Horizons Page 2
The Beverly A. and Kenneth E. Henriques Collection
A Gift from the Daily Landscape of Their Lives “H
e (Ken) always lived life the way he wanted. And that’s something not everyone is able to say.” Beverly A. Henriques
Beverly and Kenneth Henriques
TITLE PAGE (BELOW): This very early edition of Paradise Lost lacks several features common to the genuine first edition. BSU’s copy is probably a 1668 reissue of the original 1667 sheets, the equivalent of a modern second printing.
Books from earlier centuries, many containing lovely engraved illustrations, some bound in animal skins, others in their original pamphlet-like unbound form, make up the Beverly A. and Kenneth E. Henriques Collection of antiquarian books housed in the special collections room of the A.C. Clark Library at BSU. Donated to the University by retired BSU professor Kenneth Henriques, now deceased, and his wife, Beverly, the collection numbers slightly over 200 titles with
the oldest dating back to 1543. It’s a representative sampling of rare antiquarian books any university would consider itself fortunate to receive and one that will certainly grow in historical significance with the passage of time, according to William Shaman, Bemidji State special collections librarian and archivist. Ken Henriques collected the books over the course of 40 years, primarily during his many trips to the United Kingdom, according to his wife, Beverly, who still lives in Bemidji and sometimes attends classes at BSU. He got to know many antiquarian book dealers in London and Oxford personally, developing lifelong friendships and an impressive network of rare book sources including wellknown dealers such as Blackwell’s Rare Books of Oxford and many others. The collection dates predominantly from the 17th and 18th centuries but does include two books from the 16th Century. Henriques was an enthusiastic collector who focused his energies on finding books dealing with the theological, scientific and literary, topics closely mirroring his academic
interests and life experiences. He joined the BSU English faculty in 1965 after receiving his master’s degree from Greyfriars College, Oxford University, with specializations in Chaucer, Milton and the history of the English language. Prior to that he lived the life of a Franciscan friar from 1944 to 1964. In 1966, he was appointed chair of the special programs committee, which developed the University Honors Program, the Foreign Studies Program and other innovative academic options. The Oxford-Cambridge Program Henriques established when he was serving as chair of the English Department became the Eurospring program in 1979, which is still popular today. His directions were refocused in 1981 when he was appointed director of foreign studies where he established the BSU International Senior Hostel Program in 1982. Beverly and Kenneth began donating portions of the book collection to the library around the time of his retirement in 1989. She’s continued to make periodic donations to the library’s collection since her husband’s death at
A Sample of Antiquity
DESCRIPTIONS OF THREE BOOKS IN THE COLLECTION The Bible Containing the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues: And with the former Translations diligently compared and reunited By his Majesties special commandement. London: Robert Barker, Printer to the King’s most Excellent Majestie, 1611. A 1611 (72-lines per page) edition of the first “standard” English-language King James Bible, occupying the first 555 pages of the volume. This rarity is one of the famous “He- She” Bibles, with a variant passage in Ruth, iii, 15, “... and she went into the citie.” Judging from the corrupted imprint date on the title page and other well-cataloged bibliographic deviations--all part of the book’s complicated history--BSU’s copy is a slightly later compilation, derived from original and subsequent plates. +++++ Fifty Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont And John Fletcher, Gentlemen. All in one Volume. Published by the Authors Original Copies, the Songs to each Play being added. London: Printed by J. Macock for John Martyn [et al], 1679. A second folio, the first complete edition of these Beaumont and Fletcher plays, containing seventeen not included in the first folio. This edition contains additional works by Ben Jonson, Nathaniel Field, Philip Massinger, and William Rowley. William Shakespeare’s last work for the stage, Two Noble Kinsmen, co-written with Fletcher and first published in 1634, is also included. The collection is a valuable source of plays important in their day but now difficult to locate in any form. +++++ The Virginians A Tale of the Last Century by W.M. Thackeray. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1858 and1859. Thackeray’s sequel to Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852) was arguably among his least well received novels. This rare first edition is also the original issue, in two volumes-24 individual soft-bound, stitched fascicles, numbered serially 1-24, as issued monthly between November, 1857 and October, 1857. Advertisements, invariably removed when the original parts were bound, are intact.
age 81 in 2000. She feels BSU is the best repository for the books that Kenneth valued so much. “Ken spent 24 years at BSU, and I still take classes there on subjects that interest me. It’s always been a very precious place to us,” said Beverly, who gained her master’s degree at BSU and touched the lives of thousands of students during her 37-year career as an elementary teacher. “I spent the last 24 of those years teaching fifth-graders in the same room at the old Lincoln School in Nymore and I just loved it,” she said, adding that she’s eager for the book collection to be seen and used by as many people as possible. The Henriques Collection contains early editions of many important authors, Browning, Milton, Cave, Lever, Goldsmith, Papenbroeck, Bacon, Scott, Cardinal Bona, Butler, Thackeray, Dickens, Kipling, Burns, Dr. Johnson, Galsworthy, Pope, Irving, Dryden, and Fielding among them. The volumes that Henriques acquired tend to be quite rare but none have been identified as one-of-a-kind discoveries, based on Shaman’s research of tracing each title through the U.S. Library of Congress and the Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit computer service and research organization linking thousands of libraries worldwide. The archivist, who’s compiled a 300 page descriptive catalogue of the collection which is available for review in the special collections room, singles out the following as gems in the collection; an early edition, dating to 1668, of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and a compromised 1611 edition of the King James Bible, the first version of that Bible to be printed. Beverly said her husband’s favorites included the Milton volume and a group of Shakespeare folios. All of these early books were produced using wood or metal plates to print each full page representing the earliest printing techniques first utilized in printing the Gutenberg Bible around the mid-15th Century. The collecContinued on page 10