Collections
Emory's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library holds one of the strongest collections outside of Ireland for the study of Irish literature.
The Irish Literary collections focus on modern and contemporary Ireland including the manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, ephemera, and rare books of many of Ireland’s preeminent writers. This broad collection is especially rich in Irish poetry and includes the work of Nobel Prize winning poets W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney.
From the correspondence between Maud Gonne and W.B. Yeats to the drafts circulated amongst the Belfast poets during the Troubles, the collections illuminate the close relationship between Ireland’s rich literary heritage and its tumultuous politics. You can navigate the collections using our FindingAids database.
- Maeve Brennan
- Ciaran Carson
- Seamus Deane
- Peter Fallon & the Gallery Press
- Roy Foster
- Maud Gonne
- Lady Augusta Gregory
- Eamon Grennan
- Seamus Heaney
- Rita-Ann Higgins
- Thomas Kinsella
- Michael Longley
- Derek Mahon
- Paul Muldoon
- Joan McBreen
- Medbh McGuckian
- Edna O'Brien
- Dennis O'Driscoll
- Frank Ormsby
- Tom Paulin
- James Simmons
- William Butler Yeats
In 2003, Emory acquired a significant portion of Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney's archives. As well as holding Heaney's correspondence with many of the Irish writers in his circle, the library's Ted Hughes collection documents one of the most important poetic correspondences of the twentieth century. In 2018, Emory also acquired the papers of renowned Irish historian, Roy Foster and Irish poet Dennis O’Driscoll.
Emeritus Professor of English, Ronald Schuchard spent much of his career at Emory helping to build the Irish collection. "There's no greater reward than seeing a student's face when they're handling for the first time the manuscript of a poem they love," Schuchard said. "It's not just the poets' papers that are at Emory," adds Director of Irish Studies, Geraldine Higgins, "The poets are here as well, visiting classes and giving readings. Emory students have amazing opportunities to see how poetry works and lives from first draft to finished piece."
Also of great interest to poetry enthusiasts is the Raymond Danowski Poetry library. Built over a period of 25 years - in large part thanks to the efforts of Prof. Schuchard- it includes over 70,000 works as well as scores of periodicals, manuscripts and other material. English professor, Nathan Suhr-Sytsma says of these resources, “I love visiting the Rose Library with my classes. Whether my students look at drafts of a well-known poem by Michael Longley or postcards sent by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, their encounters with one-of-a-kind traces of the past enrich their thinking and writing for the rest of the semester.”
Highlights of Irish writing include one of twenty-five numbered copies of Yeats's "Easter 1916" "for distribution among friends," dated 25 September 1916, the first theatre edition of Yeats and Lady Gregory's Cathleen ni Houlihan and rare copies of Gorgon, the Queens University magazine where Seamus Heaney first appeared in print as "Incertus”.
See our Irish Studies Professors talk about the Rose Library Collections:
- Ron Schuchard discusses the 1895 edition of Yeats’s Collected Poems.
- Nathan Suhr-Sytsma demonstrates how to do a close reading of Seamus Heaney’s poem, “Strange Fruit,” using drafts from the Rose Library.
- Geraldine Higgins introduces the highlights of the Rose Library’s Seamus Heaney Collection.
Photo Credit: Colm Tóibín in the Stuart A. Rose Library.