As we saw in our posts about collecting Shakespeare, an author-specific collection can sometimes also be a subject-specialty collection if, for example, you collect Shakespeare in fine press editions. Collecting the works of Librarians of Congress, however, may not be amenable to such an approach since, as we saw in yesterday's post, only two Librarians of Congress were prolific authors.
Today we turn our attention to the second of those two authors, Archibald MacLeish:
Though virtually unknown to the general public today, MacLeish was a towering figure in his time. The first well-known public figure from outside the library profession itself to be confirmed as Librarian of Congress, MacLeish is remembered today for advocating that librarians play "an active role in American life, particularly in educating the American public to the value of the democratic process."
A child of privilege, MacLeish attended Hotchkiss, Yale and Harvard (where he served as editor of the Harvard Law Review). He gave up a potentially lucrative practice with a prestigious Boston law firm in order to move to Paris to focus on his poetry (his main claim to fame today). In Paris, he became friendly with a wide range of expatriate Left Bank writers like Hemingway.
After his return to the States, MacLeish spent nine years writing for Fortune magazine prior to his appointment as Librarian of Congress. His stint at the LOC was followed by--among other endeavors-- service as U. S. Assistant Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs and a stint in academia as Harvard's Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory.
Keep in mind that everything we have outlined above was accomplished while MacLeish also was writing multiple-award winning poetry and drama!
Tomorrow we will examine the poetry and drama upon which MacLeish's reputation was built, including Ars Poetica with its iconic final line....
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