Wilmarth Sheldon “Lefty” Lewis, was born in Alameda, California in 1895, attended the Thacher School in Ojai, California, and graduated from Yale University, a member of the Class of 1918.
Lewis, began collecting books not long after his graduation from Yale. Then, on a trip to London in 1923, he purchased a copy of John Heneage Jesse’s George Selwyn and His Contemporaries that was full of manuscript notes by Lady Louisa Stuart. Her lively commentary about the people and events described in the book piqued Lewis’s interest and led him eventually to Horace Walpole.
Walpole (1717-1797) the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, England’s first prime minister, was an energetic letter-writer for most of his long life. The view of the eighteenth century afforded by Walpole’s correspondence fascinated Lewis and led to his lifelong pursuit of all things Walpolian. Lewis acquired books, manuscripts, and prints as well as graphic and decorative arts, all in an extraordinary effort to gather information about Horace Walpole and his times, his house at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, his interests, and his friends and contemporaries.
Lewis spent nearly half a century, until his death in 1979, editing Walpole’s correspondence. Fully indexed and annotated, The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence extends to 48 volumes and remains a key resource for scholars of the eighteenth century, as well as a noteworthy accomplishment in the field of scholarly editions. Lewis dedicated the Yale Edition to his wife, Annie Burr Auchincloss Lewis (1902-1959). His tribute to Annie, and to their remarkable partnership in bringing the edition to fruition, was published in the preface to volume 20 (pages x-xi), shortly after her death.
Lewis moved to Farmington not long after his graduation from Yale. He met Annie there, in 1919; where the following year she graduated in from Miss Porter’s School. Lewis purchased the Cowles House on the corner of Main Street and Meadow Road in 1926. The Lewises were married in 1928, and settled into their home on Main Street.
Mrs. Lewis was an essential participant in her husband’s collecting. She served as the first curator of prints. She was also active in support of historic preservation in Farmington and beyond, perhaps most notably as Vice-Regent for Connecticut for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Aside from a few years spent in Washington during World War II, where Mrs. Lewis worked at the Red Cross and Mr. Lewis worked at the Office of Strategic Services, they lived at 154 Main Street in Farmington until their deaths.