A small room on the fourth floor of Capen Hall houses one of UB's best-kept secrets: a prestigious collection of James Joyce's letters and manuscripts that is the largest in the world.
This summer, UB featured "The Centennial of Bloomsday," a James Joyce exhibit in the Poetry and Rare Book Collection Library, which was displayed from June 8 through September 22.
For the centennial, UB displayed the full collection, which included Joyce family portraits, early writings before the author's celebrated "Ulysses," scraps of notes on which he would write ideas, and first editions of books such as "Portrait of the Artist," "Exiles," and "Dubliners."
"We were very lucky to have the foresight to buy these (artifacts)," said Samuel Slote, the collection's curator.
Slote added that the entire UB James Joyce collection is valued at $100 million.
According to Slote, when the Joyce items were auctioned off between 1949 and 1950, UB was the only university to place a bid on any of them.
Slote said after Joyce died, some of his belongings were recovered, but most were sold in Paris, and because no European universities joined in the bidding process, the Joyce collection easily made its way to UB.
However, there is a bit of mystery within UB's Joyce collection. Of all the articles of the collection that were shipped to UB, one Joyce manuscript was lost in the shuffle. Furthermore, the manuscript has never been recovered.
The most recent Joyce program at UB before this summer's exhibit was back in 1982, to celebrate Joyce's 100th birthday.
Slote said since the 1950s, UB has had a substantial amount of Joyce scholars at UB, and the majority of the scholars have come here to study the collection of Joyce manuscripts.
Students have also begun to recognize the importance of Joyce collection.
Mary Ademola, a senior psychology major said she feels this collection would be an asset for graduate students to gain firsthand knowledge about Joyce.
"People with an appreciation for literature would value this collection," she said.
