A book donated by the University of Chattanooga class of 1941 to the University was discovered by a Georgia book dealer, who has kindly returned the gift to the Lupton Library. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee and Walker Evans, published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, may not be a rare or valuable book, but it holds historic significance for the University. A book plate reads: “Presented to University of Chattanooga Library by the Class of 1941.”
Hamlin J. Endicott, of Sawgrass Books and Music, Decatur, Georgia, “picked it up with other books, and seeing what it was, decided to ‘send it back home,’” according to Steve Cox, Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist at the Lupton Library.
“From looking at the book, it appears to have left the library, either never returned from being checked out, or was stolen before the merger, since the stamp inside reads “University of Chattanooga” not UTC. I don’t believe the library staff would have knowingly discarded it. This gift from the 1941 graduating class has finally been returned, and is now housed in the Special Collections of the library,” Cox said.
Cox said it appears the class of 1941 gifted the University by outfitting a “seminar room” in the library, located in Fletcher Hall at the time. “This book apparently came with this project,” Cox said.
