Contact Information
Special Collections
specol@usc.edu
(213) 740 5900
Location
Special Collections, DML 209
Overview
Numbering some 65,000 volumes, this author-based collection of North American writing emphasizes the period from 1850 to 1975.
The collection contains several archival collections.
- Hamlin Garland’s (1860-1940) library and papers, including his voluminous correspondence with the leading literary figures of his period, travel notebooks and much family material. A younger contemporary and acquaintance of Mark Twain, Garland became known for writing in realistic fashion about the upper Midwest when it was still frontierland a hundred years ago. Later his interest turned to the Rockies and the Far West; and he spent his last decade in Los Angeles, lecturing at USC, where he was welcomed as the “Dean of American Letters.”
- Ambrose Bierce’s seldom-seen journalism. Bierce is usually known for his Devil’s Dictionary and for the much-anthologized “Incident at Owl’s Creek Bridge” and other Civil War stories. Most of his other writing was for various papers and magazines.
- Letters and articles written by Jack London, including many of his largely forgotten books.
For more information, visit the collection overview.