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Summary Information

Repository:
Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Lilly Library
Indiana University
1200 E. Seventh St.
Bloomington, IN 47405-5500
Phone: 812-855-2452
Fax: 812-855-3143
Email: liblilly@indiana.edu

Creator
Wenning, Henry W., 1911-1987

Collection No.
LMC 2297

Extent
ca. 9,000 items

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
The Wenning mss., 1958-1987, consists of appraisals, correspondence, invoices and sales records, and catalogues of Henry W. Wenning, 1911-1987, a rare book dealer specializing in modern first editions.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Biographical Note

Henry W. Wenning, 1911-1987, entered the rare book business in 1958, as the proprietor of Henry W. Wenning Rare Books in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1967 he closed this business, selling his entire stock to York University, and accepted a position at Washington University Library in St. Louis, Missouri. At the last minute, however, Wenning changed his mind about the library position, and instead joined the firm of C. A. Stonehill in partnership with Robert Barry, Sr. and Robert Barry, Jr. He continued in the rare book trade until July 1971, when he returned to his previous career as a consultant with the Martin E. Segal Company.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into the following series: Biographical; Appraisals; Correspondence; Invoices; Business and Sales Records; Catalogues; Henry W. Wenning, Publisher records; Printed Materials. The bulk of the material in this collection dates from the period 1967-1971, when Wenning was at C.A. Stonehill. However, some of the appraisals, catalogues, and book publishing records date from his earlier business, 1958-1967.

Scope and Content Note

The correspondence includes other book dealers such as Andreas Brown, Robert Hawley, Peter Howard, Richard Mohr, Anthony Rota, and Robert Wilson; private collectors, including Matthew Bruccoli, Jonathan Goodwin, and Murrell Lewis; and libraries, including Indiana University, Kent State, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, University of Wisconsin, and Yale. There is a particularly large amount of correspondence between Wenning and his main institutional customer, Washington University in St. Louis. Some of the individual albeit less frequent correspondents include Leonie Adams, Samuel Beckett, Alan Brilliant, C.E. Frazer Clark, Alan Clodd, Malcolm Cowley, Robert Creeley, Babette Deutsch, Donald Clifford Gallup, Walter Samuel Hamady, John Clendennin Burne Hawkes, Granville Hicks, David Ignatow, James Laughlin, Walter Lowenfels, William John Matheson, David Meltzer, Michael Millgate, Breon Mitchell, Anais Nin, Norman Holmes Pearson, and Jonathan Chamberlain Williams.

Henry W. Wenning, Publisher files include records for: Book of Resemblances by Robert Duncan (1966); Blowing of the Seed by William Everson (1966) and T.S. Eliot & Ezra Pound: A Collaboration in Letters, edited by Donald Gallup (1970). Printed items include a file of three catalogues of Roman Books, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Wenning provided Jim Roman the majority of the books that formed that dealer's beginnings.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Wenning, Henry W., 1911-1987
  • Adams, Léonie, 1899-1988
  • Bruccoli, Matthew J. (Matthew Joseph), 1931-2008
  • Clodd, Alan.
  • Deutsch, Babette, 1895-1982
  • Hawley, Robert, 1929-
  • Howard, Peter B.
  • Laughlin, James, 1914-1997
  • Mohr, Richard.
  • Rota, Anthony.
  • Henry W. Wenning Rare Books.
  • C. A. Stonehill (Firm).
  • Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.). Libraries. Rare Books and Special Collections Dept.
• • Topics
  • Wenning, Henry W., 1911-1987 --Correspondence.
  • C. A. Stonehill (Firm).
  • Henry W. Wenning Rare Books.
  • Booksellers and bookselling --Connecticut.
  • Booksellers and bookselling

Administrative Information