The White Collection, named after Robert White (1802-1874) was presented to King's College (now Newcastle University) by his great nephew George White Pickering. It is a rich source of literature as well as being strong in ecclesiastical and local history such as James Raine's writings on local history and antiquities.

There are works by John Dryden, William Hazlitt, Thomas Hood, James Thomson, Robert Burns, Mark Akenside, Thomas Chatterton, John Gay, H.W. Longfellow, Matthew Prior, John Keats, John Milton, James Hogg, John Clare, Edgar Allan Poe, George Herbert, William Cowper, Thomas Gray and the poems of Ossian as well as several works by S.T. Coleridge, including Aids to reflection (1848), Biographia literaria (1817), Confessions of an inquiring spirit (1849) and The friend (1850). Alongside the work of these distinguished authors sit English and Scottish ballads, garlands and chapbooks including some which were printed in Newcastle.

The Walmsley (Anne) Collection is named for the person that formerly owned the books. It contains poetry and prose by Caribbean and black British writers, including Kamau Brathwaite, Derek Walcott (the Nobel Prize for Literature winner), Olive Senior and Samuel Selvon. Some of the books contain additional material such as correspondence and some of the books are inscribed to Anne by the authors.

The Ure Collection is an Anglo-Irish literature collection, with a particular emphasis on the work of W.B. Yeats, which was built-up by Peter Ure (Joseph Cowen Professor of English Language and Literature, 1960-1969).

Other writers represented in the collection include Sean O'Casey, George Moore, Lady Gregory, J.M. Synge, J.B. Yeats, Oliver St. John Gogarty, G.W. Russell, Patrick Kavanagh and Louis MacNiece.

St. Bees School, Cumbria was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1583 and its library was developed through donations from local gentry and clergy in the Seventeenth Century. The collection comprises mostly classical literature and theology, including 102 volumes which were printed in the Sixteenth Century, with several titles in Latin or Ancient Greek.

Alongside the classical authors sit Martin Luther's sermons; works by William Gilpin, John Ruskin, Oliver Goldsmith, Izaak Walton, James Boswell and Francis Bacon; there is a copy of Roald Amundsen's The South Pole: an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the “Fram”, 1910-1912 (1912) and C.G. Bruce's The assault on Mount Everest, 1922 (1923), as well as W.R. Calvert's Family holiday: a little tour in a second-hand car (1932).

The Robinson Collection comprises incunabula, medieval manuscripts and books so the material ranges from a fourteenth-century gradual to items published in the Nineteenth Century. The collection was bequeathed by Marjorie Robinson (d. 1998), widow of antiquarian bookseller, Philip Robinson. It includes early editions of works by Dante, Boccaccio and Tasso; rare pamphlets by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift; and is a good resource for travel literature.

Highlights include an original Gutenberg Bible leaf [1400]; a book of hours which is printed on vellum, in a brown cloth binding with blue velvet spine and metal centerpiece, corner-pieces and ornamental clasp; presentation copies of Alexander Pope's works as well as books which he formerly owned and A letter from South Carolina, 2nd ed. (1718) which provides first-hand information on the pioneer settlement of that state.

The Pollard Collection was brought together by Mr Eric Pollard and was purchased from the family with support from the Friends of the University Library in 2011. It focuses on the author, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) being particularly rich in early editions of his works. The collection includes a series of short stories, published as 'The Railway Library', which made Kipling's name as a writer in India, England and America. There are also many of his classic novels and works of children's literature such as Puck of Pook's Hill. During the First World War, Kipling devoted his writing to the war effort and this is represented in the collection too. Besides printed books the Pollard Collection includes cuttings and ephemera relating to Kipling as well as 16 colour folio plates by the artists Maurice and Edward Detmold, produced to illustrate the 1908 Macmillan octavo edition of The Jungle Book.

A collection of 20th century British and American authors, including avant-garde local author Barry MacSweeney and “Black Mountain poet” Robert Creeley: the ephemeral and rare nature of the “hasty editions” and the presentation inscriptions attest to the authors’ closeness with Ric and Annie Caddel, whose Pig Press played an important part in the British Poetry Revival.

A rich collection of mainly Anglo-American poetry with authors’ presentation inscriptions which offer a glimpse into the vast interpersonal network of relationships which Tom Pickard established around the Morden Tower venue over four decades with modernist poets including Basil Bunting, Barry MacSweeney and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

L.T. Meade (1854-1914) was the Irish daughter of a Protestant clergyman who later moved to London. She contributed short stories and articles to magazines such as The Strand Magazine and edited the periodical Atlanta but became better-known for her novels. She tried her hand at several genres, including crime fiction, but is most closely associated with stories which targeted a female audience, notably stories about girls' schools.

Meade wrote approximately 250 books and we have about 180 in our holdings which were published from 1878 and as recently as 2003. Titles include: The autocrat of the nursery, The children of Wilton Chase, Kitty O'Donovan, and The Scamp family. The collection was gifted to the Library by Jean Garriock.

The collection spans the poet’s entire creative life and includes journal issues, volumes and ephemeral “hasty editions” associated with spoken word events. Presentation inscriptions in many items attest to the friendship between Barry MacSweeney and his former journalist colleague Terry Kelly.