Editing Widener Library (section)

===Harry Elkins Widener Collection===

The works displayed in the Memorial Rooms comprise Harry Widener's collec{{shy}}tion at the time of his death, "major monuments of English letters, many remarkable for their bindings and illustrations or unusual provenance":{{r|bentinck1980|p=9}}
<!--mention Bacon that went down with the ship-->
Shakespeare [[First Folio]]s;{{r|AZ|p=362}}
a copy of ''Poems written by Wil.{{nbsp}}Shake-speare, gent.'' (1640) in its original sheepskin binding;{{r|cyclo}}
an inscribed copy of [[James Boswell|Boswell]]'s ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]''; [[Samuel Johnson|Johnson]]'s own Bible ("used so much by its owner that several pages were worn out and Johnson copied them over in his own writing");{{r|halberstam}}
and first editions, presenta{{shy}}tion copies, and similarly valuable volumes of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], [[William Makepeace Thackeray|Thackeray]], [[Charlotte Brontë]], [[William Blake|Blake]], [[George Cruikshank]], [[Isaac Cruikshank]], [[Robert Cruikshank]]{{r|hewc}}
and [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]{{mdashb}}including the petty cash book kept by Dickens while a young law clerk.{{r|hellman}}
Book collector [[George S. Hellman|George Sidney Hellman]], writing soon after Harry Widener's death, observed that he was "not satisfied alone in having a rare book or a rare book inscribed by the author; it was with him a prerequisite that the volume should be in immaculate condition."{{hsp}}{{r|hellman}}

Harry Widener "died suddenly, just as he was beginning to be one of the world's great collectors,"{{hsp}}{{r|alumni_19130616_collection}}
said the Collection's first curator.{{r|whitehill|p=6}}
"They formed a young man's library, and are to be preserved as he left it"{{hsp}}{{r|alumni_19130616_collection}}{{mdashb}}except
that the Widener family has the exclusive privilege of adding to it.{{NoteTag
|{{r|halberstam}}
The December{{nbsp}}31, 1912 agreement between Eleanor Widener and the [[President and Fellows of Harvard College]] provides that "this collection, together with such books as may be added to it by members of the family of the Donor, shall at all times be kept separate and apart from the general library of Harvard{{nbsp}}... Harvard is not{{nbsp}}... ever to add anything to the said Harry Elkins Widener collection{{nbsp}}... [S]aid books shall not be taken or removed from the two rooms specially set apart{{nbsp}}... excepting only when necessary for the repair or restoration of any volume{{nbsp}}..."{{hsp}}{{r|bentinck1976|pp=78–79}}
<!--END NOTE>>-->}}
{{anchor|gutenbergbible}}
Harvard's "greatest typographical treasure"{{hsp}}{{r|houghton_chron|p=17}}
is one of the only thirty-eight perfect copies extant{{r|HEW_gutenberg}} of the [[Gutenberg Bible#Surviving copies|Gutenberg Bible]],{{r|houghton_gutenberg}}
purchased while Harry was abroad by his grandfather [[Peter Arrell Brown Widener|Peter A.{{nbsp}}B. Widener]] (who had intended to surprise Harry with it once the ''Titanic'' docked in New York){{r|halberstam}} and added to the Collection by the Widener family in 1944.{{NoteTag
|{{r|ask_gutenberg}}
Harry Widener knew his grandfather had bought the Gutenberg Bible, but not that it was intended for him. "I wish it was for me but it is not", he wrote to a friend.{{r|HEW_Livingston}}
After Harry's death, and (soon after) that of his grandfather, the Bible passed to Harry's uncle;{{clarify|reason=which uncle?|date=May 2014}} at the uncle's death Harry's brother and sister added the Bible to the Harry Elkins Widener Collec{{shy}}tion because it "had been bought for Harry and should be among his books.<!--<<source is unclear on who is speaking here-->"
[[Yale University|Yale]] also has a Gutenberg, though not in "quite as fine condition" as Harvard's, according to Harvard officials.{{r|near_best}}
}}

Like all Harvard's valuable books, works in the Widener Collec{{shy}}tion may be consulted by researchers demonstrating a genuine research need.{{r|widener_hewmc}}