The Rare Book and Manuscript Library Acquires the Archive of Independent Publisher The Dalkey Archive
"Dalkey Archive is a great and heroic publisher, passionately committed to vital, brilliant literature from all over the world," Columbia Professor of Creative Writing, Ben Marcus, said.
Its formidable backlist includes Flann O'Brien, Aldous Huxley, Gilbert Sorrentino, Viktor Shklovsky, David Markson, Nicholas Mosley, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Donald Barthelme, Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Fuentes, Raymond Queneau, and Nathalie Sarraute.
"Columbia has long been interested in publishing history, and in coming to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Dalkey Archive Press joins an impressive set of collections, including the records of Random House, Harper & Row, the Pantheon Press, and many others," Michael Ryan, Director of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, said.
"This is an honor for us because Columbia specializes in publisher's archives. So much remains to be written about publishing in America; it's a wide-open field for scholars,” Dalkey Archive Press Founder, John O’Brien, said. "It will provide an outstanding venue for future Dalkey events in New York, especially with authors in our Best European Fiction anthologies and books in our series with individual countries. New York is America's cultural capital, and Columbia University is of course the premiere university there."
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library owns over 500,000 rare books in some 20 book collections and almost 28 million manuscripts in nearly 3,000 separate manuscript collections. It is particularly strong in English and American literature and history, classical authors, children‘s literature, education, mathematics and astronomy, economics and banking, photography, the history of printing, New York City politics, librarianship, and the performing arts. Individual collections are as eclectic as they are extensive. For more information, please see: https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/rbml.html
Columbia University Libraries/Information Services is one of the top five academic research library systems in North America. The collections include over 11 million volumes, over 150,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, and graphic and audio-visual materials. The services and collections are organized into 22 libraries and various academic technology centers. The Libraries employs more than 500 professional and support staff. The website of the Libraries is the gateway to its services and resources: library.columbia.edu.