Archives & Special Collections Literature

W

hile Amherst College is generally known for our holdings of books and manuscripts by some of America's greatest poets -- Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Richard Wilbur --  our collections also include many other poets, novelists, and non-fiction writers. Literary manuscripts held at Amherst include half of the known manuscripts of Emily Dickinson, and major holdings of manuscripts by Richard Wilbur, Martin Espada, Louise Bogan, and Margaret Sutton Briscoe. The personal papers of Chris Bohjalian, Scott Turow, Ted Conover, and other authors are currently held on deposit.

The book collections include extensive holdings of fiction and poetry with particular strength in American literature of the last 200 years. The book collections include exhaustive holdings of the works of Robert Frost, Richard Wilbur, James Merrill, David Foster Wallace, and other writers with close ties to the College.

We hold published works and manuscripts for many alumni authors working in all literary genres. Published works can be found by searching the Five Colleges Libraries Catalog; archives and manuscripts can be found through our Holdings & Finding Aids page.