John Bennett Shaw (1913-1994) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended the U. of Notre Dame (A.B., cum laude, 1937), pursued graduate work at Columbia U. (1937-1938), and completed his masters degree in literature at the U. of Tulsa in 1940. He held positions with the Bennett Drilling Company as well as with the Fitzgerald Funeral Service (both in Tulsa); however, his passion was always books, bookstores, and libraries. He was a bibliophile and collector, owned and managed his own bookstore in Tulsa, and served on library councils from the Oklahoma Library Association to the American Library Association. When Shaw retired from business in 1970 to pursue his passion full time, he and his wife Dorothy moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There he continued to share his knowledge and collections with other book lovers who visited Santa Fe or who contacted him by mail or telephone. He was well known across the US and abroad for his lectures and seminars, particularly on the subject of Sherlock Holmes. Throughout his life Shaw maintained close ties with his alma mater, the U. of Notre Dame. From the 1950s through the 1980s, he sold or donated over 20,000 volumes to the Hesburgh Libraries, among these the Eric Gill, G. K. Chesterton, and Cuala Press collections. The Modern Authors collection, which is comprised primarily of American and British authors, features: James Farrell, Lafcadio Hearn, Ernest Hemingway, Robinson Jeffers, Arthur Machen, Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Evelyn Waugh, and many others. With regard to the books, some were cataloged for the general collection, while many more (first editions, limited editions, and private press books) were cataloged for the rare books department.