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NOW THAT the Christmas gift-giving has subsided, there comes a time to savor those one or two gifts that really touch the heart, such as a novel inscribed by the author. Works of literature, we have known for centuries, have the power to open up our eyes to possible dramatic situations that can often seem more "real" than what we experience in our everyday lives. It would be difficult to deny that even one such book is an incalculable gift.
Imagine the surprise that Charles Pierce, the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library at 36th Street and Madison Avenue in New York City, received when Mrs. Susan Burden informed him of a gift almost beyond belief-tens of thousands of volumes of American literature, plus manuscripts, letters and other papers that once belonged to her late husband, Carter. This donation, part of the greatest collection of American literature in private hands and representing the creative energies of about 6,000 authors, meant that the Morgan took a mega-leap in the strength of its American holdings, particularly those of the 20th century.
Carter Burden, the great-great-great trandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, and a noted businessman, politician, benefactor of the arts who died in 1996, had an overwhelming passion known to many book dealers throughout the United States; his collection grew to more than 80,000 volumes, engulfing the 18-room Manhattan apartment he shared with his wife. The Burdens and their family and friends, it has been reported, had to walk sideways down the hall to get to the book-lined rooms. "Carter at an auction was a dangerous thing," said his wife. Not only did her husband set the standard for collecting creative works by Americans, but Mrs. Burden was aware that he also set the prices.
The Morgan Library will receive over time the best of Burden's collection, according to Robert...