Dr. Wallace Book Donations
Dr. Wallace loved to read for relaxation. He donated over 1000 volumes to the Friedsam Library collection from his personal library. When you notice that 33 of these titles begin with the word “Murder” it’s apparent that mysteries topped his list for casual reading.
Anyone familiar with the detective and mystery genre will recognize many of the authors and characters present in the collection. Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Fu Manchu and The Saint are some of the earlier representatives in the list of leading men. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Margery Allingham, and Edgar Wallace are some of the early names mystery readers will know. The list of authors is long and replete with the masters of the field.
Dr. Wallace was also a movie fan. He enjoyed reading biographies of prominent people in the industry, including actors, directors and producers. Volumes on the history of musicals and biographies of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Cole Porter speak to his attraction to that film genre. His interest in the history of the industry brought books about Warner Bros. and Fox Studios, the Academy Awards and old movie theaters into the collection. Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford and Alexander Korda are directors who caught his eye. The list of actor biographies is long and includes such luminaries of the movie world as Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Laurel & Hardy, and Errol Flynn. It’s clear that the 1930 to 1960 era was the one that most fascinated him.
A wide-ranging interest in history is well documented by
the collection. The American Civil
War, WWI and the French Revolution were of particular interest.
The American presidency as represented by the administrations of Abraham
Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Richard Nixon.
Dr. Wallace also read widely regarding
Dr. Wallace was a great fan of college athletics. He wrote And They Were Giants : The St. Bonaventure Football Book, so it’s no surprise that his reading would include college football material, especially that of Notre Dame. Tennis, baseball and more general sports materials also appear.
The collection includes a large section on religion. It includes Catholic catechisms and Biblical analysis, as well as histories of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation. Authors represented here include Hillaire Belloc and Andrew Greeley.
Dr. Wallace had a wide-ranging reading list and his gift reflects that. His interest in humor brought P.G. Wodehouse, Bob and Ray, Robert Benchley and others to the Friedsam Library shelves. Tales of the supernatural are represented in part by Edith Wharton and Dean Koontz, westerns by Max Brand, and Lida Larrimore. And the “classics” find their place with Alexander Dumas, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Louis Stevenson, Nevil Shute, Welsh mythology and Greek literature.
Dr. Wallace’s donation to the library shows us the man at home. These are the books he read in his non-professional life and they give us a broader impression of the kind of man he was.
A partial list of mystery authors donated by Dr. Wallace. These are authors with at least two books represented:
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Margery Allingham Earl Derr Biggers Nicholas Blake Anthony Boucher John Buchan John Dickson Carr Raymond Chandler Leslie Charteris Agatha Christie Edmund Crispin August Derleth Carter Dickson Doris Miles Disney Arthur Conan Doyle Mignon Good Eberhart Ian Fleming J. S. Fletcher Leslie Ford
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R. Austin Freeman David Frome Andrew M. Greeley Graham Greene Dashiell Hammett Cyril Hare Joseph Harrington Georgette Heyer Michael Innes P. D. James Marvin Kaye Rufus King John Le Carre Peter Lovesey John D. MacDonald Ross MacDonald Helen MacInnes Ngaio Marsh Ed McBain
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H. C. McNeile Patricia Moyes Frank L. Packard Evelyn Piper Ellery Queen Peter Quentin Helen Reilly Mary Roberts Rinehart Sax Rohmer Dorothy L. Sayers George Simenon Rex Stout John Stephen Strange Margaret Truman S. S. Van Dine Edgar Wallace Cornell Woolrich
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