Busby Donation Brings Books, Student Internships To The Wittliff

The Wittliff Collections is pleased to announce the acquisition of the library of Dr. Mark Busby, a noted author, professor, and a major scholar on the American Southwest. This important new donation is supplemented by a generous financial gift from the Busby family, which will provide Texas State University graduate students work opportunities at The Wittliff through the Mark & Linda Busby Southwest Studies Internship.

Mark Busby is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Texas State University. He directed the university’s Center for the Study of the Southwest and Southwest Humanities Research Center from 1990-2012. He then focused on teaching and scholarship as an English Professor at Texas State until his retirement in 2020. He is the author of more than a dozen books that include novels, poetry, and scholarship including books on Larry McMurtry, Ralph Ellison, John Graves, Katherine Anne Porter, Lanford Wilson, and Preston Jones. For years he co-edited the academic journals Southwestern American Literature and Texas Books in Review. Busby is also a Past President of the Texas Institute of Letters, a literary honor society founded in 1936 with an elected membership consisting of the state’s most respected writers.

“Mark Busby has long been a major force in Texas letters,” says Wittliff Literary Curator Steve Davis. “He helped turn Texas State University into a major research base for Southwestern studies. He mentored generations of students, including myself. I’ll always remember him as the most brilliant and encouraging professor. He has already donated substantial archival material to The Wittliff. Now with this new major gift he has created a wealth of opportunities for future students and researchers.”

The Busby Library contains some 3,000 volumes and includes works on Texas and Western literature along with numerous works on film, African American literature, and literary studies.

“I’m delighted that my library will be accessible to the next generation of scholars and students,” says Busby. “The Wittliff Collection is a treasure, and it’s exciting to see my library added to an already rich trove of works on Texas, the Southwest, and beyond. I am proud that my library will help others carry on the stories of the past, present, and the future of Texas and the Southwest."

The Wittliff Collections, located on the top floor of the Alkek Library at Texas State University, holds the major literary papers of Cormac McCarthy, Sandra Cisneros, and many other important writers associated with Texas and the Southwest.
 

For more information about The Wittliff Collections: www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu

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