The Memorial Room of Widener Library is exhibiting a collection of proofs, corrected in the author's handwriting, and designed to show the different methods used by famous writers in their proof reading. The Treasure Room is exhibiting a collection of early Latin originals and facsimiles.
Among the authors and works represented in the Memorial Room collection are manuscript and proof corrections by Tennyson of his "The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava." a less well known companion poem to "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
Thackeray and Browning Represented
Two corrections of Thackeray's are also on display one of a manuscript of his lecture on George II, the other of the Roundabout Papers. Other proofs corrected personally by the author include "The Surgeon's Daughter." by Scott, "The Amazing Marriage," by Meredith, "Ballads," by Rosetti, and a proof of "Bells and Pomegranates," by Browning, on which in addition to the usual annotations, he drew pictures in the margin illustrating his points.
Kipilnga Proofs Most Valuable
The most valuable set of proofs in the collection is that of "Kim," by Kipling. This set would bring several thousand dollars at auction. Lewis Carroll's correaction of his "Phantasmagoria," one of the recently acquired Carroll collection, is also on show, as is the proof of "Confessions of a Unionist," by Stevenson. This work, which deals with the Irish question, was originally set up for Scribner's Magazine, but as they did not dare to publish it for fear of causing trouble, it was not actually brought out until recently.
"Tabula Metrorum" Is Exhibited.
Among the Latin manuscripts and facsimiles exhibited in the Treasure Room is a copy of the "Tabula Metrorum," which should interest bibliophiles, inasmuch as the meters are marked out in curious boxes placed above the lines.
Also on exhibition is a manuscript of Horace's Odes and Epodes, written in an Italian hand of the fifteenth century for Leonardo Bruni and given by him to the Grand Inquisitor Torquenada.
Another interesting exhibition is a copy of Ovid's works complete except for the Metamorphoses. This is an Italian manuscript of the fifteenth century written for the most part on paper. About 100 parchment leaves, however, are interspersed among the paper ones. Most of these are palimpsets, or parchment which has been used a second time, the first impressions having been obliterated.
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