A Bibliography of the Frank E. Melvin Collection - KU ScholarWorks ...

however on the library shelves, where despite inadequate funds he
succeeded over the years in placing most of the standard books necessary
for serious scholarship in the revolutionary period. It is right and
proper that this collection should bear his name.
The pamphlets here listed, provide basic material for the study of
the period of the French Revolution. Although there are a few
pamphlets bearing an earlier or a later date, the bulk of the collection
covers the exciting and significant years from 1787 to 1800. The
period of the National (Constituent) Assembly is especially well
represented. Many facets of the revolutionary era—political, religious,
cultural, financial—are illuminated for the student by these contemporary
materials. There is of course a large number of what may be termed
"official documents"—resolutions, laws, committee reports, and
discourses or opinions printed by order, of the different constituent
and legislative bodies. At least half of the pamphlets are not however
in this category. There are for example 1455 anonymous pamphlets
containing all types of arguments either in support of or in opposition
to reforms of the period. They supply also a good sample of the range
of literary forms employed by the pamphleteer of the eighteenth century.
In addition to the reasoned political essay, writers were prone to
express their ideas through didactic narratives, poems, songs,
dialogues, and dramas, or through the adaptation of some liturgical
forms—Paternosters, Aves, Credos—to the needs of political argument.
For the decade 1789-1799 the collection contains many pamphlets
written by most of the famous and very many of the lesser known men
connected with the Revolution. Brissot, Camot, Anacharsis Cloots,
Condorcet, Desmoulins, Grégoire, Alexandre Lameth, Mirabeau, Necker,
Robespierre, Si eyes, Talleyrand, are all here, together with numerous
other spokesmen of their time.
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