“We have the writers whose archives we’re trying to get—the A level,” (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Director Thomas) Staley says. “Then there’s the B level—these would be writers where we would get their published material, first editions and so on. And then there’s the C level, where we would try to get first editions of their major work.” The C’s include Martin Amis, Jonathan Franzen, and Dave Eggers. Some B’s: David Foster Wallace, J. D. Salinger, and J. M. Coetzee. Staley was reluctant to divulge the A’s, but he said that Ian McEwan was among them.
Though there may be no accounting for taste, it seems one can insure it: in the June 11 & 18, 2007 edition of the New Yorker, in a story entitled “Letter from Austin: Final Destination,” writer D.T. Max reports that the center’s holdings are insured for $1 billion.
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