Yeats first coup for Texas was the Homer I. Lewis collection in 1951. Given by Mrs. Edith L. Stewart in honor of her son, the collection was particularly strong in manuscript copies of poems, galley proofs, autographed material, and first periodical appearances. Yeats not only located the collection but also handled all the negotiations in bringing it to Texas. Through the 1950s he continued to lead the Kipling efforts, securing further donations as well as buying on the University’s behalf.
During this time he also began building his own collection. In the process of buying for both himself and Texas he established connections with a number of English and American booksellers. One of these, Colonel Marston E. Drake of the James F. Drake company in New York, would prove especially fortuitous for his Kipling studies.
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In the summer of 1954, Yeats called on Colonel Drake while on an extended tour of research libraries in the eastern United States. He was conducting preliminary research for his dissertation, which at the time he thought would concern the Browning influence on Kipling. During this visit, Drake mentioned that he had a client (unnamed) with an extensive Kipling library and floated the idea of Yeats cataloging it. Yeats responded that of course he would be interested in the assignment.
The collector was James MacGregor Stewart, a wealthy Canadian lawyer. Though virtually unknown in Kipling circles, Stewart had for nearly a quarter century been quietly building what Yeats would later describe as the “most comprehensive collection treating Kipling materials and Kiplingiana ever assembled by any person outside the Kipling family.” (note 4)
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