Jackson Society Members Select Works by Dickens, Twain, Hugo and Flaubert at the Fourth Annual Members' Choice Event

University Libraries’ held its Fourth Annual Members’ Choice event on April 10, allowing Jackson Society members to vote on their preferred selection of books to be added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. The additions twill help grow the collection as it strives to meet the needs of current and future faculty and students, as well as the broader community.

Jennifer Motszko, Manuscripts Archivist, gave a short presentation on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This first edition, first issue, second state, with red and blue title page and green end papers with illustrations by John Leech and published by Chapman & Hall in 1843 was an instant success, reportedly selling all 6,000 copies of the first edition on the first day of publication. Chapman & Hall, a British publishing house founded in the first half of the 19th century, also published William Thackeray and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. After A Christmas Carol, Dickens would write four more small festive books for each successive Christmas.

Additionally, Erin Lawrimore, University Archivist, provided an overview of several Mark Twain titles, including Life on the Mississippi, a first American edition, second state in original brown cloth with gold lettering published by James R. Osgood and Company in 1882, as well as Punch, Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches, a first edition, first issue in original embossed blue published by Slote, Woodman & Co. in 1878. Jackson Society members selected seven more titles by Twain.

Books selected by the Jackson Society include:

• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
• Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches, Eve's Diary, The Curious Republic of Gondour, The Mysterious Stranger. A Romance, Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches, Following the Equator, a Journey Around the World, Europe and Elsewhere, Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven
• Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
• Gusave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

As the Libraries' premier giving society, the Jackson Society is comprised of committed contributors, who are dedicated to the Libraries' mission to advance and support learning, research and service at UNC Greensboro and throughout the state. Members of the Jackson Society are automatically enrolled in the Friends of the UNC Greensboro Libraries and invited to exclusive events throughout the year. To learn more and explore other ways of giving to University Libraries, please contact Karlene Noel Jennings, Executive Director of Development, at knjennings@uncg.edu or 336.256.0112.