The Dawson Collection at Texas A&M

by Stephen Atkins (s-atkins@tamu.edu)

The Cushing Library at Texas A&M University entered the world of French studies with the acquisition of the Dawson Collection. Negotiations for this acquisition began in 2003 and culminated in 2005 in the library gaining possession of more than 15,000 volumes and nearly 5,000 manuscripts. The Dawson Collection is a major collection of mostly 18th century books and manuscripts assembled by Professor Robert L. Dawson over a thirty-year time span. He was a professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Texas-Austin for most of his academic career. With an M. Phil in French in 1968 and a Ph.D. in French from Yale University in 1972, Dawson was a specialist in 18th century French literature and literary history. Besides writing several lengthy volumes on the French literary scene in the 18th century, he also began collecting books and manuscripts. By the time the Cushing Library acquired his collection, it had outgrown his home and office space. Dawson wanted a permanent home for his collection, and the Cushing Library seemed appropriate.

Dawson had the collecting fever. He was a regular at stores for rare books in Paris, and he was active at rare book auctions. His collecting fever was so strong that at least twice he mortgaged his home in Austin, Texas to have money for his book collecting. It was fortunate that he was a bachelor; so he had no opposition to this pursuit. Even after the Cushing Library had possession of his collection, Dawson began collecting again. At the time of his premature death in Paris, in June 2007, he had built another collection of approximately 6,000 volumes.

The books in the Dawson Collection are mostly from the 18th century, but there are some from the 17th century. More than ninety percent of the collection is in French, but he also collected books in English and Italian. Many of these were translations of major French works. Since Dawson’s specialty was in the French book trade, he bought various editions of major works. Of special note was his acquisition of, at latest count, eight editions of the 18th century best seller, by Madame de Graffigny, Lettres d’une Peruvienne. There are also books by Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, and other philosophes.

Dawson was more eclectic in his buying of manuscripts, which range from the 17th century to the 20th century. Of special note are documents with the signatures of Louis XIV and Louis XV. There is also a letter of friendship from Louis XV to Frederick the Great. Dawson also collected letters of prominent political and literary figures in the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the most interesting is a letter from de Tocqueville.

To honor Robert Dawson, the Cushing Library organized a celebration and exhibition of some of the major works in his collection on February 8, 2008. Robert Darnton, a former Princeton University history professor, and Carl H. Pforzheimer, University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library, spoke at the ceremony honoring Dawson. More information on both Dawson and the Dawson Collection can be obtained by consulting Todd Samuelson, Stephen Atkins, and James Stamant, The Temple of Taste: Celebrating the Robert L. Dawson Collection (College Station, TX: Cushing Library, 2008).

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