The primary repository for rare books and manuscripts at Harvard University, the Houghton Library houses collections that focus on the study of Western civilization. Materials relating to American, Continental, and English history and literature comprise the bulk of these collections and include special concentrations in printing, graphic arts, and the theatre. Contained within the library are the papers of Samuel Johnson, Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Margaret Fuller, John Keats, Gore Vidal, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Theodore Roosevelt, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, Henry James, William James, James Joyce, John Updike and many others. The library also hosts a variety of exhibitions and readings, which are available to the general public.