Parsons, Edward Alexander, 1878-1962

A lawyer in New Orleans, Louisiana, Edward Alexander Parsons (1878-1962) married and had at least one daughter. A bibliophile, he briefly worked for the New Orleans Public Library in the 1930s and over a period of sixty years built a private collection, known as the Bibliotheca Parsoniana, with over 8,000 manuscripts and 40,000 publications on the American South, which was acquired by the University of Texas at Austin in 1958. An avid researcher and amateur historian, Parsons published numerous articles, pamphlets, and books, such as The Noble Art of Printing: An Exposition, with Some Account of Johann Gutenberg, the Father of Printing (1940), The Letters of Robert R. Livingston: The Diplomatic Story of the Louisiana Purchase (1943), The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World: Its Rise, Antiquities, and Destructions (1952), and The Wonder and the Glory: Confessions of a Southern Bibliophile (1962).

Source:

Lentz, Lamar. The Parsons Collection Revisited. The Library Chronicle of the University of Texas at Austin, No. 30, 1985: pp. 70-81.

From the guide to the Parsons, Edward Alexander, collection 93-492; 2009-324; 2012-099., 1678-1928, 1951, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)

A lawyer in New Orleans, Louisiana, Edward Alexander Parsons (1878-1962) married and had at least one daughter.

A bibliophile, he briefly worked for the New Orleans Public Library in the 1930s and over a period of sixty years built a private collection, known as the Bibliotheca Parsoniana, with over 8,000 manuscripts and 40,000 publications on the American South, which was acquired by the University of Texas at Austin in 1958. An avid researcher and amateur historian, Parsons published numerous articles, pamphlets, and books, such as The Noble Art of Printing: An Exposition, with Some Account of Johann Gutenberg, the Father of Printing (1940), The Letters of Robert R. Livingston: The Diplomatic Story of the Louisiana Purchase (1943), The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World: Its Rise, Antiquities, and Destructions (1952), and The Wonder and the Glory: Confessions of a Southern Bibliophile (1962).

From the description of Parsons, Edward Alexander, collection, 1678-1928, 1951. (University of Texas Libraries). WorldCat record id: 496828487