What is the Fales Collection?
Answer
The Fales Collection was donated by DeCoursey Fales (1888–1966) to Manhattan University in the 1960’s in honor of his father, Haliburton Fales. Fales was a lawyer, banker, collector, bibliophile, and yachtsman. His collection of books and manuscripts included approximately 50,000 items pertaining to various British and American authors spanning the 18th and 20th centuries. Prior to his death, he donated the bulk of his collections to New York University, New York Public Library, the Morgan Library, and Manhattan University. Our collection includes the complete works of many famous authors, as well as biographical, historical, and manuscript material, published from 1715 to 1966. With more than 3,000 volumes in the collection, there is something for everyone, from the novels of Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie, to the plays of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Highlights of the collection include signed works by T.S. Eliot and Willa Cather, the first edition of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, printed in 1756.
The collection is located in the Fales Study Room on the third floor of the library (room 315). The door to the room is open so you can peruse the collection at anytime, and all of the books in the room are available to check out.