Decherd H. Turner (1 September 1922,

Pike County, Missouri Pike County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Missouri, bounded by the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,516. Its county seat is Bowling Green. Its namesake was a city in middle Kentucky, a reg ...

– 7 July 2002,

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

) was an American bibliophile, ordained Presbyterian minister, director of S.M.U.'s Bridwell Library, and director of U.T.'s

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

, known for acquiring rare books, manuscripts, and other archival materials.

Career

Turner grew up on a Missouri farm and earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

in 1943. He studied theology at the Vanderbilt University School of Religion, earning another bachelor's degree, and then became an ordained Presbyterian minister. Turner was director of the Bridwell Library in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

from 1950 to 1980. As director of the Bridwell Library, he made many acquisitions and assembled what is now, thanks to his successor Valerie Hotchkiss, the American Southwest's largest collection of 15th-century books. Turner also acquired vellum copies of such rare books as the

Kelmscott Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census reco ...

Chaucer, the

Doves Press The Doves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. During nearly seventeen years of operation, the Doves Press produced notable examples of twentieth-century typography. A distinguishing feature of its books was a specially-devis ...

Bible, and the Ashendene Dante. In 1963, while continuing to serve as the Bridwell director, he became editor-in-chief of the

Southwest Review The ''Southwest Review'' is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States. The current editor-in-chief is Greg Browndervi ...

. In 1980 the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

hired Turner to direct the Center and its acquisitions program. Before retiring in 1988, he acquired the Uzielli Collection, the Wolff Collection of 19th-century fiction, the Pforzheimer Collection, the David O. Selznick archive,David O. Selznick Collection - Harry Ransom Center
/ref> and a number of other notable collections.

Notes

External links

Ferguson, Daniel - Texas State Historical Association
American librarians 1922 births 2002 deaths People from Pike County, Missouri Vanderbilt University alumni University of Missouri alumni {{US-bio-stub