Stewart at one time considered establishing a trust to build a private library for Kipling studies, perhaps following the pattern set by Folger for Shakespeare. Before his death, however, he determined to leave the books to his alma mater, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Shortly after Stewart’s passing in 1955, Mrs. Stewart, at the suggestion of Colonel Drake, hired Yeats, though not to catalog the collection but rather to evaluate and organize it and, most importantly, to edit for publication the bibliography Stewart had been compiling in his leisure time over the last 20 years of his life.

The result, Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliographical Catalogue was published in 1959. It was the first book issued by the Dalhousie University Press and is still, despite being a catalog rather than a strict descriptive bibliography, by far the best and most comprehensive guide to Kipling’s works.

Its enduring usefulness is evident in the fact that it was one of Andrew Lycett’s first acquisitions when he began researching his recent Kipling biography. (note 5)

In editing the Catalogue, Yeats achieved a great scholarly contribution, and he did so before completing his Ph.D. It was only natural that he should make use of this work for his dissertation, which he completed two years later and in which he made a study of the Texas and Dalhousie collections as resources for literary research. After completing his Ph.D., Yeats joined the faculty at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. The earliest description of his private collection came in his dissertation.

'By judicious buying I have been able to form a personal collection of modest compass, without which I could not have completed my recent studies. It lacks all the English copyright issues, but is in other respects reasonably complete. Although it does not contain any newspaper or periodical issues, it does contain seven hundred and forty first editions or items of bibliographical interest and over one thousand typescripts and originals of Kipling letters.' (note 6)

By way of comparison, the largest collection donated to the University of Texas during his time there contained 728 items total, including first and other editions. (note 7) Yeats collection in 1961 contained seven hundred and forty “first editions or items of bibliographical interest.”