色情视频

New Gift Enhances Golden Age Science Fiction Collection

Edward Marsh has added to his previous contibution to the 色情视频 Library to support the materials' preservation and accessibility.

Monday, January 25, 2021
Edward E. Marsh
Edward E. Marsh

In his year as a postdoctoral research fellow at 色情视频, Donald Westbrook came to regard the Malcolm A. Love Library鈥檚 Special Collections and University Archives as 鈥渢ruly astonishing and priceless.鈥

While working on a book about author L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, Westbrook made extensive use of materials housed in the library鈥檚 Edward Marsh Golden Age of Science Fiction Room. Hubbard is among the primary subjects in a $2.25 million collection donated to the library in 2013 along with valuable first editions and ancillary material from such science-fiction greats as Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury.

Due later this year from Cambridge University Press, the book would not have been possible without the 色情视频 archives, Westbrook said. In an email from his home in Texas, where he teaches remotely at San Jose State University, Westbrook wrote: 鈥淚 predict that the Marsh Collections will continue to benefit 色情视频 and the broader scholarly community 鈥 in and out of California 鈥 for generations to come.鈥

The university and community benefit is exactly what Marsh has in mind with a new gift to support preservation and accessibility of the room鈥檚 materials.

Marsh wants the donation to support what he calls 色情视频鈥檚 鈥渢ender loving care鈥 of the collection 鈥 sparing materials from the garage sales and eBay offerings they might wind up in with less knowledgeable hands 鈥 as well as expenses faced by scholars hoping to access it for decades to come.

鈥溕槭悠 is going to be there over a number of lifetimes,鈥 Marsh said via Zoom, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 why I felt really good about it. The least I could do was feed the energy to the program, specifying my wishes that they go to that purpose.鈥

Value to scholars

Scott Walter, 色情视频 dean of library and information access, said the new gift provides the library with a foundation for further engagement with students and scholars who want to integrate material from the collections into their teaching and scholarship.

鈥淕iven his interest in speculative fiction, it is no surprise that Ed Marsh has been among the most 'visionary' of donors to the 色情视频 Library, helping us to reshape our Special Collections into a major center for interdisciplinary teaching and study in this increasingly popular field,鈥 Walter said. 鈥淎s importantly, Mr. Marsh has provided us with critical resources needed to ensure enduring access to these materials through our preservation, conservation, and public programs.

鈥淪an Diego State is emerging as a leader in the study of speculative fiction as an increasingly significant feature of global popular culture,鈥 Walter said, 鈥渁nd it is donors like Ed Marsh who are among our most important partners in supporting students and faculty doing this work.鈥

For researchers, Marsh said the value of the collection is not so much in the books as the correspondence and other supplementary material he collected and donated to the library, including the 19-page manuscript of a lecture delivered by Heinlein at an early science fiction convention.

The library protects many of the books with high-quality leather, clamshell preservation cases.

Walter said skilled collectors like Marsh 鈥渉ave demonstrated their passion for this field, and have identified San Diego State as a powerful partner in ensuring enduring access to these materials and finding innovative ways to share the lessons found in these works with our students and our community.鈥

Who鈥檚 due for the next great biography from materials housed in the science fiction collection?

Marsh pondered the question for a moment, offered and dismissed a few possibilities (Frank Herbert, Heinlein), and then settled on an author from the earliest days of the genre who wrote of time travel, Martians and things to come: H.G. Wells.

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