Selected Special Collections

Prentiss Taylor Collection

African American and twentieth-century Literature.

Prentise Taylor, painter and lithographer, made many donations of African American and twentieth-century literature to the Division. Authors include Carl Van Vechten, Laura Benet and Chard Powers Smith. In addition, the collection contains works from American poet and novelist Langston Hughes, one of which, Shakespeare in Harlem (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942) is inscribed both on the title-page and in an inscription worked into the dust jacket design.