I was proud to read yesterday's Clarion Ledger which featured a nice piece on our library collections, with specific focus on children's literature:
"USM watches over the collection of H. A. and Margret Rey, authors of Curious George, in the McCain Library and Archives.
"Dr. Lena de Grummond, who founded the children's literature collection, wrote H.A. Rey, as she did many authors and illustrators, to see if he might donate some dummies, editorial notes, illustrations or storyboards - anything that had to do with publishing," says Ellen H. Ruffin, curator of the library's de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. "So, in 1966, he drew a picture of George with a signpost pointing to Hattiesburg and sent her the illustration."
H.A. Rey died in 1977, and Margret Rey decided USM would look after Curious George. After her death in 1996, George became part of the de Grummond collection.
The Rey collection contains complete sets of original drawings, color separations for six Curious George titles and sketches for a seventh. It also includes first edition George books and correspondence between 'the Reys and de Grummond.
USM now has material from about 1,200 authors and illustrators and more than 100,000 children's books."