What makes this Collection so important to me, and I hope to all that see it, is that it was birthed and is now housed at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the City of Lowell. Both represent working-class America, immigrants, and students, not of privilege but of hard work and sacrifice. I walk the campus, visit the O’Leary Library, and see the young students that represent who we are.
This is a special place of achievement. There is no other place for me to put my Collection of great writers from all over the world. When you visit The Collection, whether online or in person, you will see their comments, the pictures, letters, audio and video of their lives. The Collection also covers over 40 years of my life in radio and television as well as over 50 years of the authors' works from the last century to today. I have great hope that the students of today and the future will study the works of these artists of fact and fiction who strode the world stage.
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Cicero
Upton Bell is an author, former National Football League executive, talk show host and commentator. Throughout his distinguished career as a broadcaster, Mr. Bell has interviewed many intriguing authors. He has accumulated a fascinating collection of books which have been personally inscribed. These books have been generously donated to the UMass Lowell Libraries and are available in O'Leary Library on the 2nd Floor in Special Collections.
The Bell collection also includes both audio and video recorded materials from his interviews as well as many artifacts and collectible memorabilia Mr. Bell has acquired.
This website includes an interactive list of books in the collection as well as additional pages of information about the authors. This may be accessed by clicking on the Books tab at the top of this page. There is a also a drop down menu of authors that link to individual author pages.