Below you will find a selected listing of items acquired for our collections during the 2006-2007 academic year. These items will be on exhibit in Special Collections through the end of September. The collection in which the item is shelved is listed in bold type. This list is updated periodically by Curator, Lynne Thomas. Additional information on recent acquisitions for particular collections can be found on their respective collections pages.
If you have a suggestion for a purchase by Rare Books and Special Collections, please contact the Curator, Lynne Thomas.
Beeton, Isabella. Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book and Household Guide. London: Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co., 1891.
Brown, Charles Brockden. Jane Talbot. Boston: S.G. Goodrich, 1827.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College. Boston: James Munroe, 1838. First edition.
Foster, Hannah Webster. The Coquette. Newburyport: Thomas & Whipple, 1811. Third edition.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, 1852. First edition, second printing.
---. The House of the Seven Gables. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1851. First edition, fourth printing. One of 1,000 copies.
Louisa May Alcott
Alcott, Louisa May. Aunt Jo’s Scrap-bag: My Boys, etc. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1872.
---. Comic Tragedies. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893. First edition.
---. Eight Cousins. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1875. First edition.
---. Hospital Sketches. Boston: James Redpath, 1863. First edition.
---. Jack and Jill. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1880. First edition.
---. Spinning-Wheel Stories. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884.
---. Work: A Story of Experience. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873. First American Edition.
Some materials purchased through the Horatio Alger Society Endowment
Cooper, James Fenimore. Two Admirals. Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co., [n.d.].
Grey, Zane. Tappan’s Burro and Other Stories. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [n.d.].
Wiggin, Kate Douglas. The Romance of a Christmas Card. Illustrated by Alice Ercle Hunt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916.
Wister, Mrs. A.L. Gold Elsie. From the German of E. Marlitt. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Col, 1872.
Purchased through the Horatio Alger Society Endowment
Travel Literature
Clark, Frances E. & Harriet E. Clark. Our Journey Around the World. An illustrated record of a year’s travel of forty thousand miles through India, China, Japan, Australia…with glimpses of life as seen through a woman’s eyes. Hartford: A.D. Worthington & Co., 1895.
Forney, John W. Letters from Europe. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers, 1867.
Forster, Léon. Scènes instructives et amusantes ou voyages au coin du feu. Tours: Mame et Cie., 1857.
[Jackson, Frederick]. The Effinghams, or, Home as I found it. New York: Samuel Colman, 1841.
Quinton, Robert. The Strange Adventures of Captain Quinton. Being a truthful record of the experiences and escapes of Robert Quinton during his life among the cannibals of the South Seas. New York: The Christian Herald, c1912.
Silliman, Benjamin. Remarks made on a short tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819… New Haven: S. Converse, 1824.
Thome, James A. & J. Horace Kimball. Emancipation in the West Indies. Six months’ tour in Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, in the year 1837. New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838.
Wansey, Henry. The Journal of an Excursion to the United States of North America, in the Summer of 1794. Salisbury, J. Easton, 1796.
Purchased through the Bernadine Hanby Endowment
Archives of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature
This year, two archives of living SF writers were added to our Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection.
Jack McDevitt is the author of over 10 books and numerous short stories, many of which focus on “first contact” with alien life forms and space archeology. His novel Seeker won the 2007 Nebula Award for best novel, an award for which he has been nominated several times. A finding aid finding aid to this collection is available.
E.E. Knight is a graduate of the History and Political Science departments at NIU. He is the author of the Vampire Earth series of novels, which are set in a postapocalyptic America, as well as the Age of Fire series, which follows a dragon who is the last of his kind, from the dragon’s point of view. His papers are currently being processed. A finding aid should be available soon.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection
Gift of Jack McDevitt and E.E. Knight.
Auden and Isherwood
Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973. A tragedy in two acts: the ascent of F6 by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1936.
Purchased through the Orville & Adra Baker Endowment.
Deism and Natural Religion
Bergier, M. (Nicolas-Sylvestre), 1718-1790. Déisme réfuté par lui-même, ou, Examen, en forme de Lettres, des principes d'incrédulité répandus dans les divers Ouvrages de M. Rousseau par M. Bergier. Paris: Humblot, 1766.
Law, William, 1686-1761. The case of reason, or Natural religion, fairly and fully stated: in answer to a book, intitled, Christianity as old as the creation by William Law. The Second Edition, Revised and Corrected. London: Printed for W. Innys and J. Richardson, 1755.
Purchased through the Martin I. Kallich Endowment
Landmark Books from Barry Moser’s Pennyroyal Press
Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Barry Moser ; preface and notes by James R. Kincaid ; text edited by Selwyn H. Goodacre. West Hatfield, Mass.: Pennyroyal Press, 1982.
---. Lewis Carroll’s Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there illustrated with 95 wood engravings by Barry Moser ; with a preface and notes by James R. Kincaid ; text edited by Selywn Goodacre. West Hatfield, Mass. : Pennyroyal Press, 1982.
“Printed ... in an edition of three hundred and fifty copies, of which fifty have been reserved for participants and patrons"--Colophon. The NIU copy includes a suite of 75 woodblock plates signed by the artist.
Private Press Collection: Pennyroyal Press
Books By and For Women
Southworth, Mrs. E.D.E.N. Nearest and dearest: a novel. New York: A.L. Burt, c1889.
Ward, Maria. Female life among the Mormons: A narrative of many years’ personal experience. New York: J.C. Derby, 1855.
American Popular Literature Collection
Series and Childrens’ Literature
By Purchase American Tract Society.
Elspeth Sutherland, or, The effects of faith. [Tract] no. 26. New York: American Tract Society, [n.d.; 1832-1876].
Barrow, Aunt Fanny. Funny pop-guns: being the fourth book of the series. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1864.
Neal, Alice. Nothing venture, nothing have. By Cousin Alice. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1859.
These titles represent our continuing effort to build our collections in Series and Children’s literature up, especially with books not marketed predominantly to boys. We are always looking for additional titles like these to add to our collection, especially through donation.
American Popular Literature Collection
The Christopher Street Reader. Ed. Michael Denneny, Charles Ortleb, and Thomas Steele. New York: Howard-McCann, 1983.
Jameson, Mrs (Anna), 1794-1860. Characteristics of women : moral, poetical, and historical, by Mrs. Jameson. From the last London ed. New York : Wiley, 1850.