Oberlin College Library Perspectives

A Newsletter of the Oberlin College

Number 12, May 1995

Collecting Faulkner

"There it was, my own Grail vision, an end to a quest that I had often thought might be as impossible as those of Don Quixote. Sitting on a shelf in the back of a tiny bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor was a book entitled Faulkner's MGM Screenplays. I was stunned. I had often hoped as I searched through used bookstores from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco that someday I might come across something as exciting as this book." So writes David Filner (Class of 1996), the winner of the second annual student book collecting competition sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

Filner, a double degree student in viola performance and English, began collecting works by and about Faulkner in his sophomore year at Oberlin, after taking a class on Faulkner. "We were required to read only eight of his novels, but once the class had finished I was starved for more. I wanted to read everything that I could by this man, whether a novel, an article in Sports Illustrated, or an interview with students at the University of Virginia."

In the essay he submitted for the competition, Filner relates that his love for book collecting derives from his mother, who "stops at each and every bookstore that she passes and searches the collection until she finds what she wants." His quest for Faulkner materials "began by collecting the easiest material to obtain and the most basic, Faulkner's nineteen major novels. Although I obtained them when I could, I tried to move chronologically so that I would have a picture of his developing style. Along the way, however, I came across a series of works that chronicled Faulkner's ideas about life and his work directly: Faulkner at the University, Lion in the Garden, and the other books that contained speeches, interviews, or letters written by Faulkner. Once I had basically all of his novels, I began to look to his days as a Hollywood screenwriter to provide me with more access to his writing." Filner adds that currently he is focusing on Faulkner's works but may eventually add some biography to his collection as well. Emphasizing the sheer joy to be found in the process of collecting, Filner concludes his essay by stating: "I am sure that I will have a wonderful time leaving no stone unturned in my quest."

Books from David Filner's collection were exhibited in the Main Library during April. He received his first place prize, a check in the amount of $300.00, on April 29 prior to Leonard Baskin's lecture on the Gehenna Press, a program jointly sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the Friends of Art.

Judges for this year's contest were Paul Csank, of Keisogloff Rare Books, Cleveland; Susan Hill, of Miranda Books, Oberlin; and John Zubal, of John T. Zubal, Inc., Scholarly and Antiquarian Books, Cleveland. The Library is grateful to Friends members Willis and Marybeth Bridegam of Amherst, Massachusetts for generously providing the prize for the contest.

Table of Contents Library Perspectives, no. 12

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Last updated: 18 May 1995