Strategic Collecting Direction

Popular Literature

The Hay’s Popular Literature strategic direction aims to reflect the imaginative worlds of North American authors and readers from the 18th through the 21st centuries. The Hay holds preeminent research collections in speculative fiction anchored by the personal papers of H. P. Lovecraft, who is often attributed as the founder of the weird fiction genre, and those of Caitlín R. Kiernan, a renowned author of science fiction whose work incorporates themes of trans* identity. Scholars also have a rare opportunity to engage with women-authored science fiction, mystery, and romance novels by a myriad of contemporary writers, including Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, and Nancy Kress. Formats include chapbooks, pamphlets, broadsides, pulp novels, and zines, in addition to books produced for every class of consumer. The 4,700 volume Gay Pulp Fiction collection spans the 1950s to 1990s, and the Malana Krongelb Zine Collection, 1974–2018 (Pembroke Center Archives and Sarah Doyle Center) consists of zines dating from 1974–2018 that focus on social justice and marginalized identities. The Hay also holds one of the country’s largest collections of Silver Age comics (1956–1970), including magazine-format comics, graphic novels, translations of Japanese “manga” comics, advertising ephemera, role-playing game materials, and erotica. The Hay’s comics collection is particularly noteworthy for the works published by the small and independent publishers of the 1970s and 1980s.

Strategic growth

Future collecting of popular literature will focus on material authored by writers of color and those who identify as LGBTQIA2S. Emphasis will be placed on popular genres of the late 20th and early 21st centuries as well as their antecedents in earlier periods:

• Romance
• Mystery
• Young adult
• Afrofuturism
• True crime
• Indigenous Futurisms

The substantial music and poetry collections will be enhanced through a focus on the 21st century, with new emphasis on:

• Rap
• Hip hop
• Reggaeton
• Cordelistas/repentistas
• Music from the Global South

Building on the University’s deep strength in electronic literature, the Hay will invest in preserving many forms of digital storytelling. These forms also lend themselves as excellent sources for data analysis:

Collections as Data

• Born-digital fiction
• Video games
• Audio narratives
• Podcasts

Popular Literature Anchor Collections

Albert Edgar Lownes collection on Henry David Thoreau: The Albert E. Lownes Collection on Henry David Thoreau was received in 1967 as a gift from Albert E. Lownes, Class of 1920. It consists of over 1,000 items, and includes books by Thoreau, later editions of his writing, biographical and critical works, and books from his personal library. It contains first editions for each of Thoreau’s separately published books and pamphlets as well as a virtually complete selection of his contributions to periodicals. Of particular note are a number of annotated volumes from Thoreau’s personal library and original manuscript fragments from his Journals, The Maine Woods, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

The Harris Collection of Poetry and Plays: contains a broad array of creative work from the 17th century to the present authored by poets and playwrights in the United States, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Also included is a significant collection of artists’ books — with strong holdings of work by Latinx artists and writers. Through artists’ books, scholars can study the intersection of poetry and art as vehicles for expressions of queer identities and environmental and political activism.

Hortense J. Spillers papers, Pembroke Center Archives: This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Hortense J. Spillers, American literary critic, Black feminist scholar, and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in English at Vanderbilt University. The collection includes handwritten diaries, notebooks, and draft writings; personal and professional correspondence; and conference and teaching materials, dating from 1966 to 1995.

Joy Harjo papers: This archive contains the personal papers of poet, musician, playwright, and author Joy Harjo, who served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate for three terms. The collection includes drafts of writing, personal and professional correspondence, publicity and conference materials, photographs, and artwork from 2020 to the present.The papers are currently in process and not yet available for research.

H. P. Lovecraft papers: Providence author of fantasy and horror tales for the pulp magazines of the 1920s, is now recognized as one of the seminal figures in the development of the science fiction genre. The collection includes extensive holdings of manuscripts, letters, editions of Lovecraft’s works in all languages, periodicals, biographical and critical works, and many supportive collections of manuscript and printed materials of Lovecraft friends and associates. There are more than 1,000 books and magazines, in 20 languages, containing material by or about Lovecraft plus over 2,000 original letters and manuscripts of his essays, fiction and poetry.

Jay Saunders Redding papers: Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Saunders Redding graduated from Brown in 1928. After two years of teaching he returned to Brown to earn an A.M. in 1932. A writer and specialist in African-American Literature, Redding spent the majority of his teaching career at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where he was Professor of English from 1943 to 1966. He subsequently at taught Duke, George Washington and Cornell Universities. In 1949, he returned to Brown for a brief stint as a visiting Professor, thus becoming the first African American to teach at an Ivy League school. He later served as Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Research and Publications from 1966 to 1969.