News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah
“What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything, and who, having eyes to see what time and chance are perpetually hold...
You with the Darkness – Slingshot, you with the stone: It is over evening, I throw light behind myself. Fetch me down, take us Seriously. Four Poems Paul Celan (1920-1970) New York: Granary Book...
Virginia Woolf said “…the pursuit of reading is carried on by private people.” So, too, is the pursuit of fine bookmaking. As the quality of bookmaking declined in the nineteenth century ...
O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, ...
Humans have been compiling information to answer an infinity of questions for thousands of years. From Ptolemy to Izaak Walton, the best minds have annotated, edited, translated, measured, arranged, a...
“Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!” — Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road Peter and Donna Thomas are book artists from Santa Cruz, CA....
Search for material in the rare book collections in Usearch. Access the rare book collections by visiting the Special Collections Reference and Reading Rooms, level 4.
The Rare Books Division of Special Collections holds more than 80,000 books, maps and ephemera documenting the record of human communication from clay tablet to artists’ book. Collection strengths include illuminated manuscript facsimiles; Mesoamerican codex facsimiles; Arabic papyrus, parchment and paper fragments; Middle Eastern manuscript and print material; published works on science, travel and exploration; the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; fine press and artists’ books; and the works of twentieth century authors such as Robinson Jeffers, Ernest Hemingway, Wallace Stegner and others. Smaller but equally important collections include material on European politics, law, literature, philosophy, medicine, and performance arts; United States constitutional history and much more. The rare book collections preserve a heritage of thought, artistic endeavor, and innovation that inspires the human spirit today. By actively collecting, preserving, and digitizing material of historical and aesthetic importance, the Rare Books Division provides reference, research and educational access to local, regional and international communities – strengthening the ability of faculty to teach, students to learn, and communities to find common denominators.
– Novum Organum, 1620