Continents manuscrits (Sep 2021)
Décrire la bibliothèque d’André Schwarz-Bart : enjeux et méthodes
Abstract
In 2017, the Manuscript Collections Department of the French National Library (BnF) created the Simone and André Schwarz-Bart collection, which has been continually growing ever since. In the summer of 2018, some fifteen hundred annotated books from André Schwarz-Bart's library, along with a linear meter of press cuttings, also annotated, were sent over from Guadeloupe and acquired by the BnF. The BnF manuscript curating team, in spite of their wide-ranging experience with the private libraries of better and lesser known writers, have been faced by a set of methodological questions as stimulating in themselves as the contents of the collection. The following article gives an overview of the work that has been carried out on the collection at the BnF, in keeping with the main goals of the institution, namely collecting, preserving, sign-posting and publicising its archives. The work is still ongoing and much remains to be done. So far, some 350 books have been examined and given a catalogue description. So no definitive or precise information can be delivered concerning the collection at this stage, including dates or even an exact figure for the books held in the Schwarz-Bart library, and several questions remain unanswered. Nonetheless, presenting the work that has been accomplished should give a clear idea of the undeniable wealth of the collection and paves the way for further research.
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