Professors writing story of blind, queer book collector whose legacy endures at OU

In many ways, the story of Marguerite Hicks defies convention. During the 1930s and 40s, she amassed what is believed to be the first American collection of 18^th-century British books by and about women. The trove of over 900 volumes, which Oakland University purchased in 1971, contains dozens of rare items, including some that are one of a kind.  

But the collection is noteworthy not just for its holdings, but on account of Hicks’ remarkable personal story. Born in 1891, in Dearborn, Michigan, Hicks married a former Dodge Motor Company executive and raised two children before returning to school to complete her bachelor’s degree in English, at age 44, and her master’s degree in early modern women writers three years later.

The widowed Hicks also had a 40-year partnership with Thelma James, a Wayne State University professor and folklorist. The pair shared a home together and were active in Detroit social circles and civic organizations. As Hicks lost her eyesight, James was instrumental in helping her expand the book collection, which grew to include cookbooks, novels, poetry, plays, religious texts, conduct books, educational pamphlets, and political works, as well as books about early modern queer women. 

Now, Megan Peiser and Emily Spunaugle, co-directors of the Marguerite Hicks Project, are writing the untold story of Hicks’ life and her unique contributions in the history of book collecting. Peiser is an associate professor of 18th-century literature in Oakland University’s Department of English, Creative Writing and Film. Spunaugle served as OU’s humanities and rare books librarian for 10 years before recently taking a new role as English humanities librarian and literary collections curator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The two are working on a book, “Cheap Working Copies”: Marguerite Hicks, Disability, and Queer Book Collecting in Detroit.” Their research reveals Hicks as a trailblazer who overcame physical, social, and financial barriers, compiling her collection at a time when women writers weren’t valued by scholars or book collectors.   

“A lot of the major research libraries that we know today came from people who were collecting at this time. People with generational wealth were collecting major authors like Shakespeare, while Marguerite Hicks was collecting women authors that no one else cared about, but who she saw as important,” said Peiser. “And she was doing this on a working-class budget in the Midwest, all while going blind. “All those factors make it so exciting for us to try to capture her unique life and the valuable contributions she made as a scholar and book collector.”

Peiser and Spunaugle are piecing together a narrative of Hicks’ and James’ lives, using various sources such as newspapers, archives of Detroit organizations, census records, passenger manifests, society newsletters, and personal correspondence.

“We look at passenger manifests, visit archives, and read meeting minutes to see the community organizations they were a part of or were leaders in,” said Peiser. “We can see even though they were well traveled they were very invested in the metro Detroit community. They were heavily involved in women’s organizations and very interested in women working together and supporting each other.” 

Peiser and Spunaugle have gleaned additional insights by talking to people who knew Hicks and James. Among those they’ve connected with is Ellen Stekert, a retired professor who worked with James at Wayne State. Stekert shared her memories, including copies of letters between her and James, which shed light on James’ and Hicks’ lives together.

“They talked about everything from pets to illnesses to daily life,” said Spunaugle. “When you can get that kind of personal correspondence about what it was like for these two women to be living together, it’s just pure gold.” 

Peiser and Spunaugle are also spotlighting the Hicks Collection as a unique scholarly resource used for teaching and research. While most collectors of her day preferred books in pristine condition, Hicks targeted “cheap working copies” for her collection.   

“‘Cheap working copies’ is actually a phrase that Marguerite Hicks used when she was talking to rare books dealers from London, stressing that she was not interested in amassing a collection of lush, sumptuously bound books,” Spunaugle explained. “So lots of the books in the Hicks Collection are still in what we call publisher boards, the very cheap temporary binding that books would have been sold in during those days.”

“Because these are cheap working copies that collectors would have passed over, they give us amazing insight into print culture and print history and how everyday readers would have used these copies,” Peiser added. “Lots of them have marginalia from generations of readers, so that gives us data about how people have used books throughout history. Not just reading but interacting with them – making notes, doodles, quick math problems – just like we see in books today.” 

The collection features writers such as Frances Burney, Mary Robinson and Mary Wollstonecraft, widely regarded as the first feminist writer, as well as the only known copy of Mary Morgan’s poem “Mary the Osier-Peeler.” Although the books weren’t highly prized by scholars when Hicks acquired them, their literary merit was eventually recognized – along with their market value. In the 1980s, some of the books were stolen amid a rash of heists that plagued universities across the nation.

“It was around the time of the heist that people had started realizing there were important women writers besides Jane Austen,” Spunaugle said. “Marguerite Hicks was collecting them 50 years earlier. She was really ahead of her time in that way as a feminist scholar.”

Today, students and faculty continue to use the Marguerite Hicks Collection for research and teaching across a range of disciplines – a fitting legacy for a collector who valued books not strictly as showpieces, but as tools for learning. 

“When Marguerite sold her books to Oakland in 1971, she wanted them to be used by students,” said Peiser. “So every time we bring them into the classroom today, I think about how we are still doing what she wanted these books to be doing over 50 years later.” 

Learn more about the Marguerite Hicks Collection.