"Ex Libris Ellen B. Scripps"
Learning about Ellen Browning Scripps through the lens of her bookshelf.
Start looking around Southern California, and you'll spot the Scripps name quickly enough — Scripps College in Claremont, CA; the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UCSD; and the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, CA, to name a few.
These institutions represent just part of the legacy of Ellen Browning Scripps.
Miss Scripps was a philanthropist, journalist, and instructor who continually invested her time, effort, and money into creating a better future for those around her. Equally as vivid as her legacy today, however, was her life in her own time.
One continuing theme throughout her life was books: her father was a bookbinder, she was a voracious reader from an early age, and she built her book collection throughout her life.
What can this trait of hers reveal about her life to us today?
When it came to books, Miss Scripps played three large roles: she was a consumer, collector, and patron.
CONSUMER
of books
Miss Scripps was a reader from her earliest days. Born in England, the books she had access to then typically were Christian texts, gifted to her by the devout women on her mother's side.
Passion for books was an inherited trait in her family. Her father, James Mogg Scripps, was a bookbinder in England. Although he gave up bookbinding for farming when he and his family moved to the United States, he retained his interest in books, bringing an extensive library with him to the US.
According to E. W. Scripps, one of Miss Scripps's younger brothers, their father's library had an elaborately bound edition of Shakespeare, an encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences, well-known poetry, and Peter Parley works, among others, as the contents of James Mogg Scripps's library. In addition to her father's library, Miss Scripps also had access to books sent to her by her aunts — though those books, in line with her aunts' previous gifts, tended to be quite religious.
Miss Scripps often took advantage of the books she had access to: E. W. Scripps also had many memories of Miss Scripps reading books from their home to him.
Miss Scripps's literary interests were fostered outside the home as well.
She went to high school, and she was the only one of her 10 siblings to receive a college education, attending Knox College from 1856-1859. While at Knox, she engaged in a wide range of curriculum, reading books like Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
After graduation, she began working in the journalism field with some of her family members. While she wasn't acquiring a large number of books at this point (that came later — once she amassed her wealth), she kept reading, and she took good care of the books that she did have.
In the 1880s, she spent almost eight years abroad with her brother E.W. While abroad, she wrote a steady stream of letters back home to her brother James E. Scripps, which were published in the Detroit Evening News. Miss Scripps's literary knowledge comes through often — a letter from Spain spends several paragraphs discussing Cervantes and Don Quixote, while another letter from Egypt highlights her interest in Egyptology.
Miss Scripps cast a wide net in the books she read and subjects she consumed.
She read books about psychology, travel, biography, fiction, poetry, and more. She didn't shy away from more "scandalous" topics either: following a conversation with Mary B. Eyre, a personal friend of Ellen Browning Scripps, about prostitutes, she read Scarlet Sister Mary, a controversial (at the time) novel that dealt with issues of promiscuity and race. Friends and family also recalled her reading medical encyclopedias, spiritual books, and more.
A quote from Eyre sums it up well:
"Miss Scripps was an omnivorous reader, and all was fish that came to her net.
Ellen Browning Scripps (right) with Emily Field White (left), a college acquaintance.
Ellen Browning Scripps (right) with Emily Field White (left), a college acquaintance.
A page from Miss Scripps's travel letter where she discusses her trip to Valladolid.
A page from Miss Scripps's travel letter where she discusses her trip to Valladolid.
COLLECTOR
of books
As Miss Scripps began to amass more and more of her fortune, she began to use it to purchase books. At the time of her death, there were over 3300 books in her private library — and that didn't even include books she had donated prior to her death and literary magazine subscriptions.
Books were of the few personal splurges Miss Scripps indulged in.
Most of her money she donated by the end of her life, and a recurring theme throughout her life, despite her increasing wealth, was her hesitance to spend money on herself, beyond basic necessities.
Her accounting diaries from the last 25 years of her life highlights the trend of books as her major splurge area. For example, look at three accounting books of hers split over a 10 year period: 1918, 1923, and 1928.
1918
In 1918, Miss Scripps spent a total of $1,200.25 on library-related expenses, on a wide-range of books and topics. Her most expensive purchase was $326.80 paid to A.R. Valentien for paintings of California wildflowers.
Reflecting the fact that World War I did not end until the end of that year, there are multiple library purchases for books about the war, such as A Soldier Unafraid by Captain Andre Cornet-Auquier. But despite the focus, she wasn't limited to reading just the war.
There are books about archaeology (New Archaeological Discoveries by Camden M. Corben), health and spirituality (Religious Rheumatism by J.B. Baker), environmentalism (writings of John Muir), and more.
1923
In 1923, she spent a total of $1,292.55 on library-related expenses. Her most expensive purchase was $223.00 for the Yale University Press's Chronicles of America in 20 Volumes.
This year, the topics of the books she bought ranged from women's suffrage (The Woman Citizen by Horace Adelbert Hollister), scientific fantasy (Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells), Irish history (The Drama of Sinn Fein), and more.
1928
In 1928, she spent a total of $1,685.30 on library-related expenses. Her most expensive purchase was $265.00 for four works —The Canterbury Tales, Utopia by Thomas More, Old Mrs. Chundle by Thomas Hardy, and New Book of Poetry by Carl Sandburg — from the Atlantic Monthly Bookshop.
This year, she bought books about topics ranging from natural history (The herball: or, Generall historie of plantes by John Gerard), Indian culture and history (A Son of Mother India Answers by Dhan Gopal Mukerji), classics of the western canon (The Canterbury Tales in 4 vols.), and more.
The books Miss Scripps bought reflected the care and money that was put into them.
They were gorgeous: she often bought the "De Luxe" editions of books, which featured premium binding, extra illustrations, and other luxurious details.
She even had a number of books that had signatures or inscriptions, including works by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Kate Douglas Wiggin, H.G. Wells, and others.
Fire!
On August 7, 1915, a fire broke out in Miss Scripps's house, South Molton Villa. Much of her estate was burned down, and the damage was considerable. In a stroke of blessed luck, however, the library was left almost untouched.
In the telegrams and letters sent to Miss Scripps following the fire, her friends and family repeatedly expressed their hope that her marvelous library was spared, and relief upon finding out that it had been mostly left alone. The luxury and detail of the books in her library had been preserved.
Miss Scripps's 31 volume set of Victor Hugo works all had her initials EBS in a gold monogram on the front cover.
Miss Scripps's 31 volume set of Victor Hugo works all had her initials EBS in a gold monogram on the front cover.
The first volume in Miss Scripps's set of John Muir works had a tipped in manuscript in the front.
The first volume in Miss Scripps's set of John Muir works had a tipped in manuscript in the front.
Miss Scripps's copy of Rodney Stone by Arthur Conan Doyle had the author's signature in it.
Miss Scripps's copy of Rodney Stone by Arthur Conan Doyle had the author's signature in it.
Telegram sent by George A. Riley the night after the fire clarifying that while the majority of South Molton Villa was badly damaged, "the library and its contents were preserved."
Telegram sent by George A. Riley the night after the fire clarifying that while the majority of South Molton Villa was badly damaged, "the library and its contents were preserved."
While Miss Scripps read a large and varied selection of books, the books she bought tended to fall into some general categories.
Broadly, these categories were a "western canon," history, health, natural history, religion, women's rights, and art.
The biggest of those categories, by far, was the extensive "western canon." Generally, these texts were by well-known authors, playwrights and poets, from the Western world and works of fiction and poetry. The "western canon" that Miss Scripps consumed was one shaped by its context of the late 1800s and early 1900s. So, in that time, the acclaimed Western authors trended quite predominantly male and essentially exclusively white: Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Victor Hugo, Henrik Ibsen, Jane Austen, etc.
The other categories—history, health, natural history, religion, women's rights, and art—tended to be composed of non-fiction works and reflected Miss Scripps's wide range of academic interests.
The history books were primarily centered around North American and European history and people, but there are some Egyptian and Asian topics found among her books as well.
She had books by Jane Addams and Kate Douglas Wiggins, prominent women's rights and education activists. While Miss Scripps wasn't particularly religious, she did have a Bible, and owned a few other religious texts.
She had a deep interest in natural history, and especially California's natural history, and had books of both national and local interest.
Additionally, while the grandness of the books she bought could practically be considered art in and of itself, she also bought specific art books.
Miss Scripps also liked to clip poems and music she found interesting, and the range of her clippings reflects her range of literary interests. She had clippings from famous historical poets like William Blake; well-known contemporary poets, like Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling; and also unknown contemporary poets, such as "A Red Shame" by H. Thompson Rich, published in the relatively obscure magazine Bruno's Weekly.
She didn't only read distinguished works; she also read poems from friends and family, like a poem from an aunt of hers, and one from James Arnold Blaisdell, first president of the Claremont Colleges.
PATRON
of books
Miss Scripps did not just consume and collect books. In the later years of her life, there were multiple books she became a patron for, donating money to their production, authors, or distribution, to ensure their publication and reach. Here are some of those books:
The Wildflowers of California by A.R. Valentien
In the first decade of the 1900s, Miss Scripps commissioned A.R. Valentien, a gifted artist also living in San Diego, to begin an ambitious California-based artistic endeavor: painting all the wildflowers of California.
This was, of course, a massive undertaking: Valentien would go on to work on this project for over a decade. For the first ten years or so, things went smoothly. Valentien would travel around to different areas of the state, painting the different flora he found there. Every so often, Valentien would send his completed paintings of wildflowers to Miss Scripps, and she would send back payment. By 1917, Miss Scripps had over 130 completed paintings.
Around this time, Valentien and Miss Scripps began to look into the logistics of turning the paintings into a book. While Miss Scripps worked to ensure at least some of the paintings were accessible to the public — in 1922, multiple paintings were on display at the La Jolla library—Valentien wanted the paintings accessible to everyone, from professional botanists to the layman.
However, as quotes for publishing the book came back, the numbers were very high. One 1924 estimate put the cost of publication as $174,219. Eventually, Miss Scripps decided that the publishing cost was simply too high.
A.R. Valentien, however, continued to champion the mission of publishing such a book. He remained in contact with Miss Scripps, telling her of the many people who knew of the potential book and were advocating for its publication. At one point, he even suggested he may know of someone else who would finance the book, independent of Miss Scripps.
Unfortunately, Valentien never saw this goal realized in his lifetime. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1925, when he was in his early 60s. It seems Miss Scripps continued to investigate the possibilities of publishing the book, but the estimated cost simply kept increasing: a 1928 estimate placed the price at around $555,500 dollars for 500 copies of a book, and $1,110,000 for 1000 copies. Ultimately, the book was never realized in Miss Scripps's lifetime, either.
However, that wasn't the end of the story of A.R. Valentien and the Wildflowers of California. After Miss Scripps's death, the Valentien works went to the San Diego Natural History Museum for preservation. In 2000, the museum received a grant that allowed them to begin conserving and cataloging his paintings, and eventually, an exhibit entitled "Plant Portraits: the California Legacy of A. R. Valentien" opened and toured the US. Today, the paintings remain at the museum and a rotating selection are on permanent display there.
Though it took nearly 100 years longer than expected, Valentien's (and Miss Scripps's) grand California wildflower undertaking ultimately received the platform they desired.
One of A.R. Valentien's flower prints.
One of A.R. Valentien's flower prints.
William Leon Dawson pictured in "The Condor."
William Leon Dawson pictured in "The Condor."
The front cover of the Patron's edition of The Birds of California.
The front cover of the Patron's edition of The Birds of California.
Dedication page of the Birds of California, inscribed to Miss Scripps.
Dedication page of the Birds of California, inscribed to Miss Scripps.
Thank you note sent to Miss Scripps by one of the original subscribers of the Birds of California.
Thank you note sent to Miss Scripps by one of the original subscribers of the Birds of California.
The Birds of California by William Leon Dawson
Miss Scripps first began working with William Leon Dawson in 1911, when he reached out to her about subscribing to his forthcoming work, The Birds of California — a grand encyclopedic text of all the birds to be found in the state of California. Interested in the project, she asked him to sign her up as a "subscriber" to the book set, offering extra money to Dawson in exchange for an "extra-illustrated" set of books.
Over the course of the next ten years, however, Miss Scripps grew more and more involved. As Dawson faced a variety of challenges surrounding the successful drafting of the book, including the onset of World War I and an ever-empty purse, Miss Scripps continually came to the rescue of the project, offering up funding to keep the books on progress.
By 1920, Miss Scripps decided something needed to change. She forwarded all correspondence relating to The Birds of California to her longtime attorney J.C. Harper and asked him to review it. After doing so, Harper made his recommendation to Miss Scripps that she had given more than enough money to the project and should stop all further involvement — a recommendation she took him up on.
Dawson challenged this decision, and after much back and forth, succeeded in pleading his case: Miss Scripps eventually pledged to support The Birds of California in full, a financial gift of over $100,000.
Finally, the book began to be sent to subscribers in 1923 and 1924 — over a decade since the project's inception. Despite the lengthy wait, glowing praise for the book rolled in, with subscribers noting the witty descriptions, detailed illustrations, and the binding's excellence.
Though a twisting, turning process to arrive at the final product, the Birds of California remains a masterpiece to look at today, and a testament to Miss Scripps's commitment to the production and publication of knowledge.
To learn the even fuller story:
Russian Dance of Death by Dirk Gora
The front cover of The Russian Dance of Death by Dirk Gora.
The front cover of The Russian Dance of Death by Dirk Gora.
In the spring of 1931, friends, family, and acquaintances of Ellen Browning Scripps opened their mailboxes to find a slim red volume waiting in their mailboxes, sent by Miss Scripps. Titled Russian Dance of Death and written by Dirk Gora, the book purported to be the true diary of an anonymous Dutch Mennonite settler in Ukraine, relating the terror of his fellow settlers in the 1919-1920 Russian Revolution. The recipients of the book wrote in tenfold to Miss Scripps, expressing their thanks, interests, questions, and doubts about the book.
In actuality, the book was not written by "Dirk Gora" but by Diedrich Navall, a professor at Pomona College. Born in then-Southern Russia, now-Ukraine to a Mennonite colony, Navall lived through the Russian Revolution personally, before emigrating to the US in 1923 and going on to teach at a string of different colleges.
Miss Scripps forwarded the wide range of responses she received about the book to Navall. In response to doubters, Navall affirmed the truth of the diary and its account of the Russian Revolution, including the brutality and cruelty of the period. He also related the interest in the book among students in Claremont, and upheld the necessity of such stories.
Scripps Family Coat of Arms by Leonard Wilson
The front cover of Miss Scripps's copy of The Scripps Family Coat of Arms.
The front cover of Miss Scripps's copy of The Scripps Family Coat of Arms.
In 1927, Miss Scripps was in communication with genealogist Leonard Wilson, who was in the process of creating a book titled Scripps Family Coat of Arms. The book was to contain the history and genealogy of the Scripps family, as well as an explanation of the Scripps family's coat of arms.
Miss Scripps had multiple copies of this book made as gifts for family members, but decided (somewhat at Wilson's urging) to order another de luxe copy to keep in her personal library.
The title page of The Scripps Family Coat of Arms.
The title page of The Scripps Family Coat of Arms.
Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast by Mrytle Johnson and Harry Snook
An original copy of Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast by Dr. Johnson and Mr. Snook.
An original copy of Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast by Dr. Johnson and Mr. Snook.
In 1923, Dr. Myrtle Johnson and Mr. Harry Snook were finishing up a publication they had been working on for multiple years about seashore animals up and down the Pacific coast. When reaching out to publishers to get the book published, they were quoted $6000 as the upfront publishing cost — a significant amount of money. Dr. Johnson wrote to Miss Scripps, making the case for the merit of the book, and inquiring about the possibility of Miss Scripps funding any of the publishing fee.
After requesting to look at the manuscript herself, in the beginning of 1925, Miss Scripps authorized the financing of the $6000 needed to publish the book, allowing it to see the light of day. In recognition of this, Dr. Johnson and Mr. Snook ended their preface with their acknowledgment of her:
"And finally, we express our great debt to Miss Ellen Browning Scripps, who, when our work was complete, advanced our share of the cost of publication."
The legacy of Ellen Browning Scripps's library
What happened to Miss Scripps's library after she passed?
In 1932, Ellen Browning Scripps died. She left behind over 3300 books in her private library, which were all recorded on an accession list.
The first page of the accession list of Miss Scripps's private library.
The first page of the accession list of Miss Scripps's private library.
After her passing, there was some debate as to where everything should go. Ultimately, the bulk of her collection (around 2500 titles) went to the Claremont Colleges, reflecting her commitment to women's education and accessibility of knowledge. From there, many of the books she donated ended up in the Ellen Browning Scripps room at the Ella Strong Denison library at Scripps College.
Outside of the Claremont Colleges, she also donated books to the San Diego Natural History Society, the San Diego Library, San Diego State University, Scripps Hospital and Clinic, the Bishop's School in La Jolla, and the Fine Arts Association of San Diego. Her family and friends received about 133 books, a relatively small portion of her library.
The contents of Ellen Browning Scripps’s bookshelf reveal a sustained fascination with books throughout her life. Her commitment to reading a diverse range of books reflects her commitment to intellectual diversity and variety.
Additionally, her patronage of books in the publication process represents her commitment to the accessibility of knowledge production and sharing — values still promoted today by Miss Scripps's expansive legacy.
To dive more deeply into specific books from Miss Scripps's library, click below:
