Shaw Letters Gone : 46 Rare Items Missing at Cal State Fullerton

Rare books, letters and prints, including a collection of handwritten love letters by playwright George Bernard Shaw, are missing from the special collections room of the Cal State Fullerton Library, acting Librarian Robert A. Emry says.

The Shaw letters, written to Alice Lockett, are “irreplaceable,” Emry said.

In a letter sent Monday to California State University, Fullerton, President Jewel Plummer Cobb, Emry disclosed that library workers first discovered two items missing from the special collections room in June. He said that discovery triggered a full-fledged inventory and that a total of 46 items, worth an estimated $13,000, were found missing.

The Shaw letters were among the first items found missing, Emry said. The collection of 20 letters were written by the Irish-born author between 1882 and 1885 to Lockett, an English nurse of his acquaintance, a library official said.

Another rare item missing from the collection, Emry said, is a 19th-Century edition of “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott. Emry noted that the book “is a fantasy satire that was an early example of science fiction.”

Emry said Monday night that campus police were notified of the missing items July 14 and that they “are working with various other agencies” and are continuing to look for clues in the disappearance. Emry declined to say whether the other agencies include the Fullerton Police Department.

Asked if there are any suspects in the case, Emry replied: “I don’t even know if they are stolen. It is possible the items are misplaced, but not probable.”

Emry said the special collections items are kept under lock in a special room in the campus library. He said any scholar wishing to examine the prints and documents must be admitted by a library official, and he added that it would be very difficult for anyone to slip out with one of the rare documents.

“The sad thing is the apparent loss to the university and the blow to the donors of these rare, very desirable items,” Emry said.