English & French Literature and Languages
Special Collections has particular strengths in early editions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction, serials, and pamphlets. The collection has a complete run of the Gentleman’s Magazine (1731-1922) and long runs of the Annual Register, the Monthly Review, and the London Magazine. Significant holdings of French periodicals include long runs of the Journal des sçavans, the Journal de Verdun, and the Mercure de France. There are also strengths in materials related to individual authors, especially Rudyard Kipling in first editions and Mark Twain, and in popular literature.
How to Use the Collection
With a few exceptions, the collections can be accessed and requested through the library catalog. Finding aids for individual collections are linked on this website. Materials are available for use in the Special Collections Reading Room (room 401) during regular hours. Materials do not circulate.
Finding Aids for English & French Literature and Languages
Center for the Literary Arts Collection
Scope and Contents These materials were donated to the University of Missouri Libraries by the Center for the Literary Arts in 2006. The materials…
Dime Novels
Dime novels were published from the middle nineteenth century through the early twentieth century and were largely pulp fiction aimed at a…
Frank Luther Mott Collection of American Best Sellers, 1662-1945
In 1965, shortly after Frank Luther Mott’s death, his family presented his personal library to the University. The private papers, manuscripts, and…
Helen Montgomery Jenkins Collection
Helen Montgomery Jenkins (1913-2013) was born in Topeka, Kansas, and graduated from the University of Missouri with a B.A. in Journalism in 1935. She…
Historic Textbook Collection
The Education Library of the University Libraries began collecting textbooks in 1968. Donations were solicited and members of the Friends of the…
Literary and Historical Manuscripts
Special Collections holds modern manuscript materials in the form of books, correspondence, and personal papers. These materials were collected at…
Mary Lago Collection
Biographical Sketch Mary McClelland Lago (1919-2001) was on the University of Missouri Department of English faculty from 1977 to 1991. From 1989…
Rare Books
The Rare Books Collection is the default designation for materials in Special Collections that are acquired as individual items. Like Special…
Walter Williams Library
History Walter Williams (1864-1935) was President of the University of Missouri from 1930 – 1935 and served as Dean of the School of Journalism…
William Least Heat-Moon Papers
Scope and Contents Material by Wililam Least Heat-Moon (b. 1939). Manuscripts and additional materials from the following books: PrairyErth (A…
Related Exhibits
Kindred Kingdoms
This exhibit invites you to look at kinship in the kindred kingdoms of nature, placing man in relation to flora...
Winds of Change
This exhibition investigates the relationship between weather and time by questioning past perceptions, examining measurement and prediction practices, and surveying...
Many Happy Returns
This exhibit brings together a selection of items associated with the most important literary anniversaries celebrated in 2016.
Science of Love
This exhibit presents the many faces of love as they appear in the literature of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and...
Children’s Literature of the Harlem Renaissance by African American Women
The twenty-one books in the exhibit represent how invaluable the Harlem Renaissance was for African American children’s literature.
Leaders and Heroes
Every age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. ~ Ohíye S’a (Charles A. Eastman) Libraries tend to hold those materials that...
Children's Literature in Special Collections
"Children's Literature: Selections from the Special Collections Department of Ellis Library" was originally an exhibit mounted in the Ellis Library...
Selected Items
Roman de la Rose
Provenance: John Bagford (1650s-1716) to St. Martin-in-the-Fields; sale 1861 to Sir Thomas Phillipps, n.15758; his sale 22 May, 1913, lot 742; Sir…
Following the equator ; a journey around the world / by Mark Twain.
MU: Rare copy 010-006575770 has letter from the author laid in to Dr. Walter Williams, president of the University of Missouri.
MU: Closed copy…
Life on the Mississippi / Mark Twain ; illustrated by Thomas Hart Benton, with an introduction by Edward Wagenknecht and a number of previously suppressed passages, now printed for the first time, and edited with a note by Willis Wager.
edition of twelve hundred numbered copies
MU: Library has no. 1022, signed by the illustrator.