CUMBERLAND — The rare book collection devoted to Willa Cather and other revered authors was recently dedicated at an Allegany College of Maryland event that also celebrated the life of Janet Cook, the late professor of English who started the effort.

The presentation was led by Gary Cook, who brought to fruition his late wife’s vision of a collection devoted to her favorite author, a pioneering and celebrated short story writer, magazine editor and novelist.

“She was my beloved wife for 39 years and my best friend for 40 years,” Cook told approximately 100 friends, former colleagues and family visiting from 10 states.

The Janet Zastrow Cook Willa Cather and Rare Book Collections is housed in ACM’s newly renovated and expanded Donald L. Alexander Library.

Janet Cook, who succumbed to cancer in 2005, held a lifelong passion for Cather, about whom she continuously sought to better know and understand. The Cather collection that she started was a natural extension of that interest.

The Cooks are native Nebraskans, as was Cather, who left her 1873 birthplace near Winchester, Va., for a rural upbringing in that Plains state. She graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as they did.

The collection of Cather materials that the Cooks assembled is in a handsome section of the library that interested people can visit by request.

This gathering of letters, literary reviews and published first-edition and signed works by the author will be important to scholars of American literature in the first half of the 20th century as well as to Cather enthusiasts.

Gary Cook, who retired in 2001 as professor of communication and theater arts at Frostburg State University, expanded the Cather collection in his wife’s memory. He also donated to the library rare books that he and Janet had collected by other American and British authors.

These first-edition and, in some cases, signed works are by such authors as Sandburg, Frost, Longfellow, Milton, Dickens and Coleridge.

The renewed library was dedicated to Alexander in an October ceremony that recognized his contributions to the community college in a 37-year career that concluded with 28 years as president.

As he retired June 30, more than a month before the project was completed, the library was reoccupied under Alexander’s successor, Bruce Exstrom. By coincidence, the current ACM president is a native of Nebraska native and a graduate of its flagship university.

“This collection has a special place in my heart,” said Exstrom.

“Janet’s legacy makes me so proud as a Nebraskan and as president of Allegany College of Maryland.”

With a bachelor’s degree in English, speech and theater, and a master’s degree in speech and English education, Janet Cook taught English and speech classes and advised teacher education majors. She included the author’s work, such as the short story “Paul’s Case,” in the literature courses she taught at the community college.

As an ACM faculty member, Janet Cook was well known for her professionalism, personal warmth and genuine interest in students. These traits that were formally recognized in 1989, when she received teacher-of-the-year honors in only the second such award for the college.