Books for the World

The letters all have foreign stamps, and they are all grateful. Though most of them begin "Dear Doctor," or "Dear Professor," the man to whom they are addressed never even finished eighth grade. He is just plain Henry Dunn, 60, caretaker of the University of Texas' Main Building.

For four years Henry Dunn has been sending books to needy libraries abroad. He began it after hearing a Chinese coed describe the plight of her country's universities. Dunn straightway started collecting 7,000 volumes for Lingnan University in Canton, whose library had been burned by the Japanese.

Then he heard about other foreign colleges and schools that needed help. "Never had much of a chance to read books myself," he would say, "and I appreciate how much they mean to people who are in the same fix." In his spare time, he begged books wherever he could--duplicates from libraries, old books from professors; he bought discarded textbooks from the state for a dollar a ton.

The campus community chest sent him $850; an Austin dowager, $750; a businessman, $800 more. He used these funds for freight--to Japan, Brazil, India, Germany, Liberia, the Philippines. He sent all kinds of books: dictionaries, biographies, encyclopedias, novels. In four years he shipped out 325,000 volumes.

Now, he scarcely has time even to read the letters he gets, or smile at the way they are addressed. Last week he was collecting 14,000 volumes for Austin's Samuel Huston College (for Negroes), which, he heard, was about to lose its accredited standing for lack of a big enough library. And when that job is done Henry Dunn plans to do something about Korea. "You know," says he, "in this country there are enough books to educate the whole world."

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