CURATOR APPROVES OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE

That Harvard's new Icelandic collection is "The second largest in the country, and the best in respect to its controversial political pamphlets and ephemeral material such as news broadsides," was the opinion expressed during a recent visit by Halldor Hermannsson, curator of the Cornell Icelandic collection and recognized as the greatest authority in America on the subject.

Mr. Hermannsson, Cornell curator for over 25 years, inspected the recently received gift at Widener Library following a lunch which was given for him at the Faculty Club by Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Barnason, native Icelanders. Mr. Barnason is an instructor in German at Harvard, while his wife is at present a member of the staff which is working on the collection.

The Cornell curator also spoke of the excellent gathering of occasional and obituary poems which form part of the Schofield gift. He said that he had talked with the former owner of the collection, who informed him that the collection of periodicals was almost complete.

Cornell's collection, the largest in the country, has unique material concerning the earlier history of the island, but Harvard's new gift is said to surpass it in the more recent fields.