Instantly an archivist reached into a draw and pulled out a framed poodle fashioned from pipe cleaners that Pablo Picasso had given Gertrude Stein.

Stepping inside the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin is like stepping into a literary time machine, where the magic of children’s stories comes to life in unexpected ways.

Objects courtesy of Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University ...

A Ransom Center staffer in the archive of Norman Mailer, who earmarked his papers for the library before he died, in 2007 (Harry Cabluck/Associated Press) With 36 million manuscripts and a million ...