The orange in the Princeton flag and in the tricolor of Ireland share a common ancestor: the heraldic seal of William III. Hence, it is a sign of kinship that Firestone Library will be flying both flags this fall to celebrate its acquisition of a welcome addition to its Irish holdings.
To complement the wide-ranging collection of Irish poetry he donated to the library eight years ago, Leonard L. Milberg ’53 has presented an Irish Theater Collection consisting of plays, playbills, lithographs, posters, and other documents highlighting the careers of more than eighty dramatists, from Dion Boucicault (1820—1890) to Owen McCafferty (1961—). The collection is given in honor of Paul Muldoon, the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities, chair of Princeton’s new Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Milberg—dubbed “our most willing bringer” by the Irish-born Muldoon—has made many extraordinary gifts to the library, including collections of American poetry, American Jewish writers, early American views, and 19th-century American drawings, the latter two housed in yet another benefaction, along with the Milberg Gallery for Graphic Arts in which to exhibit them.
George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and W.B. Yeats were already respectably represented in the Library, so the motive behind the Milberg Irish Theater Collection is to fill gaps in the Special Collection. Playwrights include Abbey Theatre luminaries Sean O’Casey, John Millington Synge, and Samuel Becket, as well as contemporary writers from internationally successful offshoot companies. The scope of this collection from the famine years of the 1840s through the struggle for home rule and the 1916 Easter Rebellion to the present spans a turbulent period that left its mark on the country’s artists and their work. As Milberg has said of the Irish, “They are people of exceptional learning and interest, writing in a way that reflects the beauty of the language. I was amazed to find such a relatively small group of writers turning out such a large body of extraordinary work.
Two events and two publications accompanied the opening. October 13 through 15, “Players and the Painted Stage,” a symposium on Irish theater conceived jointly by the Friends of the Library, the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, the Fund for Irish Studies, and McCarter Theatre, brought together actors Stephen Rea and Barry McGovern; directors Garry Hynes, Fiach Mac Conghail, and Joe Dowling; playwright Marina Carr; and critic Luke Gibbons for readings and discussions.
October 8 through 29, McCarter Theatre presented Brian Friel’s modern classic Translations, directed by Garry Hynes, cofounder of the Druid Theater in Galway and the first woman to receive a Tony Award for Best Director. The play concerns a favorite Irish subject: the supremacy of language, the purity and beauty of one’s native tongue, and its erosion by political influences.
A catalog of the Milberg collection, compiled by Bucks County bookseller J. Howard Woolmer, will be issued this fall, with an introduction by Wes Davis and biographical sketches of the authors represented. A special Irish theater issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle will include reminiscences by actors, directors, and playwrights, excerpts from a new play by Marina Carr, and examinations of Irish theater history.
As for Paul Muldoon, he is “thrilled by the fact that Leonard Milberg continues to support the arts at Princeton with such extraordinary generosity. His interest in Irish materials is especially heartening. The Irish Theater Collection will not only complement the Irish Poetry Collection but also stand by itself as the most exhaustive outside Ireland. It is a monument not only to the subject but to Leonard Milberg himself.
