Mary Webb: Neglected Genius (Stanford University)

"Mary Webb: Neglected Genius, an exhibition of books and original manuscripts, opened May 17, in the Peterson Gallery and Munger Rotunda of Green Library, Stanford University. The exhibition is free and open to the public. The exhibition illuminates the dramatic and tragic life of this early twentieth-century British novelist and poet, whose lyrical writing focuses on her native Shropshire. On display are literary manuscripts, typescripts, personal letters, and important association copies originally owned by Webb and her associates, which now make up the private collection of bibliophile Mary Crawford (AB '77). Among them is the manuscript of Webb's last unfinished novel, Armour Wherein He Trusted, the only of Webb's full-length novels to survive in manuscript form, the others having been burned by necessity for fuel in the Webb household fireplace. Also on display will be Webb's copy of Precious Bane into which is tucked the letter of appreciation that Prime Minister Baldwin wrote to her in the year before her death, and Thomas Hardy's copy of Webb's novel Seven for a Secret, dedicated and inscribed to him by the author. Evocative illustrations by Bay Area artist William Bishop accompany the show"