Thursday, February 15, 2024

The Sporting Side of Book Collecting



The sporting side of book collecting is like any other sport.  Hot streaks, great plays, an amazing moment, all unpredictable, all driving an adrenaline rush.  And I must say my 2024 book collecting season is off to a fine start.  I may be topping the leaderboard in my league right now.   However what really matters is simply being in the game.  Participation trophies count in book collecting.  In this spirit of participation, I’d like to share the excitement of a few recent acquisitions.  I cast a wide net in gathering my biblio-collection (sometimes too wide it feels) but that’s the way I’ve always played.  I find items everywhere and I never know what’s coming or how.  Here are a few recent game winners.
    The first is a Belle da Costa Greene letter from 1930 to prominent book collector George Plimpton thanking him for the gift to the Pierpont Morgan Library of his The Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Collection of Italian Books and Manuscripts in the Library of Wellesley College (1929).  She adds as a P.S., “I am thrilled by your inscription to me in the book!” 
    I’ve collected both Greene and Plimpton material over the years so this letter linking the two has a special appeal.  Greene (1879-1950) was the private librarian for both J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. and Jr., the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library, and a force in the rare book world, playing a key role in building the magnificent collection.  I began collecting Greene before she rose to prominence in the wider scholarly community / world at large.  This surge of general interest occurred when it was revealed in Jean Strouse’s 1999 biography MorganAmerican Financier that Greene was African-American but passed as white.  What Greene would think about the resulting focus on her racial origins is of course speculative.  Perhaps she saw passing as white as a practical, necessary step for advancement, not a larger statement.  Being a woman at the time presented enough challenges on its own.  Evidence indicates that many contemporaries close to her knew of, or at least suspected, her African-American heritage.  But to their credit, particularly the Morgan’s, both father and son, her talents and abilities were first and foremost, her council valued, and she held a position in the rare book world unique for its time.
    The letter’s recipient George A. Plimpton (1855-1936) was a formidable collector, building a 15,000-volume library focusing on textbooks and instructional materials that spanned the 10th century to the middle of the 19th century.  He presented a large collection of Italian literature to Wellesley College in memory of his wife, described in the book presented to Greene, and assembled a sizable collection on the French and Indian War.  His primary library went to Columbia University and the collection of French and Indian War material to Amherst. 
     The next buzzer beater is an original, signed 1923 typescript essay by Edward A. Ayer (1841-1927) titled “Why I Love Prescott’s ‘Conquest of Mexico.” Ayer recalls how a chance encounter with a copy of William Prescott’s famous history while serving in the Army during the Civil War sparked his interest in the American Indian and the Southwest.  He writes, “I read it through twice and was astonished to find that history could be so interesting and everything painted so clearly in words.”  
    After he returned home from the war in 1864, he sought out a copy of the book to own.  He purchased a set in Chicago of Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of Peru for $17.50, a huge amount for him at the time.  The bookseller was Cobb and Pritchard Book Store.  We’ll let Ayer himself continue the story, “I was being served by one of the proprietors and I never wanted anything so badly in my life.  I finally said, ‘My name is Edward Ayer, I live in Harvard (IL).  I have been on the plains and in the war four years and returned a month ago.  My father has given me an interest in a store.  I have $3.50 that I can spare now.  If you let me have Volume 1 of Mexico, I will give you the $3.50 I have and every month when I come in I will take and pay for another volume.  He said (bless him) ‘Young man you give me the $3.50 and take the whole set home with you now.’  My return home was a triumphal procession.  I was certainly the happiest boy in the world and only touched the earth in high places.  I continued to prosper and in a few years had a fine library of about one thousand volumes.  When it got so I had to separate the Indian works from the others, this volume of Mexico was number one.”
    Ayer’s prominence as a collector rose exponentially over the years, his enthusiasm never wavering.  Dickinson writes in Dictionary of American Book Collectors, “As the books and manuscripts overflowed Ayer’s home, he transferred them regularly to the Newberry Library in Chicago, where he served as a trustee.  In 1910 the Newberry Library set aside special rooms for the materials, and in the following year it dedicated the entire collection as ‘The Edward Ayer Collection on the North American Indian.’  The Ayer collection included early exploration, Indian warfare, Spanish government affairs in the Southwest, linguistics, art, and culture.”
    Ayer’s original copy of Conquest of Mexico purchased in Chicago retained a special place in his heart.  He recalls in the essay how many years later he had the famous London binder Zaehnsdorf rebind the set in sumptuous fashion in honor of its importance to him.  Written on the flyleaves of that copy, still housed in the Newberry Library, is his preliminary draft of the essay.  The expanded typescript version now in my collection is unpublished.


    My next acquisition was the result of a quick play for an under-catalogued item.  I didn’t miss the short putt for the win.  It is Henry Stevens’ Historical Nuggets: Bibliotheca Americana or a Descriptive Account of My Collection of Rare Books Relating to America. (2 vols. London: 1862).  This beauty is from Stevens’ own library “bound by W. Pratt for H. Stevens. 1876” in elaborate red three-fourths morocco.  The set is inscribed by Stevens and signed by both he and his wife, “To Father [August] Fischer, A Souvenir of ‘Vermont House’ Sunday, Dec. 7, 1879, Henry Stevens, Mary Stevens.” (Vermont House was the Stevens home in London.)  It is the only presentation set I’ve encountered and as a bonus the only item I’ve seen signed by both Stevens and his wife.
    Historical Nuggets describes over three thousand titles in detail.  It long served as a primary reference for Americana and is still useful.  Much of the best material was sold by Stevens to John Carter Brown and James Lenox.  This was Stevens’ majestic precursor to his long planned but never finished Bibliotheca Americana, a bibliography of works related to America, similar in general concept to Sabin.   Stevens (1819-1886), born in Vermont, was the most prominent American bookseller of the 19th century and one of the greatest of all time.  His story is a fascinating one, but generally available, and I’ll let you explore him on your own.  However, the recipient of this copy deserves elucidation. 
    Bibliophile and Roman Catholic priest August Fischer (1825-1887) led an adventurous and checkered life.  He was an unruly teenager and had to flee his native Germany for the United States after severely injuring a fellow worker in a blacksmith shop.  He ended up in Texas from 1845-48 before he moved to California in search of gold. While there, he accepted the Catholic faith and trained as a clergyman, even though he lived for several years with a woman with whom he had two children. He left them and moved to Mexico in 1852 where he was ordained a priest.  Soon he was dismissed by the bishop when he was caught having an affair with a servant girl.  He then became pastor in Parras, Mexico, and improbably rose to political power within conservative circles culminating in his appointment as Cabinet Secretary to the ill-fated Emperor Maximillan of Mexico (1832-1867). Maximillan also appointed Fischer as director of the newly formed Mexican National Library. Maximillan, at the urging of Fischer, remained in Mexico instead of leaving when political unrest became acute. Bad choice. Maximillan was captured and executed in 1867.  Fischer himself was captured but released and made his way to Europe.  Many of the books destined for the National Library were scattered abroad and sold.  Fischer’s private collection contained numerous rarities including a large group of 16th century Mexican imprints. It was auctioned in London by Puttick & Simpson on June 1-8, 1869, in 2962 lots under the title Bibliotheca Mejicana: A Catalogue of an Extraordinary Collection of Books & Manuscripts, Almost Wholly Relating to the History and Literature of North and South America, Particularly Mexico (Collected During 20 Years Official Residence in Mexico). An early version of Stevens’ Historical Nuggets (1859) was sold in the auction (lot 1629).
    There is correspondence between Fischer and Henry Stevens in the Steven papers at UCLA which I have not yet seen.  It is highly likely that Stevens both sold books to Fischer and bought books from his collection when it appeared at auction in 1869.  This “souvenir” of a visit to Stevens ten years after the Fischer sale almost certainly was meant to replace Fischer’s copy sold in the auction.


    Our final acquisition is akin to a final drive in overtime to win the Super Bowl.   This one came expensively for my budget, but you can’t have a great team without great players, and they never sign for cheap.  And the monetary cost is soon forgotten with the victory.  It is a magnificent association copy of H.P. Kraus’ autobiography A Rare Book Saga (1978) inscribed to Arthur Houghton, “To Arthur, the Great Collector, With best wishes, Hans, Sept. 12, 1978.”
    H.P. Kraus (1907-1988) fled Nazi Germany and established his rare book business in New York in 1939.  He had experience as a bookseller in Europe but lost almost everything when he left Germany.  This did not deter him and within a decade he was well on his way to becoming one of the most dominant rare book dealers in the world.  In many ways he assumed the mantle of A.S.W. Rosenbach.  He bought and sold more great books and manuscripts than anyone in his time.  Kraus recounts his trials and adventures in this classic biblio-autobiography.
    Kraus writes, “What was the pinnacle of my bookselling career? What better encore, after buying and selling a Constance Missal, than buying a Gutenberg Bible, the king of all book rarities? . . To buy a copy for stock, without immediate prospect of sale, was risky, considering monetary uncertainties and the threat of recession. No bookseller could tie up that much capital. Or so it was believed. The doubts persisted on that day in 1970, unforgettable to me, when the world learned of my acquisition of the Houghton copy.
    “On Monday, February 2, 1970, out of the blue Arthur A. Houghton [1906-1990] called me at my office. He asked me to come for cocktails to his Sutton Place house. . . I knew Houghton and he wasn’t the sort to invite anyone for small talk.  I had a hunch he might be ready to sell [his Gutenberg Bible], or at least explore the possibility, so I accepted the invitation.
    “Arthur Houghton, president of Steuben Glass, had started young as a book collector.  I met him first in 1940, when he was curator of rare books at the Library of Congress.  He is one of America’s great collectors and his library consists of rare and beautiful books and manuscripts that struck his fancy. . .
    “Houghton came right to the point. After exchanging amenities, during which he probably sensed that I knew what was coming, he announced:
    “’I want to sell the Bible.’
    “These words danced in my ears. . . Though hard negotiations might follow, I knew the book was mine.
    “The decision, he explained, had not been reached overnight.  Houghton had owned a Gutenberg Bible, first the very incomplete duplicate of the Stadtbibliothek Trier bought at Sotheby’s in 1937 and then this one, for more than 30 years.  His fascination with the book had not diminished in all that time, but his insurance company insisted he keep it in the bank and he did not want a book he could not keep at home.  The urge to sell comes to many collectors, especially in a bull market.  In 1970 the bulls definitely had the best of the antiquarian book trade.
    “I immediately made a substantial offer.
    “This took him by surprise. . .
    “’How will you pay?’ he asked.
    “’Cash.’
    “This, too, proved a surprise.  Not every bookseller is in a position to write out a seven-figure check.
    “After minor bargaining, we reached a firm price.  This was later reported in the press as ‘between one and two million dollars.’  I agreed with Houghton not to reveal the exact sum.”
    This excerpt about the pinnacle of Kraus’ bookselling career is from a much lengthier account of the acquisition in A Rare Book Saga (pp. 234-241).  The Gutenberg remained in Kraus’ stock a number of years, garnering Kraus much publicity, before he sold the Bible to the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.  Kraus writes, “It is especially gratifying to us that our copy goes home, not only to the country but also to the city of its birth.”
    I will now ask forgiveness from the non-sporting types for the barrage of sporting anecdotes.  (Particularly to my wife.)  But if you are a serious book collector, you’re participating in a sport whether you realize it or not.  Go out, play hard, play well, and see what happens.  The highs and lows, the wins and losses, the rivalries, the comraderies, the evolution of your skills, all combined with the pure enjoyment of it, are worth the exertion.  And as a bonus, you rarely get sweaty.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Organic Bookselling

 

Eddy Nix and Kurt Zimmerman loading up Z book cruiser

I’m seated in an outhouse thinking fondly of antiquarian booksellers.  The outhouse is complete with wood board butt rest, bucket of sawdust for odor control, and a guest book.  Book hunting can certainly lead to unexpected situations.
            The outhouse is the inexplicable sole restroom for an otherwise fabulous, dodecagon (twelve-sided) home nestled on acreage in the beautiful Driftless region near Viroqua, Wisconsin.  Driftless refers not to a land of unmotivated wanderers, but to a geographic area that lacks glacial deposits known as drift.  The gorgeous landscape is composed of deep river valleys, steep hills, forest, spring-fed waterfalls, and cold-water trout streams intermixed with scattered farms. 
            I’ve spent the last three days in Viroqua in Driftless Books culling five boxes of goodies from the remnants of the reference collection of legendary Berkeley, California bookseller Peter Howard.   Nicole has gathered four boxes of books related to Frank Lloyd Wright from another uncatalogued stash.  

Friday, June 30, 2023

Booking in the Big Easy

Kurt Zimmerman and Russell Desmond

Memorable.
  The Big Easy is.  I am in the middle of Bourbon Street at night, leaning over, elbows on knees, head down.  Lined up next to me are five other middle-aged white guys in a similar stance.  The man beside me is groaning, saying his bad left knee isn’t going to hold up much longer.  A lively crowd surrounds us including our disconcerted wives.  The smell of spilt beer and less amenable odors permeate the surroundings, the whole scene lit up by the neon glow of the Hustler Hollywood sign nearby. 
        Within a few moments there is a whoosh over my head and a lithe, athletic black man lands just past me.  He has hurdled all six of us as the finale to a street show.  He grins widely, shakes my hand, and thanks me for my participation.  He and his other two cohorts have spent the previous minutes regaling us with gymnastic / break dancing moves, and energetic music blasting from a portable speaker.  Their lead MC is a running comedy show.  He pokes fun at racial stereotypes, extolling the crowd to cheer louder, all-the-while appealing for generous tips. 
        I am selected from the revved onlookers to participate in the finale by the MC who is looking for “rich, white guys.”  He’s one for two in my case, but I’m rather tall and make the mistake of standing in the front row.  The MC leads us in absurd dance moves before the mighty leap.  I see a lot of phones recording.  At the end, I tip the enterprising trio all the cash in my wallet totaling $12, confirming their poor choice (I spent most of my cash on books earlier).  I make my way to my wife Nicole who is wiping tears of laughter from her eyes and still holding the book bag. 
        This is our anniversary trip to the Big Easy – the first visit for us to New Orleans as a couple (why did it take us almost twenty years?).   More unexpected experiences await us including further pillage amongst a bevy of used bookstores. 

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Condition Isn't Everything

 

A Rough and Ready Copy of Burton's THE BOOK-HUNTER (1863)

 Books are tough.  Raging fire or lengthy submersion in water can do them in, but otherwise they often survive hard use, neglect, inquisitive children, pets, lack of climate control, insects, and with a little luck, many natural disasters.  These rough and ready reading copies are found almost everywhere.  But they are rarely encountered on the shelves of fastidious collectors or in special collections libraries.  Unless you collect association copies, then you must take a book’s condition as it comes.
            This thought struck me as I held a book with a Titanic connection.  The book is Luther Livingston’s First Editions of George Meredith. . . Offered for Sale by Dodd & Livingston, New York [1912].  It is inscribed to English book collector Clement K. Shorter.  Tipped-in is an excellent autograph letter from Livingston to Shorter, discussing, among other things, an upcoming visit by fellow bibliophile Harry Widener to Shorter.  Widener is the famous young American collector who perished on the Titanic along with his father, only a few days after seeing Shorter.  His mother survived and built the Widener Library at Harvard in his honor.  She then placed her twenty-seven-year-old son’s already impressive book collection within.  Bookseller and bibliographer Luther Livingston was close to Harry Widener. He was selected as the first librarian of the Widener Library, but he died tragically of a rare bone disease before he could assume the post.  His ongoing illness is also mentioned in the letter to Shorter.  So, there is a lot to unpack with this association copy and the appeal to me was irresistible, condition be damned. 
            Bookseller Howard Mather of Wykeham Books knows my interests and offered it to me.  His condition description was accurate, but I hoped it might be better than advertised. Nope.  The book literally looks as if it had gone down on the Titanic and later swept ashore.  I passed this feedback onto Mather giving him a good laugh.  Perhaps Shorter was reading it in the bathtub and let it slip.  Maybe it was fire-hosed during the London Blitz of World War II.  Whatever the case, it is thoroughly dried out now, a little wavy, somewhat crinkly, certainly stained, but a survivor.  A relic.

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Good Books at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair

 

“Are you sure you want a beer guy to order the wine?” said friend and bookseller Jay Rohfritch, as I scanned the vast and mostly incomprehensible (to me) wine list at Sauvignon Wine Locker & American Trattoria in St. Petersburg, Florida.  It is Sunday night, March 12th, and the 2023 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair has just finished.  Celebration is in order.  I’m sitting with Jay, Dennis Melhouse of First Folio Books, and Bryan & Kelly Young of Grayshelf Books. 
            Dennis is a man who knows his way around a wine bottle.  He asks if the restaurant has a sommelier.  I’ve never heard this term actually spoken before.  Only read it in books.  We’ve already polished off the first bottle selected by Bryan & Kelly, a Napa red that I can’t recall the name of, but I drink heartily.  Bryan and Kelly are into wine like I’m into craft beer, so the selection is a good one. 
            But now I’m feeling cheeky.  I intercede and say I’d like to select the next bottle.  There is a brief look of consternation from the others.  I insist and I find a moderately-priced (okay, relatively cheap) bottle of cabernet from Paso Robles.  Dennis diplomatically says he has had some good cabs from Paso Robles in the past.  I seal the deal by guaranteeing to drink the whole bottle if it doesn’t meet expectations.  The merriment continues as we talk books and Jay once again expresses skepticism of my selection abilities.
            The waiter is an interactive, humorous fellow with hair like Albert Einstein.  We don’t know if this is a trending fashion look, or he was simply running late to work and forgot to comb his hair.  He arrives with my bottle and ceremoniously unscrews the cap, no cork removal needed.  Muffled laughter ensues and the waiter places the cap before me and pours a glass to have me approve.
            Bryan states in my defense that many better wines have screw tops nowadays, but I know he is lying.  I swirl the wine around, inhale the bouquet (“Smells like wine to me”) and take a swig.  Tastes pretty good, actually.  The rest are soon swirling their glasses and sipping. 
            “It’s getting better as it opens,” Kelly says.
            “I can drink it,” Jay smirks.
            “It’s a bit tannin-forward,” Bryan chimes in.
            I’m not sure what to make of this comment, but Dennis, who is sitting next to me, leans in and clarifies, “That’s not a good thing.”
            More funnin’ continues at my expense, but I asked for it, and rather enjoy it.  Just one of many memorable episodes from a bibliophile’s escapade to St. Petersburg, Florida.  But how did I get here?  That is a serendipitous story.

Monday, February 27, 2023

Encounters with Bookmen E. L. “Shorty” Shettles and J. Frank Dobie

J. Frank Dobie

I was a book greenhorn when I first encountered Elijah L. Shettles (1852-1940) and J. Frank Dobie (1888-1964), two legendary Texas bookmen and personalities.  My early discovery of Shettles and Dobie did much to inspire my interest in the history of book collecting and rare bookselling. 
            This momentous event happened while I was cataloging the Dudley R. Dobie collection of J. Frank Dobie material, the finest Dobie material to appear on the market, offered in a 1992 Dorothy Sloan catalogue.  (Dudley was J. Frank Dobie’s cousin and a noted bookseller.)  I discovered J. Frank Dobie’s eulogy “E. L. Shettles, Man, Bookman and Friend.”  Dobie read it at Shettles’ funeral in 1940, and it was published in the January 1941 issue of the Southwest Historical Quarterly.

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Susan Halas Interview with Kurt Zimmerman: Dorothy Sloan and More

 Susan Halas, book dealer and writer, contacted me to do an interview for Rare Book Monthly, the online newsletter found on rarebookhub.com.  It came out in December.  I thought I'd share it on my blog for those who didn't see it.  

Happy New Year!  I've already got a couple new essays in the works so stay tuned.

Kurt Zimmerman, book blogger, shares memories of Dorothy Sloan