Gone to Texas: Looking for Wolfe at the Harry Ransom Center (Thomas Wolfe‪)‬

More than ten years ago, Aldo P. Magi brought to my attention a brochure from a 1960s literary exhibit featuring manuscript materials from the research library at the University of Texas in Austin. The material included Thomas Wolfe manuscript from the collection of George R. Preston Jr. I still remember Aldo's comment: "I've always been curious about what's there and hope someone will go down there and find out." The library, now known as the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, was named to honor its founding father whose tenacious acquisition of literary manuscripts and letters outrivaled other special collections and gave rise to an abbreviation of frustration, G.T.T. (Gone to Texas), among competing institutions outbid and out-finagled in the acquisition game. The tradition continues as the Harry Ransom Center amasses amazing collections, reports D. T. Max in his "Letter from Austin" article for the New Yorker, "Final Destination: Why Do the Archives of So Many Great Writers End Up in Texas?"