of day-to-day life in the 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> centuries, especially when we tend to feel distant from this time period. It\u2019s always wise to remember that these authors don\u2019t speak for everyone\u2019<\/em>s day-to-day across the times and spaces covered by these collections, but instead, we can think of the texts as pieces of a much larger\/more complicated amalgamation of lived experiences in time. Basically, rather than a universal \u201cAmericana,\u201d these volumes can serve as specific, personal pieces from people whose lives we otherwise may not have been aware of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Inscription<\/a>
Inscription inside Versiflage <\/a><\/em>by Percy Waxman (\u201cTo Harold Gould an honest-to-God friend and cash customer\u201d)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Inscription<\/a>
Inscription inside Violet Rays<\/a><\/em> by Olive Allen Robertson (\u201cTo Katherine Because of Memories Olive Allen Robertson \u2018To have friends who are such because of the love and common interests which enrich our relationsips[sic] with life, and (???) life through mutual give and take Hartford Conn. 1906\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"This<\/a>
Inscription inside Poems<\/a><\/em> by Patch (\u201cTo Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, with compliments of the author\u201d)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Since my work in the Fales Collection included checking the list of autographed copies found in the file against the books on the shelf, I got to see countless notes that told me something about the social lives of these authors. Granted, some of the copies are signed and numbered without any type of note—cool to see, regardless—but many include everything from thank you notes to patrons and business partners, holiday greetings to family members, expressions of admiration to politicians\/public figures, and warm words to friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"I\u2019m<\/a>
I\u2019m not going to pretend to be able to read everything the author of Don Juan’s Bouquet<\/a><\/em> has written here, but he\u2019s supplied an extra \u201cbit of verse\u201d for this recipient: \u201cO soap and water I have blown \/ A bubble just this minute \/ \u2018Tis mine, yet I do not own \/ the rainbow in it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"From<\/a>
From Bermuda Verses<\/a><\/em> by Larry Chittenden: An inscription to Mrs. Louisa F. Droune and a postcard including one of Chittenden\u2019s poems.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"From<\/a>
From Wayside Fancies<\/a><\/em> by Ray Gross: \u201cTo Abigail Compliments of the author\u201d (then, tacked in) \u201cDear Abigail, So often you have given me specimens of your handiwork, so I am glad to be able to send you some of mine\u201d\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some of the relationships were harder to discern, like in Donald Parson\u2019s Glass Flowers<\/a><\/em> which includes a letter from Parson asking E.L. Carr, a critic, to review his book—the review is even pasted into the book! It\u2019s difficult to say whether they were friends before the review, became acquainted after the fact, or if the relationship was all business. Pasting a review in a book and keeping the author\u2019s solicitation letter seems to me like keeping one\u2019s receipt after a transaction, but then again, Parson refers to him as \u201cElmo\u201d in his letter (but E.L. Carr in the inscription?).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/a>
A pasted-in news clipping of Carr discussing the death and life of George Herbert Palmer, a Harvard professor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Review<\/a>
Review by Elmendorf L. Carr of Parson\u2019s Glass Flowers<\/em> pasted inside the front cover; it is a relatively positive review, despite Carr\u2019s note that \u201c[it] is not great poetry.\u201d A little back-handed, huh?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A<\/a>
A letter from Parson soliciting a review from Carr (\u201cDear Elmo, Under separate cover I am sending you a slim volume of verse which I have just brought out. You may find something in it of interest. I\u2019ll be glad to have your comment. How about doing a review of it somewhere? If you desire more copies, let me know. I tried to send you a boy (???) this fall, but don\u2019t know if he has made it there or not.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thinking back to Fales making sure the copies were \u201cfree of life,\u201d that wasn\u2019t quite the case for Charles Gibson\u2019s The Spirit of Love<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/a> I was drawn to the book by the gold-stamped flowers and gilded pages. Then, while paging through the book, I found pressed plants—an incredibly pleasant surprise! To add to this good luck, I found two letters along the back cover (likely sent to Herman Milton Hubbard Jr., one of the previous owners of the book, from his mother, Susan Platt Hubbard, an anti-suffrage activist<\/a>…) one, tipped in (what seems to be a new years\u2019 well-wishes note) and the other with some rather critical words concerning Gibson\u2019s poetic abilities!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Front cover of cover of Gibson’s Spirit of Love<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Letters<\/a>
Letters (inexplicably ripped) at the back of Gibson\u2019s Spirit of Love<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Pressed<\/a>
Pressed plants in the middle of Gibson\u2019s Spirit of Love<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Tipped<\/a>
Tipped in New Years letter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the extensive work done by historians on The Gibson House Blog<\/em><\/a>, it seems clear that Gibson had relationships with men, evidenced by a retrospective dive into his life and writing. I can\u2019t help but wonder how this impacts, among many things, the left-over pressed plants in this volume and Platt Hubbard\u2019s less-than-favorable view of his poetry (whether from not picking up the double-meaning in the coded language, or alternatively, picking up on it and not quite being pleased with it…though, maybe the poetry\u2019s just bad. I\u2019m not one to judge that). My questions and curiosities here are, frankly, endless.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s in the kind of rabbit holes you fall into where this collection shines the most as a cohesive unit. Many of these authors aren\u2019t necessarily the ones we\u2019ll be taught in an Introduction to American Literature course or even see re-posted in graphic form on someone\u2019s Instagram story, but there are some real hidden gems here, and more than that, a collection of fascinating, rich, sometimes interconnected, and always complicated histories.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Rienerth, \u201925, MA in Literary History, 2024-2025 Graduate Assistant in Rare Books The Edward C. Fales collection was a bit of a mystery to me when I started working with it last semester. Many of the collections in rare books are extensively documented, including records from collectors that express their motivations and intentions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,29],"tags":[159,177,7],"class_list":["post-4186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rare-books","category-student-workers","tag-graduate-assistant","tag-graduate-students","tag-poetry"],"modified_by":"Miriam Intrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5043,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions\/5043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}