Catholic Literary Acquisitions

The Library's growing collection of the papers of American and British Catholic authors has been significantly enriched by four major acquisitions: the archives of Julie Kernan, Thomas Kernan, Ned O'Gorman, and Joseph G. E. Hopkins.

Miss Kernan, who died in May, was a longtime benefactor of the Library. For many years she had been an editor in New York City, and before that, during the 1930s, was the executive secretary of the French Book Club in Paris. There she came into contact with such prominent writers as the philosopher Jacques Maritain, whose books she would translate into English and about whom she wrote the charming Our Friend, Jacques Martain (1975). Besides an extensive series of letters from Maritain (presented some years ago), Miss Kernan's papers include research material about the Maritains, manuscripts and correspondence, with letters from Andre Maurois, Ernest Dimnet and Emmet Lavery, among others.

A major component of Miss Kernan's bequest is the papers of her late brother, Thomas Kernan (C'22), the journalist and publisher. In 1925 he began to work for the publishing firm of Conde Nast (C'94), and in 1937 was appointed Nast's managing director in Paris of the French edition of Vogue. He was there when the Germans entered Paris and the numerous letters to his family from that period are of unusual importance, as are those he later wrote from the internment camp of Baden-Baden, Germany, where he was interned with the American diplomatic corps for 13 months before being exchanged. In Baden-Baden he wrote Now with the Morning Star (1945), perhaps the only novel written in an internment camp in the Second World War. Thomas Kernan's papers include manuscripts, photographs and letters from a variety of people, including Conde Nast, Harry Yoxall and Clare Booth Luce.

Another addition to the Library's Catholic authors collection are the papers of poet and educator, Ned O'Gorman. His archives consist of manuscripts and correspondence, with letters from a wide range of literary figures, including Anne Fremantle, Freya Stark, Mark Van Doren and Robert Penn Warren. Apart from his poetry, the papers concern his editorship of Jubilee magazine. There is also considerable material on his lifelong educational venture, The Children's Storefront School in Harlem, New York.

Joseph G. E. Hopkins of Larchmont, New York has also generously presented the Library with his archives. Although for many years an editor at Scribner's, Mr. Hopkins' papers primarily concern his own writings, in particular his trilogy on the American Revolution: Patriot's Progress, Retreat and Recall and The Price of Liberty. Besides the manuscripts of these novels, there is considerable correspondence from historians and publishers, among them Dee Brown, Michael Glazier, Dumas Malone, Allan Nevins, and Walter Muir Whitehill.