May 24, 2022
Stephen Enniss is director of the Harry Ransom
Center at the University of Texas in Austin. Previous posts include
Head Librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library and Director of
Emory University's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
where he made a series of impressive acquisitions including the
archives of Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie and Ted Hughes. Since
taking over at the Ransom Center in 2013, Stephen has overseen the
acquisition of the archives of Ian McEwan, J.M. Coetzee, Kazuo
Ishiguro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Michael Ondaatje, among
others.
We met via Zoom to discuss his role as director of a special
collections library; where Martin Amis is, and Christopher
Hitchens, Clive James and other members of their group. About
fighting oblivion; about the value and challenges of email archives
and negotiating or not negotiating with Andrew Wylie; about Texan
"nationalism," and the goals of attracting books and people, and
developing a "civilization;" about diversity, and hiring practices
and collection development policies; about cataloguing,
bureaucracies, acquisitions, books bridging political divides, the
Gotham Book Mart, sweet little exhibition catalogues, and much
more.