Mississippi State Libraries receives rare book collection

The valuable book collection includes 59 publications bound into 45 separate volumes.
The valuable book collection includes 59 publications bound into 45 separate volumes. | File photo

The Special Collections Department of Mississippi State University Libraries recently accepted a collection of valuable, rare books from MaxxSouth Broadband.

The valuable book collection includes 59 publications bound into 45 separate volumes. This is the biggest known number of imprints from Mississippi Territorial that were published before 1817.

“It’s been a privilege to form this partnership with Mississippi State University,” John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade and the donor of the books, said. (Both papers, like MaxxSouth, are subsidiaries of Block Communications.) “I’m pleased that this important collection will have a new home where it can benefit the community and be available for future generations.”

Block has spent over 30 years building his own collection of rare manuscripts and books about the legal history of early America and its British forefathers.

“Curating these books and documents has been a very personal endeavor and I’m grateful to find the same devotion in MSU Dean of Libraries’ Dean Frances Coleman and Special Collections Rare Book Coordinator Fred Smith,” Block said. “This is a gift to the residents of Mississippi and serves as a way to respect the area’s rich history.”

The MSU Libraries will officially accept the books on Friday.