The John Hay Library at Brown University has received the latest in a series of extraordinary gifts from Daniel G. Siegel ’57, proprietor of M & S Press and M & S Rare Books. Mr. Siegel, who in the past has made gifts to Brown including a first edition of The Great Gatsby inscribed by F. Scott Fitzgerald to T. S. Eliot, has given 130 historically significant texts and manuscripts to the John Hay, which houses the University Library’s collections of rare books and manuscripts, the University Archives, and special collections.

Within the collection donated by Mr. Siegel, the greatest strengths are in the history of science, including major works in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, chemistry and physics; American, British and European history and literature; and philosophical and religious thought. The works, many of which are rare and inscribed or annotated by their authors or distinguished previous owners, are of great scholarly and artifactual value. Director of Special Collections Samuel Streit says that the gift “adds depth to library strengths” in areas such as the history of science “while extending them in new directions.”

Representative scientific and philosophical titles include: the first two editions of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus (1453 and 1566), which established the heliocentric theory of the solar system; the very rare 1835 Extracts from Letters to Professor Henslow, written by Darwin during his voyage on the Beagle and which will be featured in the Library’s Darwin bicentennial exhibit in April and May ’09; the first French (1637) and first English (1649) editions of Descartes Discours de la Methode, a cornerstone of modern philosophy; 26 titles by Einstein which together encapsulate his thought on the theory of relativity; and the second edition of the Cinque Libri of Giambattista Vico, one of the seminal thinkers of the modern era. Vico’s ideas influenced later philosophers, writers, and scientists as varied as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Joyce, and Karl Marx. This copy of Cinque Libri, extensively annotated by Vico in preparation for the third edition, will be an excellent resource for researchers working in a range of disciplines.

Historical highlights include: exceptional Lincoln items complementing the Library’s McLellan Lincoln Collection including the rare second inaugural address and the broadside New York draft order of January 30, 1863 which sparked the infamous draft riots; items of significant Mormon interest including the 1849 Constitution of the State of Deseret; and the Journal of the Proceedings of the Continental Congress. The copy of the journal given to Brown is distinguished by its inclusion of Paul Revere’s engraving of Samuel Adams and Adams’ inscription to the Rev. John Lothrop of Boston.

Significant works of literature range from several rare and inscribed books by Hemingway and an inscribed copy of Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward Angel to extremely rare Russian titles, the most significant being Pushkin’s Boris Godunov (1831) and his Poems and Tales (1835).

Monuments in the fields of philosophy and religion include one of only 68 copies of the first private printing of Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (1834) inscribed “To My Dear Father”; Gide’s L’Immoraliste (1902); the Platform of the Saybrook Synod, which was the first book printed in Connecticut in 1710; Isaac de Pinto’s Prayers for Shabbath…, the first American Jewish prayer book (1766); and Bishop Berkeley’s Treatise Concerning Human Knowledge (1710).
The donation of this extensive collection comes on the heels of earlier contributions by Dan Siegel to the John Hay Library, including the first quarto edition of Audubon’s Quadrupeds in its original wrappers, and the manuscript of Orwell’s 1984. Joukowsky Family University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi said of the most recent Siegel gift, “Through this gift, Dan’s presence will be felt in the Library for generations to come. Every time one of these extraordinary books is opened, the gift will be renewed and the reader’s life enriched.”