The Cushing Memorial Library collects books, manuscripts, and other items relating to the life and works of Rudyard Kipling. The core of the collection was acquired by the Library from Dr. A. W. Yeats in the late 1980's. Yeats, who earned a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Texas in 1961, worked as a book scout for the University of Texas, first under the direction of Fannie Ratchford, then director of the Rare Books Collection, and later for Harry Ransom and the Humanities Research Center. His dissertation was the Kipling Collections in the James McG. Stewart and the University of Texas Libraries: An Appraisal of Resources for Literary Investigation. He also edited the monumental and pioneering Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliographic Catalogue (Toronto: Dalhousie University Press and the University of Toronto Press, 1959), by James McG. Stewart. After receiving his Ph.D., Yeats taught for many years at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.