LISTEN: Emory University recently acquired a collection of books from Sir Elton John after the singer moved away from Atlanta. GPB's Kristi York Wooten has more on the special gift.
How should Atlanta measure the impact of one of its most famous former residents?
That question looms large after superstar Elton John sold his multi-floor penthouse here for $7.22 million in 2023.
The British musician and EGOT (winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards) was a part-time resident of the city for more than three decades and left a deep and lasting impression on its culture.
Familiar highlights from John's tenure in Atlanta include his founding of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and walking in the Atlanta AIDS Walk with Mayor Maynard Jackson in 1991; noshing often at Buckhead Diner and Umi and shopping at Tower Records; writing and recording his 2004 Peachtree Road album and formulating music for movie soundtracks and Broadway musicals; collaborating with hip hop artists such as Lil Nas X and 6lack and staging unforgettable concerts, including in Piedmont Park, at the Tabernacle and a pair of farewell performances at State Farm Arena in 2018 and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2022.
After John and husband David Furnish vacated their Buckhead property this year, they auctioned off more than 900 items for charity, including scores of fine art images, stage boots, a Banksy, furniture and Gucci clothing that together raised more than $20 million.
Meanwhile, John's collection of photography books, stored in the building on floor-to-ceiling shelves overlooking the Atlanta skyline, needed a home.
So, where did the books end up when the singer moved?
That's where Emory University comes in.
Elton John is an avid collector of photographs and was influenced by Atlanta gallerists while he lived in town. In 2000, the High Museum of Art mounted "Chorus of Light," a comprehensive show of the framed works that hung in the halls of his Georgia pad.
But John's love for books is legendary, too, and his photography titles covered a large swath of art history.
Kim Collins, who leads the research, engagement, and scholarly communications division at the Emory libraries and as serves as its art historian, said the university jumped at the chance to acquire books donated from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection.
"The theme that I want to communicate today is gratefulness," she said. "His photography collection directors [Newell Harbin and Jordan K. Putt] said [to Elton], 'What do you want to do with all these books?' And he said to give first right of refusal to Emory."
Collins headed the acquisition, and Randy Gue, an Emory curator in collection development, viewed the books in John's former residence this summer, where he identified approximately 2,000 items for Emory, encompassing commercial, rare and signed books and anthologies of artists' work — from early modernist innovator Man Ray to 1980s celebrity photographer Patrick McMullan. (Many of John's general interest books were donated to a local public library).
Emory is still processing the books.
Collins said already-catalogued books can be found on the Emory libraries website with the search query "gift of Sir Elton John" and are available to researchers and photography enthusiasts. She said they are also listed on World Cat, a global library catalog database, allowing readers across the planet to see the titles John collected.
Although anyone can see which books are a part of John's gift, they are not on physical display.
"Right now, it's not a physical browsable collection on campus," said Dr. Christopher Palazzolo, a director of collections and open strategies at Emory. Many of the books are located in the university's library service center, shared with Georgia Tech in Midtown. "We do allow visitors, of course, and they can request materials... We also have courtesy or borrowing privileges that people can actually pay for as well, actually check out the books. So right now, it's on an item level."
The university published a blog in August about sifting through the materials.
"Some books had their own custom clamshell cases, sticky notes left on certain pages, or letters from publishers about Elton John himself," wrote Mia McCown, an intern from Agnes Scott College who assisted with the work.
When storing the books, Emory decided not to use the glossy paper dust jackets. Instead, to celebrate the 51st anniversary of Elton John's 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in October, the libraries organized a collage and zine-making session, where students and faculty pored through the sleeves ranging from Japanese animal photography to portraits of Marilyn Monroe and JFK to historical anthologies and Polaroids.
Emory graduate student Laura Varela Mejia said helping to catalog the works gave her a new appreciation of Elton John's reputation as an endlessly curious collector.
"It is a beautifully eclectic collection of photography," she said. "But other than them being photography books, it's really hard to find a lot of — let's call them underlying themes, which is amazing. You get to see so many different styles, time periods, points of view, and it's an opportunity to get lost and explore."
Mejia said she and other students, staff and faculty jammed to Elton John tunes while cutting shapes from the book jackets. Connecting the love of art to the man behind the music reminded her of the songs she loved growing up.
"I've always had a fondness for 'Your Song', and that is because it just happens to be my mom's favorite song by him," Mejia said. "But as someone who was also born in the 1990s and grew up with a lot of Disney movies, I am very fond of The Lion King soundtrack. 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight?' is just very sweet. 'Rocket Man' is also pretty fun... He has a lot of really great songs, admittedly."
Donating books to Emory University may not top Elton John's list of philanthropic contributions to Atlanta. Yet, at a time rife with book bans, when the ability to access historical works isn't always at students' fingertips, the librarians looking after John's gift to Emory hope it continues to leave his mark on Atlanta for future generations.
