In her role, Hodson was responsible for all British and American literature from the Renaissance to the present and she spearheaded many projects and placed a spotlight on works that might have gone unnoticed for years. Hodson was also known for pushing boundaries.
“The raw poet Charles Bukowski might seem more comfortable down the road at the Santa Anita race track than within the tranquil confines of The Huntington, but Sue knew that Bukowski’s papers and his take on life in Los Angeles would be right at home alongside Chaucer’s bawdy “The Miller’s Tale” and Whitman’s controversially sensual Leaves of Grass,” wrote a colleague in the Library’s blog, Verso.
In addition, Hodson’s work helped bring the Library’s Southern California theatre and music history to light as noted by the acquisition of the papers of African American art song composer Harold Bruce Forsythe and ballet instructor Joseph Rickard.
Photo by Lisa Blackburn
