Mitchell Kennerley and Vassar College

Posted on behalf of Ron Patkus, Director of Archives and Special Collections

Mitchell Kennerley in his library

Mitchell Kennerley in his library

Mitchell Kennerley (1878-1950), whose birthday is August 14, was one of the greatest figures in the worlds of publishing, book collecting, and art in the early twentieth century.

Born in England, as a young man he worked for the London office of the publisher John Lane.  He came to New York to establish offices here, but did not stay with the company for long.  He briefly held other positions before starting his own publishing firm in 1906, still in his twenties.  He made many contacts and over his lifetime published the work of key authors, among them Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.  He was called “the first modern publisher,” and was known for holding high standards in book production.  From 1910 to 1916 he published in New York and London The Forum, a literary periodical which often featured his books.

Kennerley’s interest in books as objects led him to the world of book collecting.  He joined the Book Collectors Club of America and started the Lexington Avenue Bookshop.  From 1916-1929 and 1937-1939 he was also president of Andersen Galleries, overseeing many important auctions of books, manuscripts, and works of art.  In the late 1930s he co-founded Parke-Bernet Galleries, which would eventually become the largest auctioneer of fine art in the United States.

Kennerley’s personality was larger than life.  Matthew Bruccoli, in The Fortunes of Mitchell Kennerley, Bookman described it as a combination of “cool egotism, arrogance, audacity, ruthlessness, relentlessness and charm.” He thus faced many problems, including financial difficulties, and eventually committed suicide (the exact cause is unknown).

Kennerley printers mark

Kennerley printers mark

Vassar’s Special Collections Library holds significant collections relating to Kennerley.  Of special note is a complete run of his imprint, dating from 1906 to 1929.  Given to the library in 1930, this archive reveals both the range of Kennerley as publisher, and the care with which individual books and periodicals were made.  For those interested in these books, Daniel Boice’s The Mitchell Kennerley Imprint: A Descriptive Bibliography will be of great interest.

Over the course of many years Kennerley generously donated a number of interesting and rare books to the Vassar library.  He had become friends with the librarian, Fanny Borden, and often corresponded with her and sent Vassar interesting titles for its collection.  These include, for example, a collection of first editions of Edna St. Vincent Millay, as well as a complete collection of publications of Frederic Goudy’s Village Press.

In addition, Vassar holds a collection of Kennerley’s personal papers, which date from 1898 to 1934.  Among the papers is correspondence with people like Bliss Carmen, D.H. Lawrence, and Joseph Hergesheimer, as well as photographs, publications by and about Kennerley, and other miscellaneous items.  There are also Kennerley letters in other Vassar collections, such as the Frederic Goudy Papers.

Other collections of Kennerley papers are held by a variety of institutions, including the New York Public Library, the Archives of American Art, the University of Virginia, and the University of Pennsylvania.  The NYPL collection in particular holds a significant number of letters written to Kennerley by various writers, artists, and others.

 

Maria Mitchell and her Students

August 1st marks the 195th anniversary of the birth of Maria Mitchell, famed astronomer and educator. Much has been written about Mitchell’s public life and career, so we won’t take up more space here recounting that. And much has been written about how Mitchell nurtured her students and served as an inspiration for successful careers in the sciences for several Vassar graduates, so that is not new information. What is new is our expanded access to how students felt on a very personal level about Maria Mitchell – made possible by the digitization of a large section of the diaries and letters housed in Vassar’s Archives and Special Collections. Below are excerpts from some of those materials.

Miss Mitchell I admire more than I do any woman here, she is tall, has grey hair which she wears done up in two little knobs on each side of her head, that look as if they would be curls sometime, the rest is in a black chenile net drawn up on top of her head just as Emma’s is. She being a Quakeress always wears black and grey, and her whole appearance never alters a particle. She is a noble woman.
– Martha S. Warner to her mother, October 1865

Maria Mitchell portrait, n.d.

Maria Mitchell portrait, n.d.

Miss [Mitchell], I do love so much, it will always be one of my happy memories that she kissed me good bye – when I had reached home at last – of course it was a very ordinary thing – but then I did not expect it from her. She would have done it to any of her class of course as she did to me.
– Sarah L. Blatchley to Isabel Treadwell, 28 December 1865

Maria Mitchell and her Father, n.d.

Maria Mitchell and her father, n.d.

Maria Mitchell came up to our room the evening, she is very pleasant, her father enquired particularly about all our family and asked if you Father did not teach once, and after I told him that you had not, would hardly give up the idea but what you had, it seems quite like home, to go over there, they are so pleasant and social.
– Abigail and Caroline Slade to their parents, 21 January 1866

Mariah Mitchell and her first astronomy class, 1866

Mariah Mitchell and her first astronomy class, 1866

I think everything of Miss Mitchell. She is just as good as she can be, so very smart and yet perfectly simple in her manners. I went over to the observatory the day after I got here and rec’d a very warm welcome from Mr. Mitchell, a very cordial one from Miss Maria. He said he had inquired ever since college began of any one that might know when I was expected. I staid an hour or more and shall go again in a day or two.
– Mary Woodworth to her mother, September 1868

Vassar Observatory, 1879

Vassar Observatory, 1879

Almost every night some of us go out star gazing. Passers by would think us crazy from the frantic manner in which we rush about shouting “I know what that is.” “Oh! what is that name?” and the constant repetition of some names as, “Capella, Capella.” Last night we learned three new names, and fortunately have remembered them. We find Prof. Mitchell perfectly charming, as she has always been reported to be. One night we went over to ask her some question and were treated to fine large pears. Think we shall go again.
Julia M. Pease to “Carrie,” October 1873

Summer Reading Suggestions

 index3 Brunt, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I’m Home. New York: Dial Press, c2012

This is a beautiful story of love and friendship; a coming of age tale with a backdrop of 1980s New York during the tragic AIDS epidemic before AZT. The young protagonist’s voice is so sensitively realized and acutely honest that more than one reviewer evokes Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird in their description of this debut novel.
 fowlercover Fowler, Karen Joy. We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves. New York: Putnam, 2013.

From the author of The Jane Austen Book Club, this novel about a family, science and humanity is next on my reading list. Reviewers are describing its themes as compassion, truth, love and tragedy and friends have mentioned it’s hard to put down.
 index Wolitzer, Meg. The Interestings. New York : Riverhead Books, 2013


I might be the only librarian who hasn’t read this book yet; everyone is talking about it! It’s about a group of friends who met at a summer camp for artsy teens in 1974 and stayed in touch into adulthood. It’s receiving exceptional reviews and sounds like a great summer read.
 index4 Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend, trans. Ann Goldstein. New York: Europa Editions, 2012.

This novel is the first in a trilogy by this important popular Italian author.  By following the close friendship of two women starting with their 1950s childhood, this story illustrates the transformation of their relationship and the significant changes experienced in their neighborhood and country. It will make you want to read her other books!