Scholar John Hench spent several days this summer in the quiet confines of the Princeton University Library's Special Collections poring over the letters of William Sloane, the director of Rutgers University Press in the 1950s.
Hench was looking for correspondence from the publisher's trip to Germany after World War II, hoping the letters would yield anecdotal information about the condition of Europe's publishing industry. That would be essential background material for Hench's research on a U.S. propaganda initiative to distribute American books in Europe after the war.
Hench, who lives in Massachusetts, is one of 19 scholars from around the world who descended on the library after receiving grants from the University this year. Twelve of the scholars were awarded a library research grant from the Friends of the Princeton University Library; seven others received funding from academic departments and other parts of the library. Most come to Princeton during the summer.
Each summer more than 1,200 scholars use materials in the Seeley Mudd Manuscript Library and in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in Firestone Library, which have distinguished holdings of rare books, manuscripts, prints, archives and maps.
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Contact: Eric Quinones (609) 258-3601
