Research Guides: Clarence John Laughlin Collections: About Book Collection

ABOUT BOOK COLLECTION

The Clarence John Laughlin Collection includes over 33,000 book titles, more than 900 serials, and manuscripts which reflect Laughlin’s work as a writer, book collector, and photographer.

A life-long writer and reader himself, Laughlin devoted vast amounts of time and energy to collecting and curating books and serials. Although he sold 20,000 volumes to Southern Illinois University in the early 1960s for financial reasons, he kept 2,000 in his personal collection rather than part with them all. As his reputation as a photographer grew in the 1970s, he returned to book collecting and began his lifelong project of amassing and curating the Laughlin Library of the Arts.

Laughlin’s library was devoted to more than the documentation of the visual arts. Laughlin organized the library into eleven sections, each devoted to a different area of research: Art; Still Photography and Cinema; Contemporary Literature; Fantasy and Science-Fiction; The Physical Sciences; The Mental Sciences; Architecture and Architects; Illustrated Books, Books on Books, etc.; Antiques, etc.; Miscellaneous; and Sexology, etc. A variety of topics were represented within each of these sections. Laughlin essentially created an interdisciplinary resource, whose segments were part of a functional whole. For a comprehensive view of certain topics, cross-referencing was necessary – the Contemporary Literature Section, for example, included theatrical literature, but theatrical architecture was shelved in the Architecture and Architects Section.

For more details see a transcript of Laughlin’s personal library arrangement located in the side bar to the right. This document provides insight into Laughlin’s personal collection development and is for reference purposes only. Materials from the Laughlin Book Collection are currently arranged and catalogued with Library of Congress classification at LSU Libraries, Special Collections.

Towards the end of his life, Laughlin worked to ensure the safekeeping of the library. LSU Libraries, with a generous gift from the Friends of the LSU Libraries, purchased the Laughlin Library of the Arts in 1985, with Elizabeth Heintzen Laughlin completing the sale following her husband’s death on January 2.

The Clarence John Laughlin Collection is known for its extensive holdings on Surrealism, as well as comprehensive holdings on speculative fiction – weird fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and horror – from its pulp beginnings through 1985. A comprehensive survey conducted by Carole Therese McCusker in April 1992 found the collection “equally represents philosophy, medicine, erotica, Western and non-Western religion and art, social and environmental studies, science fiction and science phenomenology, anthropology, psychology and archaeology.” [1] Also of note are Laughlin’s extensive holdings in illustrated collections of fairy tales and folklore, detective and mystery fiction, books and serials on cinema and film, and compilations of speculative fiction and comics previously available only in serial format. Cataloged materials from the Laughlin Book Collection can be found here.

[1] McCusker, Carol Therese. “Unpacking his Library: Literature in the Photographs of Clarence John Laughlin.” Master’s thesis (The University of New Mexico, December 1992), p. xii.

Recommended titles and featured subject listings found on SELECT BOOKS page.

Recommended biography on Clarence John Laughlin:
Meeks, A. J. Clarence John Laughlin: Prophet Without Honor. (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press) 2007.
TR 140 .L332 M44 2007 LLMVC

Laughlin's personal library arrangement
Transcript from a letter by Clarence John Laughlin detailing collection development of his personal library and its organization.