The things they carried
We get close to long-dead great writers by reading the works they left behind. But there is another way, which can be just as electric and emotional: to see or touch or just be near artifacts from their writing lives. Harvard’s Houghton Library makes such proximal resonance possible. Objects from the lives of literary greats, the things that might have lain on their desktops, are housed in the Z Closet Collection and in other places set aside for material oddities that can’t be cataloged in the usual way. Librarians call such objects “realia” and store them in custom boxes. “We’re good with books and manuscripts, but objects present special challenges,” said Peter Accardo, Houghton’s coordinator of programs. “They demand material expertise and care.” John Ruskin’s magnifying glass — a gift from Harvard’s Charles Eliot Norton, an executor of Ruskin’s estate — is still kept in a century-old box from Boston jeweler Rand &...