Special Collections Library

A new exhibition in the Special Collections Library, “Life at Yaddo: Glimpses from Penn State,” features letters written from Yaddo, the famous artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York, by authors Janet Frame, Kenneth Burke, Malcolm Cowley, and Philip Roth, as well as work by Penn State faculty who have won fellowships at Yaddo: Thomas Rogers, Peter Schneeman, and Julia Kasdorf. A special display includes memorabilia on loan from former Yaddo chef Patricia L. Miller. On display in 104 Paterno Library, the exhibition will run through September 9, 2009.

The Penn State University Libraries celebrate Yaddo in conjunction with a national exhibition initiative sponsored by New York Public Library. For close to a century, Yaddo has nurtured the creative work of some of the nation’s most distinguished writers, composers, performers, and visual artists, while fostering a multitude of friendships, rivalries, collaborations, and cross-influences. The Libraries exhibition includes photographs, drawings, letters, manuscripts, and ephemera that shed light on the daily routine at Yaddo and the power of artistic crosscurrents.

In 1900, Spencer Trask, a New York financier, and his wife, Katrina, formed the Corporation of Yaddo, a nonprofit organization the purpose of which “is to maintain a residence and retreat for persons actually and usefully engaged in artistic and creative work.” After the death of the Trasks, in 1926 the Trask estate known as Yaddo began to receive its first guests--writers, visual artists, and composers. Since then, in the words of John Cheever, a very frequent guest, “the 40 or so acres on which the principal buildings of Yaddo stand have seen more distinguished activity in the arts than any other piece of ground in the English-speaking community or perhaps in the entire world.”

A gallery talk by Julia Kasdorf, associate professor of English and Women’s Studies, will be held on Wednesday, September 2, at 4:30 p.m. in 104 Paterno Library. The talk, “The Yaddo Pages: Personal Writing from an Artist’s Residency,” is free and open to the public.

Contact: Sandra Stelts, curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, sks5@psu.edu, 814-863-5388.