Administrative Information

Access

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Peter Kavanagh Papers, 1960, Accession #11055, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Processing Information

These items were transferred to the Manuscripts Division from the Rare Books Division on August 28, 1992.

Biographical/Historical Information

John Quinn (1870-1924), a New York lawyer of Irish extraction, was an early patron of artists and writers whose work later became internationally famous. His correspondence was bequeathed to the New York Public Library in typewritten copies with the restriction that while the letters were open to scholars, they could not be copied or published for fifty years, beginning on January 2, 1938.

Kavanagh memorized excerpts from the letters three times a day and then left the reading room to commit them to notebooks. He then set the pages of excerpts in type and printed out over a hundred copies on his home-made printing press, the Peter Kavanagh Hand-Press. Kavanagh was forced by the New York State Supreme Court to destroy 108 of the copies printed; he was allowed to keep two for his own use; nine were given to his friend, Patrick Farrell, who refused to surrender them, and one had been sent to the British Museum in London.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of seven items, 1960, five newsclippings, a letter from Peter Kavanagh to Matthew Bruccoli, January 27, 1960, and the printed item "The John Quinn Letters A Pandect," signed by Peter Kavanagh, all pertaining to the controversy over the publication of excerpts from the letters of John Quinn by Peter Kavanagh on the Peter Kavanagh Hand-Press.