When he was in middle school, Bill Causey, SPA/BA ’71, joined classmates in the gymnasium to watch the televised flight of astronaut Alan Shepard as he became the first American to travel into space. Shepard’s 1961 feat fired Causey’s passion for space.  

In turn, Causey’s enthusiasm for learning about the cosmos sparked his pursuit of books, he explained during The Art of Book Collecting, a program hosted by the American University Library on November 18. Causey and fellow collector Jackson Bryer, professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland, discussed how their fervor for their respective interests inspired them to collect books—and the signatures of the authors who wrote them.

Causey, a former AU Board of Trustees member, recalled that he thought Shephard’s voyage was “pretty cool” and prompted him to ponder a career as an astronaut. The space voyage launched Causey’s readership of books about space, but soon he was devouring works on a wide array of topics. “I just got fascinated with the whole concept of a book,” Causey said. He eventually combined his two passions, writing the 2020 book, John Houbolt: The Unsung Hero of the Apollo Moon Landings, about the crucial role the former NASA engineer played in the 1969 lunar landing by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. 

Bryer’s fervor for books was inspired by earthbound interests. 

“I grew up in New York in the 1950s. My passions were going to baseball games at Yankee Stadium and going to the theater and the movies,” Bryer said. Forty years ago, he started collecting signed books; he liked knowing that at some point the book had been handled by the author. “It’s no coincidence that one of the books I collected was a book by Julie Andrews, who’d been a Broadway star when I was growing up,” Bryer said. “It isn’t a coincidence that one of the other books I acquired signed was by Mickey Mantle, who I used to go watch play baseball at Yankee Stadium. Those books have a very personal connection in my life.”

During his four decades in academia, Bryer often taught books by contemporary writers. “My collection is full of the books that I taught, signed by the writers who wrote them,” Bryer said. “Toni Morrison—I taught Beloved many times. I now have a full collection of all her [signed] novels.”

Bryer noted that an “enormous” number of writers come through DC regularly, providing book collectors ample opportunities to seek signatures from authors. “And we’re not just talking about literary writers,” Bryer said. “We’re talking about political figures, scientists. Between events that are held at Politics and Prose almost every night of the week, or the events that are held at AU or the University of Maryland or various other universities in the area, if you are looking to get books signed by the writer, almost every important writer comes through Washington.”

Causey spoke of the joy he felt locating books that fit his collection and obtaining the signatures of authors. “Sometimes that search can take a couple of weeks. You can do it on the internet or go to book fairs. The search is part of the thrill,” Causey said.

When author Larry McMurtry was still alive, Causey said, he learned the writer had undergone open heart surgery. “I had open heart surgery too at one point,” Causey said. He sent McMurtry a copy of one of the author’s books with a note wishing him well and sharing that too had undergone the procedure.

“Not only did he sign the book for me, but he wrote me a letter back, about his heart surgery,” Causey said. “That’s an example of what can come out of just the idea of getting a book by someone you admire as a writer and the story that can get attached to it.” 

Causey and Bryer have both been generous donors to AU’s book collections.  

The William F. Causey collection features over 1,900 books published from the 1790s to the present. The collection includes first editions signed by the author, including some inscribed to Causey. Featured authors include McMurtry, Charles Dickens, Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, and William Shakespeare. Causey began donating books to the AU in 2011.

Bryer has been donating books to AU since 2020. The Jackson R. Bryer Collection of Signed Modern First Editions contains more than 1,200 titles, including works by Margaret Atwood, Eric Bentley, Tom Clancy, and Thomas Savage.

One book that Bryer was unable to donate was a first edition of Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Before he started collecting books, Bryer said, his dog chewed up his copy of the book. Bryer said he’s seen first editions of Salinger’s famed book for sale online for $25,000. “That kind of thing happens all the time,” Bryer said.