The collection is maintained by the English Library.
The English Language & Literature collection supports teaching and research in American and British literature, rhetoric and composition, creative writing and English language studies. In addition to supporting the interests of the English Department, the collection serves the School of Humanities on a general basis, especially the Unit for Criticism, the Unit for Cinema Studies, and the Department of Comparative Literature. Of the approximately 700,000 volumes in the Library, about 30,000 of these are held in the English Library, with most of the remaining volumes housed in the Bookstacks and the Rare Book and Special Collections Library. The English literature collection ranks among the nation’s leading collections in its field, with all periods, from the medieval forward, extensively covered, generally in first editions. Particularly noteworthy are a number of special collections acquired by the Library: the Meine collection of American humor (excellent on Twain); the H. G. Wells collection; the Sandburg collection; the Merwin Archives; the Baldwin collection of Elizabethan literature; the Ingold Shakespeare collection; and the John Milton collection.
Version Date: August, 2006