Rare Books overview
Pre-1800 Books
The early printed materials in the Division number over 30,000 volumes and encompass a wide range of subject and author collections. The emphasis is on eighteenth-century English and European imprints, covering the literature of that period as well as the biographical, philosophical and historical output. Literature and Social History are great strengths. Particular author strengths include the works of Swift, Johnson, Goldsmith, Dryden, Defoe and Pope in addition to significant holdings of numerous other dramatists, novelists and poets.
Additional highlights include:
The Caselli Collection of books printed in Italy during the 15-17th centuries.
The 18th Century Journal collection of Dr. R.M Wiles
Plus numerous others, all searchable in the Library Catalogue.
Post-1800 Books
Notable among the authors represented are Samuel Beckett, Edmund Blunden, Charles Dickens, Robert Graves, Leigh Hunt, Henry James, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Iris Murdoch, Mervyn Peake, Ezra Pound, Siegfried Sassoon, H.G. Wells, and Virginia Woolf. Subject concentrations in the collections cover such areas as literary and historical works relating to World War I, World War II, British pacifism, Anglo-Irish literature, children's literature, imprints of the Hogarth Press, modern Canadian poetry, imprints of Canadian publishers, and more than 4,000 Canadian pamphlets. All the monographs can be found in the Library Catalogue.
