John S. Mayfield (1904-1983) was already heavily into collecting books by the time he entered as an undergraduate at the University of Texas. From his article, "Eugene O'Neill and the Senator from Texas," from the Yale University Library Gazette, October 1960:
"I passed far more time in the Wrenn Library of manuscripts and rare books, with Dr. R. H. Griffith and Miss Fannie E. Ratchford in attendance, than I did studying my class assignments... I do not regret the wonderful hours I was privileged to spend with those two fine scholars in such a fascinating surrounding. They fed the nectar to the collecting bee that had bitten me."
With his strong desire to rub elbows with the literary elite, his outgoing nature, and with a little help from his name as son of U.S. Senator, Earle B. Mayfield, the young bibliophile was able to make many early contacts in the literary world: Stark Young in 1924 during his visit to Austin, and subsequently Eugene O'Neill, Sherwood Anderson, and others.
After doctoral studies at Columbia University, Mayfield worked for the U.S. military in recruitment, for the Department of Defense, and served as lieutenant commander with the Navy during WWII. After the war, he served as president of the American Rail and Steel Company and continued his collecting pursuits, focusing on American and English poets, championing especially the work of Algernon Chalres Swinburne. Mayfield famously collected 102 copies of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon, said by Thomas J. Wise to have been printed in only 100 copies. He was appointed as curator of manuscripts and rare books at Syracuse University in 1961.
This list ranges in scope from privately printed pamphlets from his days in Austin to his work as editor of the Syracuse Libraries Courier with much in between. It is, as was the subject, generally bibliophilic in nature.
[Austin]: Privately Printed by John S. Mayfield, 1926. First edition. 22x16cm, 25pp. Photographic frontis, facsimiles. Original beige card wrappers in near fine condition with light soiling to rear. First edition on Mayfield's essay on Twain's complaint, late in his life, to the Metropolitan Street Railway Company regarding the swindling of.....
Dallas: The Boyd Press, 1932. First edition, limited to 119 copies. 24x17cm, [11], 2-33pp. Mounted photo frontis, manuscript facsimile on pg. 25. Signed and inscribed by Mayfied to James D. Birchfield on the title page. Black paper wraps, yapped edges, with black card jacket attached to wrappers at spine. French.....
Syracuse: Syracuse University Library Associates, 1964. First edition. 23x15cm, 11pp. Photographic frontis, facsimiles. Complementary card from the Board of Trustees of Syracuse University Library Associates signed by Mayfield and laid in. Printed, green card wrappers show sunning to edges else nearly fine and clean internally. Bibliographical sketch including facsimiles from.....
Syracuse: Syracuse University Library Associates, 1964. First edition. 23x15cm, 11pp. Photographic frontis, facsimiles. Printed, peach card wrappers with soiling to front else nearly fine and clean internally. Bibliographical sketch including facsimiles from Mayfield's collection on the Confederate writer and musician, Sidney Lanier's only novel.
Austin: [John S. Mayfield], 1925. First edition. 15x9cm, [3], 7pp. Stapled paper wraps. Uncut. 7cm tear to bottom edge of rear wrapper. Toning, soiling, and light chipping. Good. A very uncommon and early printing from Mayfield, in the form of a story of a drunken escapade at the University of.....
Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1928. First edition, limited to 201 copies. 27x19cm, [31]pp. Title page in two colors with vignette illustration. Stapled, cream paper wrappers, printed label mounted on front. Some soiling and light wear else nearly fine. Finely printed booklet, a rhythmical poem in free verse from.....
Syracuse: Syracuse University Library Associates, 1965. First editions. 2 Volumes, 8vos, 44 and 41pp. Photographic illustrations, Syracuse Libraries donation forms bound in. Staple bound, printed wraps in very good condition with some wrinkling and toning. Two issues from Mayfield's time as editor of The Courier. Articles on the instillation of the.....
New York: The Candlelight Press, 1968. First edition, limited to 2500 copies. 31x24cm, 115pp. Illustrations, photographs, facsimiles. Inscribed by Ruber to John S. Mayfield on the ffep. Publisher's red cloth, spine stamped in gilt, illustrated jacket. Nearly fine book in jack et that shows some wear and light rubbing to.....
New York: [Ca. 1925]. New Republic stationary, single 4to sheet, folded. Five lines in holograph with New Orleans address postscript. Includes New Republic envelope addressed by Young to same. 3/4" split at fold else nearly fine in like envelope with some soiling. Brief letter from Stark Young to Sherwood Anderson.....
[Austin]: Privately Printed by John S. Mayfield, 1927. First edition, limited to 94 copies. 18x14cm, [21]pp. Two mounted photo illustrations. String bound, gray printed card wrappers. Yapped edges show some toning and chipping. Clean internally and very good. Starrett's short work on John Hill Hewitt first appeared in the October.....
Worcester: Achille J. St. Onge, 1973. First edition, limited to 500 copies. Miniature book, 7x5cm, 23pp. Introduction by John S. Mayfield, and signed by him to James D. Birchfield on the ffep. Red leather stamped in gilt, g.e. Fine condition in folded, printed Achille J. St. Onge envelope and original.....
Washington D.C. John S. Mayfield, 1947. First separate edition. 33x23cm, [7]pp. Lithographed manuscript facsimiles. Inscribed by Mayfield to James D. Birchfield on inner front wrapper. Folded sheets loose in printed, beige card wrappers. Top edge curling with a small split to wrappers at head of spine. Overall light toning and.....
Chicago: W. B. Thorsen, 1965. First edition. 28x22cm, 32pp.Photographs, facsimiles. Stapled paper wraps show some toning and light wear. Very good. Contains a biographical sketch of John S. Mayfield by Lawrence S. Thompson, from his American Bibliophiles series, number XI. Also contains "Tentative Bibliographic Check Lists of Western Illustrators," by.....
[Austin]: Privately Printed by John S. Mayfield, 1927. 17x12cm, [3], 4pp. Manuscript facsimile with text opposite. Stapled card wrappers show some soiling and toning. Very good. Woodberry's first poem after he entered college at Harvard in 1872. Privately printed by Mayfield, a facsimile from the original in his collection, in.....
[Austin]: Privately Printed by John S. Mayfield, 1928. Limited to 99 copies. 21x13cm, [4], 13pp. Mounted, portrait frontis of the author. Cream paper wraps, string bound. Nearly fine copy with wear and toning to yapped edges. George Edward Woodberry's first publication, an oration he was awarded and then not allowed.....
