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Course & Subject Guides

Elizabeth Nesbitt Collection @ Pitt: Fadiman

This guide identifies some of the 12,000+ resources available in the Nesbitt Collection. Comprised of children's literature and material related to the history of children and their books, collection items date from the 1600's through the present.

Selected Titles Written by Fadiman

Below are titles by Clifton Fadiman and links to their PittCat records.

Request Material

Most books in the Fadiman collection will be located in ULS Storage. To request an item from storage:

  1. Perform a PittCat search
  2. Select the record you would like to request
  3. Select "Request item" under "Get It"
  4. Sign in with your Pitt username and password
  5. Select your preferred pickup location
  6. Select "Send Request"

You will get a screen message when your request has been successfully submitted.  You will receive an email notification when the book is on campus to let you know when it will be available for pick up.

Clifton Fadiman Collection

Who was Clifton Fadiman?

Clifton “Kip” Fadiman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1904.  A graduate of Columbia University in 1925, Mr. Fadiman went on to have a colorful, multifaceted career in literature, radio and television.  Renowned for his encyclopedic mind, Fadiman compiled many anthologies, wrote numerous essays, served on the editorial board of the Encyclopedia Britannica and performed as moderator on the popular ‘30’s and ‘40’s radio and television quiz show Information Please!  He was also a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table (with other notables such as Dorothy Parker, Alexander Wooklcott, and Robert Benchley, Heywood Hale Broun, Marc Connelly, Harpo Marx, and others).

What is the Fadiman Collection?

While writing articles on children’s literature for Holiday magazine, Fadiman was inspired to undertake a much larger project, an anthology of children’s literature, later entitled The World Treasury of Children’s Literature.  For this purpose, and for an  entry he penned on children's literature in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Fadiman acquired more that 2,000 books from 70 countries and in 22 languages. 

Upon completion of the work, Fadiman contacted Professor Margaret Hodges at the University of Pittsburgh to donate his collection to the Elizabeth Nesbitt Room.  Acquired in January of 1983, the collection serves as a valuable resource for scholars specializing in the field of historical children’s literature.  The Fadiman collection is preserved complete with many volumes containing Fadiman’s own hand written notes.

Fadiman had earlier established the host as urbane moderator on celebrity TV and radio quiz shows