The Pascal Pia Collection contains about 20,000 titles of French literary works, periodicals, and ephemera. Most of the publications are from the modern period, with emphasis on prose and poetry since the mid-19th century. A very large number of signed copies are in the Collection, many of them gifts of such major authors as Camus and Malraux, both good friends of Pascal Pia. Excerpts from an evaluation by University Librarian Hendrik Edelman, Rutgers University, describe the Collection as follows:
"It is the library of a great critic who was in touch with large numbers of authors, literary historians and other critics. During a long period of time, Pia collected ... the output of literary France in a depth that I had not seen before. The primary sources ... undoubtedly are the most unique.... Not only are the works of the most significant authors represented, such as a number of very rare first editions by Camus, but the real value is probably in the numerous works by lesser known authors. Most of these titles have had limited press runs and will never be reprinted. Adding to this great intrinsic value is the fact that the larger part of the collection consists of gift editions ... in mint condition....The collection of 20th century poetry is most remarkable, and the additional value of having the secondary sources on so many authors cannot be overestimated....Of undoubtedly the greatest value is the collection of periodicals. During the 19th and 20th century many of the significant literary contributions were made in so-called ... little magazines.... Libraries have never collected these as they appeared, for obvious reasons. I have never seen a collection of such periodicals as exquisite as the Pia collection. Many titles are very, very rare indeed, even when they are incomplete.... "


The Gilbert Sigaux Collection

Gilbert Sigaux was an author, a translator, a professor of theater history at the "Conservatoire national d'art dramatique" in Paris and secretary of the "Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques." Over a period of many years until his death in 1982, Sigaux gathered an enormous personal library of play texts and books and other valuable documents on the theater.

The Gilbert Sigaux Collection, purchased from the author's widow, contains some 6,000 volumes, including monographs, theater journals, and primary texts, as well as files of approximately 50,000 items on authors, directors, actors, and theaters. These files contain such items as press clippings, programs, publicity releases, Sigaux's personal notes, and articles from journals, many of which are no longer available.

By its emphasis on theater, the Sigaux Collection complements the Pascal Pia Collection. "The collection represents," according to Professor Dan M. Church, "the single most valuable resource for research on theater in France in the 20th century." Vanderbilt's library has made it possible to search electronically by keywords to find relevant items among the thousands of file documents. 

Bibliographer, French Collections
Box 6325 Station B
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235

Telephone: (615) 343-0372

For further information on the French Collections or on other World Wide Web resources in French, click on the appropriate link.