Houghton Library Blog

Poster series of three designs: “The Real Emancipators: Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Civil War Volunteers” (printed in editions from 1979–1990). Images courtesy of Robin McDowell.

On April 8, 2020, three Harvard students were named winners of the Philip Hofer Prize for Collecting Books or Art. The Hofer Prize was established by Melvin R. Seiden, A.B. ‘52, L.L.B. ‘55, to encourage student interest in collecting. It is awarded annually to a student or students whose collections of books or works of art best reflect the traditions of breadth, coherence, and imagination exemplified by Philip Hofer, A.B. ‘21, L.H.D. ‘67. Hofer was the founder and first curator of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts at Houghton Library and secretary of the Fogg Art Museum.

This year, Robin McDowell, a graduate student in the Department of African and African American Studies, was awarded first prize of $3,000. Catherine Grace Katz, Harvard Law School ‘22, was awarded second prize of $1,500.  Brian Mott, Harvard College Class of 2020, was awarded third prize of $750.

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By Leslie A. Morris, Gore Vidal Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, Houghton Library

On November 25, 1960, four years after Emily Hale told him she was giving his letters to her to Princeton, T.S. Eliot wrote a letter to his Executors with an accompanying document. Revised on September 30, 1963, the document was sealed and entrusted to his wife Valerie, who was instructed to give it to the librarian in charge of the Eliot Collection at Harvard, to be made public on the day his letters to Emily Hale were made public at Princeton University Library.

For 51 years, the letter has sat quietly on a shelf in the Houghton Library vault, but today the Library fulfills its promise to the poet. Below are images of that letter; the contents are also printed in full at the end of this post.

© Estate of T.S. Eliot

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