New York University'sFales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of theElmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South (off ofWashington Square Park) between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in theGreenwich Village neighborhood ofManhattan,New York City. It houses nearly 200,000 volumes, and 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of archive and manuscript materials. It contains the Fales Collection of Rare Books and manuscripts in English andAmerican literature,[1] theDowntown Collection,[2] theFood and Cookery Collection,[3] and the generalSpecial Collections from theNYU Libraries.[4]
TheFales Collection was given to NYU in 1957 byDeCoursey Fales in memory of his father, Haliburton Fales. It is especially strong in English literature from the middle of the 18th century to the present, documenting developments in thenovel. Other related collections held in Fales includeThe Berol Collection ofLewis Carroll Materials, theRobert Frost Library, theNelson F. Adkins collection of American Literature, and the manuscript collections ofElizabeth Robins,Peter Straub,E. L. Doctorow andErich Maria Remarque. An area of recent growth in Fales is theFood and Cookery Collection of well over 15,000 books. The personal libraries ofJames Beard,Cecily Brownstone, and Dalia Carmel form the core of this collection
TheDowntown Collection documents thedowntown New York city art, performance, film, and literary landscape from 1975 to the present. In addition to thousands of published books and magazines, the Downtown Collection includes extensive holdings of archival and manuscript material, film and video, original artwork, theatrical models, and otherrealia.[5] Archival holdings range from the personal papers of writers such asDennis Cooper,David Wojnarowicz,[6]Richard Foreman andLynne Tillman to the papers of publishing ventures such asHigh Risk Books andBetween C & D to the archives of organizations such asCreative Time andMabou Mines and theGonightclubbing.
The Fales Library preserves manuscripts and original editions of books that are rare or important not only because of their texts, but also because of their value as artifacts. The Downtown Collection archive is rich in late 1970s and 1980spunk rock andno wavepost-punk videos, drawings, films, photos, interviews, posters, correspondences and other ephemera.[7]
The Tracey-Barry Gallery offers public exhibits of materials from the Library's collections.[citation needed]
The Fales Library holds the personal papers and/or archives of the following, among others:[citation needed]
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