The writer and Jesuit Jón Sveinsson (1857–1944) left Iceland as a boy and lived abroad for the rest of his life. He is best known for his stories about Nonni and Manni, which are based on his childhood memories. He also wrote travel books about his journeys to Iceland, America and Japan. In 1987 Haraldur Hannesson, an economist and librarian, presented the National Library of Iceland (now the National and University Library of Iceland) with a memorial collection on Jón Sveinsson, a joint gift from him and the Jesuit order. The collection holds Nonni’s works in nearly all their editions, Icelandic and foreign, books and press cuttings about him, and pictures, as well as Nonni’s manuscripts, diaries, letters and notebooks. The collection is very well kept: all the manuscripts are bound, and the letters and ephemera are stored in boxes.