Emory alumnus Stuart Rose (’76B) has donated 22 rare books, collectively worth more than $1 million, to the University’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library (MARBL) as a part of Campaign Emory.

Rose is a book collector and CEO and Chairman of the Board for Rex Stores Corporation, an electronics company in Dayton, Ohio.

MARBL rare book librarian David Faulds wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that Rose has been a longtime patron of the University’s rare book library.

The donation was completed over the past two months, he wrote.

Many of the books in the collection are one of only 10 or 20 copies in the world, Faulds wrote, adding that books like these do not become available very often.

“It depends on the title, but most of these works are very hard to find. As time passes many classic works end up in libraries, so fewer are available on the open market,” he wrote of the rarity of the books. “Some of the books that came with this gift appear on the market infrequently, perhaps once every 10 or 20 years.”

The donation includes rare editions of works by John Keats, Emily Brontë, Victor Hugo, John Maynard Keynes, Rudyard Kipling, L. Frank Baum and others.

Some of the highlights of the collection include a theological study by St. Thomas Aquinas, which is now MARBL’s oldest book, as well as Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers and J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, both of which contain unique inscriptions by their authors among others.

“These books may not be particularly rare, but the inscriptions make them very special,” Faulds explained of the Dickens and Salinger novels. “The two 15th century books that came with the gift are probably the rarest volumes, with fewer than 10 copies of each in North American libraries.”

Rose’s collection has been catalogued in Euclid and are currently available for anybody to use, Faulds wrote. The donation serves to introduce the Emory community to new works as well as to complete missing parts of the archives that the library has been looking to acquire for a while.

“This extraordinary gift enriches Emory’s collections in many ways. It enhances the scope and prestige of Emory’s collections,” he wrote. “Some of the books offer scholars their first opportunity to consult these works at Emory. Others are volumes long needed to fill gaps in our collections. Each book plays a distinctive park in enhancing both the breadth and depth of MARBL’s rare book collection.”

Faulds wrote that he hopes MARBL will continue to grow in the future with acquisitions of a similar distinction.

“MARBL’s collections have been strengthened by gifts for many decades, and we look forward to those future gifts that will continue this tradition of strength,” he wrote.

— Contact Alice Chen.