The "George Santayana Collection"
 

T
 

DANIEL CORY
 

^ ]i ^HE "George Santayana Collection" now housed in the
Columbia University Library comprises everything be¬
queathed to me by Santayana in his Last Will and Testa¬
ment, and released ro me in Rome by the Spanish Consul in
December, 1953—a little more than a year after his death. Im¬
mediate access to his literary MSS and personal effects had been
delayed pending the probation of the Will in Boston. During
my twenty-five years of close and happy association with Santa¬
yana, in the capacity of disciple, part-time secretary, and con¬
fidant, he had from time to time given me by hand various MSS
and keepsakes, but the Columbia "Santayana Collection" in¬
cludes everything, holographs, little personal effects, and books
studied with his inimitable marginalia, that was left in his room
at the clinic of the "Little Sisters of Mary" in Rome. As he had
resided in this establishment for the last twelve years of his life,
and assembled and retained there everything that was of interest
to him (either literary or sentimental), it is obvious that this body
of Santayanese is of considerable bulk and value. I am extremely
grateful that my friend Corliss Lamont has relieved me of the
responsibility of disposing of this collection in an appropriate
manner, and it is due to his promptness of action and generosity
that the Columbia Library is now enriched by a holding of in¬
calculable interest to all future students of a great literary master
and profound thinker.

To begin with, there are several complete holographs of im¬
portant works, such as the large Volume I of his autobiography
Persons and Places. This is the MS that became a Book-of-the-
Month Club selection, and is considered the most important part
of one of the finest autobiographies of this century. Then there

23