On Tuesday 4 December 2007, Kansas State University dedicated its David J. Williams III Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Collection. Williams, who lived in Richmond, Kentucky, worked for the National Security Agency and passed away in 2001. He was a genre collector for most of his life, following an early interest in the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The collection, which the Morse Department of Special Collection acquired in 2006, numbers more than 3,000 volumes of books and magazines (many signed or rare), and includes two complete H.P. Lovecraft letters, one post card, a typescript page for the manuscript The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and a complete Arkham House collection.
Writer Robert J. Sawyer gave the keynote address, “Science Fiction as a Mirror for Reality,” at the dedication ceremony, which was attended by Williams’s sister Sara Morgan (who orchestrated the acquisition on behalf of the family). One of Sawyer’s themes was the ease with which science fiction can attract readers who hold differing opinions, since they may not realize they’re reading about a “hot-button” topic until they’re well into the book. The Kansas State Collegian covered Sawyer’s talk in this article.