Alfred M. Cressler papers

Alfred M. Cressler (1877-1939) received both his B.A. (1902) and his M.A. (1908) from Yale University, later becoming a banker in Cincinnati and lecturer on investments at the University of Cincinnati. He was author of a number of short pieces, such as "The Spendthrift and the Miser," (Oct., 1899) and "The Master of the Grotesque," (June, 1900) published in the Yale Literary Magazine. Cressler also wrote Vignettes of Writers and Artists, a limited edition of essays, which he had originally contributed to the Literary Club of Cincinnati, where he served as President. These essays, collected from among Cressler's papers and published after his death, looked at such figures as Charles Lamb, Winthrop Praed, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, T. S. Eliot, and Thomas Nashe (1946).

Mrs. Alfred Cressler (Jeanette C. Cressler, 1897-1984), donor of MS 403, was a sponsor of the Rare Books room and served as president of the Associates of the Rare Books Room (1957). She donated much of the couple's library during the following two decades. In 1965, she donated George H. Cressler's collection of the signatures of presidents, senators, governors, cabinet members, and literary persons (MS 8).