Stop 20. A Passion for English Literature

Sal Robinson, Lucy Ricciardi Assistant Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts

Morgan filled the single row of book cases lining his personal study with great works of English literature. He made significant acquisitions of both books and literary manuscripts by Frances Burney, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the Brontë sisters in the early twentieth century. Some rare editions of novels by these authors can be seen in Cabinet 17, to the right of the window. Among his early purchases of works by British women authors was the handwritten manuscript for Les Dames vertes by French novelist Amantine Dupin, who wrote under the pen name George Sand, which he bought in 1896. To care for the historic bindings in the collection, Belle Greene hired binder Marguerite Duprez Lahey in 1908.