The Lillian Gary Taylor Collection of Popular American Fiction

Lillian Gary Taylor assembled a remarkable collection of popular American fiction. Her library included 1800 first editions of America's favorite novels, dating from 1752 through 1950. A foremost authority on the history and bibliography of the novel, Mrs. Taylor crafted a collection around the top annual bestsellers, while always keeping an eye on literary merit. While collecting, she secured numerous popular and important literary works, such as Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (1794) by Susanna Rowson, The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain, The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair, The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway.

This exhibition draws its titles primarily from Mrs. Taylor's collection and offers a look into her relationship with the novels on her shelves. Her collecting diaries record the facts of how many copies of books appeared in the first printing and how many sold in the first week of publication, but more importantly, they transport us back in time to show a novel's popular reception. Mrs. Taylor gives us access to readers of the past and charms us with her observations and drawings. Today the collection numbers 1900 titles, including bestsellers published after 1950. The generous support of the Robert Coleman Taylor endowment continues Mrs. Taylor's collecting goals.

 

Lillian Gary Taylor (1865-1961)

Lillian "Lillie" Marie Gary was born near Baltimore in 1865. Her father, James Albert Gary, was a textile manufacturer whose mill, Alberton, was located west of the city. Mr. Gary later became President William McKinley's Postmaster General. The fourth of ten children, she was educated at home and in small private schools. In the morning, she studied poetry, writing, and arithmetic and, in the afternoon, had lessons in French, music, and dance. In 1881, she accompanied her parents to Europe, returning there many times as an adult. In her travel diary, Lillian wrote of parents who encouraged in their children "our love of the fine and beautiful before we knew what was fine and beautiful."

Lillian M. Gary married Robert Coleman Taylor in 1900 in Baltimore. President William McKinley, a close family friend, attended the wedding, having come to know Lillie when she served as her father's hostess in Washington, D.C. The Taylors resided at 16 East Ninety-Third Street in Manhattan, and Mr. Taylor, an alumnus of the University of Virginia Law School from the class of 1886, was Assistant District Attorney of the County of New York from 1902 to 1934.

Mrs. Taylor, an enthusiastic bibliophile, found great contentment in sitting on her porch of the family summer residence with a new book. She collected American fiction for twenty-five years and corresponded with Lyle H. Wright, the famous bibliographer of American fiction, book dealers, librarians, and numerous authors, such as Margaret Mitchell and Lew Wallace.

The Taylors gave Mrs. Taylor's collection of popular American fiction to the University of Virginia in 1945, inspired by a long relationship with and interest in the University. Lillian Gary Taylor died in 1961 at the age of ninety-six. We celebrate her contribution to the University of Virginia Library's Special Collections in this exhibition.

Drawn from Mrs. Taylor's collecting diaries and the biography of Lillian Gary Taylor, written by Aurelia Bolton, a relative living in Baltimore and Florida.

 

 

The silhouette bookplate designed for the Taylor collection depicts Lillian Gary Taylor, seated across from her husband, Robert Coleman Taylor, in their library-study. The Taylor Room in Alderman Library replicates this reading room, as Mrs. Taylor donated the furniture along with the collection. Currently on display in the McGregor Room, Mrs. Taylor's table and chairs create a reading corner where patrons can immerse themselves in the pleasures of current bestsellers. The furniture includes an ornate "throne" chair used by President McKinley when he was a guest at the Taylors' wedding.

Notebooks

 

In eighteen small, leather-bound notebooks, Mrs. Taylor meticulously recorded each book in her collection, faithfully reproducing by hand the title page with illustrations and noting where the book was purchased and its cost. Having read most of the books in her collection, she often included critiques and comments. Her collecting diaries provide a unique glimpse into how bestsellers were received in society at her time.