OXFORD, Miss. – Writers Christopher Maurer and Maria Estrella Iglesias have donated to the University of Mississippi an extensive research collection on renowned Mississippi artist and writer Walter Inglis Anderson and on the Anderson family’s business, Shearwater Pottery.
Maurer, professor of Spanish at Boston University, and Iglesias are co-authors of the book “Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi: Love and Art at Shearwater” (Doubleday, 2000) and Maurer is author of the award-winning biography “Fortune’s Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson” (University Press of Mississippi, 2003).
“No painter or writer ever knew the natural world more intimately or captured it more memorably in writing, drawing and watercolors,” Maurer said of Anderson. “And none was more prolific.”
Gathered for more than six years of research, the seven boxes of materials donated to UM’s Department of Archives and Special Collections cover almost every aspect of Walter Anderson’s life. Also included are several thousand pages copied from the archives of Shearwater Pottery, which date back to its founding in 1928; reproductions of Anderson’s graphic work; and extensive collections of the writings of Anderson’s mother, Annette McConnell Anderson, his wife Agnes Grinstead Anderson, and other family members.
“Maurer’s collection is so important now especially since it contains copies of materials whose originals were later damaged in Hurricane Katrina,” said Jennifer Ford, head of Archives and Special Collections. “The collection helps to provide an overall picture of the genius of Walter Anderson and his family.”
Maurer made the decision to donate the collection to Ole Miss after the 2009 Oxford Conference for the Book was dedicated to Anderson.
“We hope that the collection will grow, that it will prove useful to other writers and that their encounters with the pottery, the painter and with Andersons past and present will be as intense and as fruitful as ours,” Maurer said.
Although the donated collection is still being processed, the public can view an Anderson exhibit, titled “Walter Anderson and World Literature,” at the J.D. Williams Library. The exhibit is open during regular library hours: 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, 7-2 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. A Subject Guide for the exhibit is available at http://apollo.lib.olemiss.edu/center/subject?guide/anderson/intro.
To learn more about the J.D. Williams Library, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general?library/ . For assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-7408.