The USC Voltaire Letters and their Institutional Context
Michaela Ullmann, April 2017
The USC Voltaire LettersA collection of correspondence to and from Voltaire is located at the University of Southern California’s department of Special Collections.[1] The collection was originally purchased by USC in November 1945 and housed in the Hoose Library of Philosophy[2]. At some point, the date is unknown, the collection was transferred to Special Collections located on the second floor of Doheny Memorial Library. This essay aims to describe briefly how the Voltaire correspondence relates to other collections of rare books and archives housed in USC Libraries’ Special Collections.
The Department of Special Collections at USC
The department of Special Collections at the University of Southern California oversees some of the university's most significant primary source collections including archives, manuscripts, historic photographs, and rare books. Like most Special Collections departments, USC’s department of Special Collections has identified main areas of strength on which it focuses its collection development. These areas are currently: Holocaust and Genocide Studies; Iberian and Latin American Studies; Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland; Lion Feuchtwanger and the European exiles of the 20th century in Southern California; Natural History; Southern California Regional History; and USC history. All collections housed in Special Collections are open to the public. A research account is required in order to request materials for consultation in the Special Collections reading room.[3]
The History of USC’s Special Collections
The USC Libraries received their first gift of rare books in 1911 making it the earliest institutional collection of rare books in Los Angeles.[4] With more gifts being added over the years, and with librarians systematically acquiring rare books and archival materials to complement and extend the existing holdings, USC’s department of Special Collections today holds more than 200,000 volumes of rare books, and more than 1,200 archival collections. Several significant collections were transferred from discipline-based libraries and integrated into Special Collections over the years, such as the extensive Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, the Hancock Library of Biology, and the rare book collection formerly housed in the Hoose Library of Philosophy at USC.
The Hoose Collection
The Hoose Library of Philosophy’s two rare book collections are housed in and administered by Special Collections today. The first collection is the Flewelling Collection which consists of medieval manuscripts, renaissance incunabula, and early editions of works in philosophy from the 16th and 17th century.[5] The second collection, called the Gomperz Collection, includes philosophical works from the 18th and 19th century as well as works on German philosophy from the Enlightenment to romanticism and idealism.[6]
The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library
The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library was donated to the University of Southern California by Marta Feuchtwanger, the widow of German historical novelist Lion Feuchtwanger (1884-1958). In all, the library contains nearly 30,000 volumes. Some 8,000 of the rarest books are housed on the USC campus, while 20,000 volumes remain on long-term loan at the Feuchtwanger's former residence, Villa Aurora, in Pacific Palisades (a coastal neighborhood in the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California). Lion Feuchtwanger fled Nazi-occupied Europe in 1940 and lived in Los Angeles from 1941 until his death in 1958. He began his literary career as a theater critic and turned his talent to writing plays in the 1910s and 1920s in Germany.
Feuchtwanger first became internationally known, however, for his historical novel Jud Süss published in 1925. During his time in Southern California, he wrote primarily historical fiction including: Waffen für Amerika also called Die Füchse im Weinberg (1947-48; Proud Destiny), Goya oder Der arge Weg der Erkenntnis (1951; This is the Hour, a Novel about Goya), Narrenweisheit oder Tod und Verklärung des Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1952; ‘Tis Folly to Be Wise), Spanische Ballade, also called Die Jüdin von Toledo (1955; Raquel, the Jewess of Toledo), and Jefta und seine Tochter (1957; Jephta and his Daughter). Feuchtwanger's library reflects his interests in different historical periods and contains several noteworthy smaller collections of primary and secondary sources focusing on such subjects as Greek and Latin classics, Jewish and biblical history, the Enlightenment, French Revolution, German literature, and exile literature. In addition to the library of rare books, USC also has Feuchtwanger’s personal papers, which include his correspondence as well as drafts for many of his novels. Particularly important in the context of The USC Voltaire Letters is his collection of autograph letters.
The USC Voltaire Letters in Context of Other Holdings in Special Collections
The book collections of the Hoose Collection and the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library provide extensive additional resources for researchers on Voltaire and the Enlightenment. This essay is not the place to provide an inclusive list of all relevant references, but a few select ones should be discussed here. While conducting research for his historical novels, Lion Feuchtwanger acquired numerous first editions of Voltaire’s works, among them La mort des César[7], early works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, Marquis de Condorcet, and Claude Adrien Helvétius as well as a third edition of Diderot’s Encyclopédie[8]. Of particular interest in the context of the USC Voltaire Letters Project is also the impressive 1784 first edition of Voltaire’s Oeuvres complètes[9] in 70 volumes, published by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Beaumarchais had acquired the rights to Voltaire’s works after his death in 1778 and established a printing company in Kehl am Rhein[10] for which he also bought molds for typefaces created by John Baskerville. Beaumarchais printed this first edition of Voltaire’s works in Germany to circumvent the censorship of Voltaire’s work in France.
In addition to the works of Voltaire and other works mentioned above, Feuchtwanger’s library also contains several first editions of works by the Jewish philosopher Baruch de Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, and Rousseau. The first edition of Rousseau’s Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité des hommes[11] from 1755 is said to have belonged to Benjamin Franklin who received it from Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Another work of the period of enlightenment in USC Libraries’ Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, which had a prominent owner, is the Gazette Nationale or Moniteur universel[12] in 48 volumes, published between 1792 and 1815. The edition held at the USC Libraries came from the estate of Napoleon Franz Bonaparte, Napoleon’s only son.
Feuchtwanger also collected autograph letters of historical figures, which he used in the research process for his novels. These letters were originally housed inside books on related content in his library, but were later removed from the books and rehoused into archival containers by librarians at USC. Among the autographs are letters by contemporaries of Voltaire such as Friedrich Wilhelm I, Friedrich der Grosse (Frederick the Great), Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, and Louis XVI, King of France. Also present in this collection is a letter to Voltaire from November 12, 1770, written by Frederic Guillaume (Friedrich Wilhelm II), who became King of Prussia in 1786.[13]
There are countless additional resources for researchers of Voltaire and his times in USC Libraries’ Special Collections. All books and manuscripts are discoverable through the libraries’ catalog.
Conclusion
The rare book and manuscript collections in Special Collections present a wealth of information on Voltaire, his life and work, his contemporaries, and his times. The collections provide invaluable resources for scholars, students, and all visitors with an interest in Voltaire. The USC Voltaire Letters shed light on these materials and aim to foster research and teaching using these invaluable holdings.
[2] Karen Howell and Ross Scimeca: Provenance of the Voltaire Correspondence in the Hoose Library of Philosophy. The USC Voltaire Letters http://scalar.usc.edu/works/voltaire/provenance-of-the-voltaire-correspondence-in-the-hoose-library-of-philosophy?path=about-the-letters
[4] History of Special Collections. Retrieved on January 2, 2017 from https://libraries.usc.edu/locations/special-collections/history-special-collections
[5] Hoose Philosophy Library History, retrieved on January 2nd, 2017 from https://libraries.usc.edu/locations/hoose-philosophy-library/hoose-philosophy-library-history
[6] ibid.
[7] La Mort de César. Tragédie de M. de Voltaire. Représentée pour la première fois au collège. D’Harcourt, le 11 Août 1735. Amsterdam, 1735 (USC Libraries call number PQ1957.B684.BC6 1735).
[8] Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers par une société de gens de lettres. Mis en ordre et publiée par M. Diderot. 1778 (USC Libraries call number AE25.E53 1778)
[9] Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire. Kehl, De l’imprimerie de la société littéraire typographique, 1784 (USC Libraries call number PQ2070 1784)
[10] Kehl is a town in southwestern Germany. It is located on the river Rhine, directly opposite the French city of Strasbourg.
[11] Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité des hommes. Amsterdam, 1755 (USC Libraries call number JC179.R8 1755)
[12] Gazette Nationale, ou Le Moniteur Universel. Paris, 1789-1810 (USC Libraries call number DC14.G289 1792-1815)
[13] Finding aid for Lion Feuchtwanger’s autograph collection available at http://archives.usc.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/38632