Emory Acquires Salman Rushdie Papers

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/october2006a/rushdie.cfm

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Posted October 20, 2006.

Emory Acquires Salman Rushdie Papers

Emory University in Atlanta has acquired the papers of author Salman Rushdie. To be housed at Emory’s Woodruff Library, the collection contains Rushdie’s correspondence, notes, photographs, and manuscripts, including those for two early unpublished novels. It also includes Rushdie’s private journals detailing the 10 years he spent in hiding after being sentenced to death by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini in 1989 following his publication of The Satanic Verses.

Rushdie will also join Emory’s faculty as Distinguished Writer in Residence, a five-year appointment that will begin in the spring of 2007. The university didn’t disclose the financial details of the agreement, although the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said October 7 that some scholars speculated the papers were worth well over $1 million.

“The Rushdie papers will provide the primary resource for future generations seeking to understand an artist at the center of our era,” said Stephen Enniss, director of Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library. Library staff will initially focus on organizing the works for public viewing, said Ennis, adding, “We will certainly work to process the Rushdie papers promptly because of the strong research interest in the collection.”

Emory’s research collections already hold the personal and literary papers of such modern literary figures as the late British poet laureate Ted Hughes and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.

Posted October 20, 2006.