Letter donating a manuscript notebook to the library (1966)
"I object very much to manuscript books because what you want people to read are the final results and when they see all those mistakes you made, they think, 'Oh, I could have done that as well.'"*
In 1966, Auden sent a letter to James Govan, the College Librarian, in response to an item he had read in the Bulletin. "I happened to see in the Swarthmore Bulletin that you are looking for manuscripts of mine," Auden wrote. "The other day, I turned up the enclosed to which you are welcome if you want it." The enclosed item was a manuscript notebook from 1932-1935.
*From a question-and-answer session with visiting professor Brendan Kennelly's class (1971), transcribed in the College Bulletin (May 1972): "I object very much to manuscript books because what you want people to read are the final results and when they see all those mistakes you made, they think, 'Oh, I could have done that as well.'"