LIBRARY Lauinger Stuck in Media Debate Over Access to Author’s Works By Charlotte Nichols Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown’s Lauinger Library has become the center of a national debate concerning its policy of restricted access to materials donated by author Graham Greene – restrictions the university maintains were the explicit request of the author.

Few students browse through the library seeking more than the copy services, encyclopedias or second floor cell phone chat room. But those who venture as far as the fifth floor are never disappointed, for there lies Georgetown’s true “commitment to scholarly research,” according to University Librarian Artemis Kirk – the university’s Special Collections.

Housed behind glass windows in the Special Collections Department are such rare artifacts as a hand-drawn map by Napoleon, the original story of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and signatures from every U.S. president.

Greene, author of such works as Orient Express and The End of the Affair, turned over many of his documents – including letters and travel diaries – to Georgetown on the condition that they be restricted from all researchers except his authorized biographer, Trinity University Professor Norman Sherry, until the biography was published, Kirk said.

“It’s very common that institutions will accept collections with restrictions. Once you accept the collection, you have to maintain the integrity of your institution by honoring the agreement,” she said.

Greene’s exact words in a letter to Georgetown’s former University Librarian Joseph Jeffs read that Jeffs “can show anything that he wishes to Norman Sherry. I would prefer that you confined material for the time being to Sherry as he is doing the authorized biography. Of course after that has appeared – if it ever does! – other researchers could be allowed access.”

The present conflict arises from interpretations of Greene’s intentions in this letter and a series of subsequent letters to the university. While Georgetown believes that Greene’s intentions were clear, Greene’s family and other researchers claim that Greene did not want the documents to be restricted from other researchers. They assert that Greene never imagined the still-uncompleted biography would take this long and limit access to the collection for over 20 years.

Greene’s family and other researchers’ primary argument – that Greene never meant for the collection to be restricted – is based on a typed document signed by Greene two days before his death in 1991. The document clearly implied that the collection was to be restricted, until Greene added a hand-written comma between the words “other” and “to” just before the letter’s signing.

With the added comma, the document is now ambiguous in its meaning. It reads,”I Graham Greene grant permission to Norman Sherry, my Authorized Biographer, excluding any other, to quote from my copyright material published or unpublished.” Numerous debates have yet to be resolved over whether Greene intended “excluding any other” to mean Sherry was to be the sole authorized biographer, or that Sherry was to be the sole researcher with access to the collection.

The second argument supporting a release of the collection is the length of time that has passed since the biography’s inception. Some argue that Greene never intended for the collection to be restricted for the 27 years it has taken Sherry to write it.

“It is my own understanding that he never intended Norman Sherry to take forever to write his book and the support he gave Norman would not have gone on for years and years,” Greene’s niece, Amanda Saunders, said in The Washington Post.

Sherry, however, said that Greene wanted the biography to be thorough and well-researched, and said that he didn’t expect to be alive when the work was finally finished.

“He wanted me to journey for him like I had done for [Joseph] Conrad. That’s what he loved,” Sherry, who traveled around the world retracing Conrad’s steps and journeys, said. For Greene’s biography, Sherry once again attempted to retrace Greene’s life, enduring harsh conditions in Africa and South America along the way.

“Sherry suffered many trials and tribulations, experiencing temporary blindness, succumbing to dysentery in the same Mexican village as Greene himself and nearly dying from some tropical disease that required the removal of part of his intestine,” said literary critic and analyst David Lodge in The National Post. “I wanted to do a big biography, but I didn’t know it would take 27 years of my bloody life,” said Sherry, who said he who also wants to finish the biography as soon as possible.

Sherry said she believes, however, that Greene intended the biography to be a large and lengthy production when he said “take 20 years, Norman,” after Sherry had suggested it would take only three.

“Frankly, I can’t wait to release this collection,” Kirk said. The conflict has given Georgetown nothing but negative press recently in newspapers such as the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian and the National Post. The press accused Georgetown of restricting the bulk of its Greene material in a manner that was uncommon to universities. Kirk said the claim is not true, as only 20 percent of Georgetown’s Greene collection is restricted and it is very common for universities to accept collections with certain restrictions. Georgetown cannot just release the restricted portion of the collection early because people are tired of waiting, she said.

“It’s clear that [the Greene’s] have gotten tired of waiting for Norman Sherry to finish the biography. So [they] have gotten very vocal in the press,” Kirk said.

As of now the first two volumes of the biography have been published, with the first-draft of the third nearing completion at 1900 pages.

Greene’s entire collection is divided between three universities, which further intensifies the conflict over access to the material.

“In all of the archives I’ve looked when I was working on my biography of Greene, the only place I’ve found much opposition was at Georgetown,” Michael Shelden, another researcher writing about Greene said.

“We allow anyone who comes to the center access to the collection,” Research Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin Tara Wenger said to The New York Times.

Although Greene’s family and other researchers argue that Georgetown should release its documents because other institutions have, Assistant Vice President for Communications Julie Bataille said the other universities acquired their collections through a different means and therefore did not have the same agreement with Greene that Jeffs established through years of correspondence.

“There are two other universities that house Greene’s collections. We know what the restrictions were for Georgetown, but apparently the other institutions acquired their materials some other way,” she said.

While Georgetown, Greene’s family and other researchers anxiously await the publishing of the third volume, the university’s library maintains its position that the small portion of the Greene collection will be accessible only to Sherry.