From "Northrop Frye at Home and Abroad: His Ideas,"
by Jean O'Grady —
"Frye always denied the accusation that
he was trying to make everyone accept
his whole ‘system’ like a straightjacket;
he remarked to an interviewer that perhaps
he would ultimately be found less useful as a
systemizer than as a quarry for later thinkers,
'a kind of lumber-room for later generations…
a resource person for anyone to explore and
get ideas from.' "
From Wikipedia's Lumber Room article —
"The phrase 'lumber room' is found in British fiction
at least during the 19th century …. Probably one of
the most evocative references is the short story by
'Saki' (H. H. Munro) called 'The Lumber Room':
'Often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself
what the lumber-room might be like, that region
that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes
and concerning which no questions were ever answered.
It came up to his expectations. In the first place it was large
and dimly lit, one high window opening on to the forbidden
garden being its only source of illumination. In the second
place it was a storehouse of unimagined treasures.' "
See also Two by Four in this journal.