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Shortly after being hired to run the Ransom Center, Dr. Staley learned that the archives of Stuart Gilbert, Joyce’s translator and friend, were available. According to The New Yorker, the papers that cost the Ransom Center $265,000 came with an unexpected find: handwritten edits of the first episode of Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake.” Dr. Staley estimated that these pages alone were worth $750,000.
In the following 25 years, he bought newspapers, including dozens of literary intellectuals. Doris LessingWith Jorge Luis Borges, JM Coetzee, Penelope Lively and Isaac Bashevis Singer Robert DeNiro and Life magazine photojournalist David Douglas Duncan. Dr. Staley also continued to teach English.
Dr. When Staley visited playwright Tom Stoppard at his home in England, he found his articles scattered in his study and in another building on his property. Dr. As Staley recalled to The Times, Mr. Stoppard told him, “What you want is mostly stuff I’ll throw in: notes on this and that.” But there were also drafts of his plays, revision notes, and drawings of stage sets.
on another trip, Arthur MillerDr. At his home in Connecticut, Staley learned that Miller had discovered valuable notebooks and a short story in a box he thought was filled with roofing nails—just the kind of items that helped fill an archive. Although some of Miller’s archive has been in the Ransom Center for decades, no formal agreement has been made to acquire the collection for $2.7 million. It was made until 2017.
In addition to his son Tim, Dr. Staley is survived by his wife, Carolyn (O’Brien) Staley, known as Muffi; daughters Carrie Staley and Mary Wheeler; another son, Tom Jr.; and six grandchildren.
Dr. Staley’s aggressive and successful pursuit of the articles of so many literary stars made him think that he was leading the Ransom Center to victories in a state that likes to think big.
“People take special pride in the winners here,” he told The New Yorker. “Them like success.”
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