The San Diego State Love Library received a science fiction collection valued at $2.25 million. SDSU announced on Monday that Escondido real-estate agent Edward Marsh has been collecting books since the age of 9, donated works of George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke, William Burroughs and other golden-age authors to the school.

SDSU Dean of Library and Information Access Gale Etschmaier said the collection includes first-edition items, memorabilia and artwork. SDSU’s full science fiction collection is currently comprised of nearly 5,000 titles.

The Department of Special Collections and University Archives put together an exhibition on the second floor of Love Library’s dome. The department’s librarian Anna Culbertson SAID, the displayed works were divided into several themes, including golden-age authors, fantasy and dystopia, space opera, and women and LBGTQ representation and authors.

“I hope all students enjoy the exhibit,” Special Collections student assistant Mario Delgadillo said. “We have worked really hard on it.”

Marsh told the U-T San Diego he wished for his golden-age collection to be preserved because kids today have no idea it even existed.

“They’ve never seen a pulp magazine with these lurid covers,” Marsh said. “And all the movies they see come from stories written by the golden-age guys.”

Culbertson said the golden age of science fiction carried themes of “hard” science fiction, with a big focus on things that had scientific and technical plausibility such as space travel and rockets. Culbertson described these themes masculine and said later in post-modern science fiction, the stories involved social and political themes.

Ninety-five percent of the collection is from the 20th century. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was chosen as the start of the displayed timeline. Culbertson said lectures by former SDSU affiliates will accompany the exhibition later in the semester.