Reference and instruction intern Amanda Watson joined McCabe Library's staff last fall. She earned a Ph.D. in English language and literature from the University of Michigan and is currently attending library school at Drexel University. Before Swarthmore, Amanda served as a postdoctoral fellow in scholarly information resources at the University of Virginia, where she also worked as acting public services and instructional technology librarian. Write to her at awatson1@swarthmore.edu.

warthmore's libraries received an invaluable gift this fall: the complete library of William Slattery Lieberman '43 (1923-2005), a prominent New York museum curator. His collection, which arrived from New York by truck at the beginning of August, totals approximately 6,000 books - a rough estimate, since the collection has not been formally counted.

Lieberman's entry in the 1943 Halcyon suggests that his interests in book collecting and the arts began early: "According to those who are in the know, Bill lives in New York theatres and commutes to Swarthmore for seminars. ... Culture-merchant deluxe, he has written a large amount of creditable poetry and accumulated a library notable for French literature and books on art."

After graduating from Swarthmore, Lieberman moved to New York, where he began working for the Museum of Modern Art. He served there as a curator of prints and drawings from 1949 to 1979 before moving to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to become chairman of the Twentieth Century Art Department. During his long career, he wrote dozens of articles and contributed to a wide variety of exhibit catalogues and books. His vast knowledge of the art world is reflected in his collection, which covers art movements from the ancient world to the present, with a particular emphasis on modern art and on Japanese art and culture. Some of the treasures of the collection include a booklet of drawings by the artist Joan Miró; several rare early books on Picasso; and signed works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marianne Moore, and William Somerset Maugham.

From top left, a cover and inside page of a book by Miró, a Picasso book with the artist's signature, and William Lieberman '43 from the Halcyon.

	A page from a work by Miró dedicated to "Bill Lieberman avec toute mon amité."

Even though none of us at McCabe knew Bill Lieberman, his interests and preoccupations shine clearly through the books he left us. His library reveals not only an encyclopedic understanding of modern art, but also a life spent traveling, learning, and creating. Numerous guides to places as far apart as Japan and Mexico speak of his travels around the world. His tastes in reading ranged from classics of French literature in the original French to mystery novels and a huge collection of biographies and autobiographies.

Many of the books show a deeply scholarly mind at work, interested in virtually everything - Soren Kierkegaard, Morocco, the history of World War II, clothing design, classical archaeology - and attuned to all the key art movements of the 20th century. Others are decidedly offbeat (my personal favorite is The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia). A number of the art books were written by Mr. Lieberman himself; the collection includes many copies of the catalogues for exhibits he curated.

William Lieberman will be greatly missed by his friends and colleagues in New York. Fittingly for such an ardent collector, he will also be remembered at Swarthmore through his books.