Ames W. Williams Library

A lull in Cuba during the Spanish-American War: standing are Richard Harding Davis (in pith helmet) and Stephen Crane (hand raised).

Dr. Stephen J. Williams of Alexandria, Virginia has recently presented the remarkable book collection of his father, the late Ames W. Williams, a longtime member of the Library Associates. Williams, who died in 1991, had been a trial lawyer in the Washington area and an administrative law judge for the Federal Power Commission.

But Ames Williams was best known as a collector of turn-of-the-century American literature. He was also one of the last of that circle of early post-war Washington bookmen which included such legendary figures as John S. Mayfield, Lee Edmonds Grove, and Frederick R. Goff. Williams specialized in the work of Stephen Crane and together with Vincent Starrett he wrote a book which is itself now a rarity, Stephen Crane: A Bibliography (1948). This pioneering work is credited with renewing scholarly interest in Crane in the 1950s. Besides Crane material the Williams library is rich in runs of first editions by Richard Harding Davis, Edgar Saltus, and S. Weir Mitchell, to name a few.

Williams was also an authority on Washington railroads and American coastal fortifications. His library contains scores of books on both subjects, including copies of his own works, "The Chesapeake Beach Railway" and "The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad 1847-1968." In addition there is much about the history of fire-fighting and the Lincoln assassination, two other keen interests of his. In all, the Williams collection consists of nearly a thousand titles and the library is indebted to Dr. Williams for placing this valuable material at Georgetown.