New book recounts how Southeast landed Faulkner collection

An unlikely collaboration between Robert Hamblin and Louis Daniel Brodsky led to the creation of Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Faulkner Studies, a story recounted in Hamblin's latest book, "My Life with Faulkner and Brodsky."

A book launch and reception will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, at Hamblin's residence, 313 Themis St. in Cape Girardeau, according to a university news release.

The public is invited.

American writer and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner's writings are at the center of Hamblin's memoir, which explores his career-long interest in Faulkner's writings and his 36-year friendship and collaboration with Brodsky, according to the release.

Brodsky was an American poet, author and Faulkner scholar whose collection of Faulkner papers now resides at Southeast.

The university acquired Brodsky's collection in the late 1980s, before the Center of Faulkner Studies' creation.

Brodsky died in 2014.

Christopher Rieger, professor of English at Southeast and Hamblin's successor as director of the Center, said the book is valuable as a record of how the university acquired the collection.

"It was quite controversial at the time," Rieger said by phone Thursday.

Other universities were interested in the collection, Rieger said, and Brodsky spoke with Ole Miss and his alma mater, Yale, about possibly placing the collection.

"Dr. Hamblin was the point person between Brodsky and the university," Rieger said. "He was the one who facilitated it and really made it all happen.

"We were very lucky to receive it," he added.

At acquisition, Rieger said, the collection was valued at about $3 million, but he said unofficial estimates are closer to $20 million.

Security is tight, he added, and access to the collection is by appointment only.

The Center hosts scholars from across the United States, as well as international scholars, whose research uses the collection.

"Faulkner's big in Japan," Rieger said, after a 1955 visit there established a connection.

Faulkner's work is popular in China as well, Rieger said.

The Center also holds a conference at Southeast every two years that attracts scholars the world over who share their research.

"It's definitely a legacy of the collection and of Dr. Hamblin's," Rieger said.

Hamblin is a professor emeritus of English at Southeast Missouri State University, where he taught for nearly 50 years. He is the author or editor of over 30 books, including 18 scholarly volumes, seven books of poems, four biographies and three personal or family memoirs.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

313 Themis St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.