Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2012 Issue

Rosenbach Museum Observes 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic

Rosenbach notifies London bookseller Quaritch of the Wideners' death.

Sometime around Christmas of 1905, young Harry Widener walked into the rooms of the great 20th century bookseller, Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach. Widener was just a man of 20 at the time, a junior at Harvard. He didn't have a lot of money but his father did, his grandfather still more. His grandfather, Peter Widener, was one of the great 19th century industrialists, perhaps the leading citizen of Philadelphia. He was also a great collector. Art was his specialty, but he had some books too. Similarly, Harry's father, George Widener, collected some books among other things.

Harry, however, was totally smitten by books. After graduation, as he began to gain access to more funding (a doting mother did not hurt), Harry began to collect. He also had a purpose beyond merely possessing books himself. He wanted to found a library with a great collection at his alma mater. Visiting bookshops was one of his missions when he sailed for England in 1912. It was a successful journey, he picked up a few books, and set sail for home. He had a ticket on the Titanic.

From now through June 24, 2012, there will be an exhibition at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Harry's hometown of Philadelphia entitled, Titanic: The Rise of Rosenbach. Rosenbach was still quite young for a bookseller himself, 29, when the two met in 1905. “The Doctor,” as he was affectionately called, already had connections with some of the biggest names in collecting, but it was more as someone who sold them occasional books. For Harry Widener, Rosenbach was a mentor. He was the man who would help Harry realize his dream of building the world's greatest library for Harvard University.

Those dreams might have have sunk with the Titanic. The collection, and the plans, were still in the making. However, as previously noted, Harry's mother, Eleanor Elkins Widener, adored her son. The loss of her son (and husband) in the Titanic disaster was a tragedy of incomprehensible magnitude for her. Life could never truly be happy again, but at least it could have a purpose. Eleanor Widener had a mission, and that mission was to complete her son's dream. Harvard would have that great library Harry wanted to build, only now, it would be a memorial to him. His mother would build it. Dr. Rosenbach would be the architect of its collection.

The loss of Harry Widener was a great personal tragedy to Dr. Rosenbach. The Doctor was more than just a bookseller to his closest clients. He was a personal friend, one who shared their love of great books. Rosenbach lost both a good friend and his biggest client when the 27-year-old collector lost his life. Nevertheless, the tragedy ended up raising Rosenbach from the level of one of many booksellers to the greatest one of his time. Mrs. Widener would rely on Dr. Rosenbach to choose what books her son would have wanted for his collection, and she was willing to spend whatever it took. As Edwin Wolf's biography, Rosenbach, notes, “There was nothing she wished to do with the vast fortune which had so unhappily come to her except to build her monument in books and marble to Harry's memory. If the prices had been half what she paid, she would have been half as pleased, and would have looked elsewhere for books to buy.” Dr. Rosenbach was the man given the task of spending all that money. It was Mrs. Widener's devotion to memorializing her son that led to the Doctor's rise to the pantheon of booksellers, a reputation unfaded by time 60 years after his death. Ultimately, it also led to the creation of the Rosenbach Museum in his and his brother's memory after they died.


The exhibition at the Rosenbach Museum and Library is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of that tragic and eventful disaster, the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. On April 15, 2012, there will be readings of first-hand accounts of those who experienced, or heard about, the disaster. There will also be a “conversation with the Curator” on the evening of April 5 to further explain the exhibition and answer questions. The remainder of the time through June 24 the exhibition will be open to the public during the museum and library's regular hours. The exhibit examines how Dr. Rosenbach enabled Mrs. Widener to reach her dream of memorializing her son, and how the Widener Library at Harvard in turn ensured the success of Dr. Rosenbach and his firm in the years ahead. Still, the major focus of the exhibition is that terrible day 100 years ago when the unsinkable sank, and the world was never quite the same.

To learn more about this exhibition, click the following link: www.rosenbach.org/learn/exhibitions/titanic

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 2:
    John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops' Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, oil on canvas, circa 1944.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 44:
    Edward Gorey, Illustration of cover and spine for Fonthill, a Comedy by Aubrey Menen, pen and ink, 1973.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 50:
    Harrison Cady, frontispiece for Buster Bear's Twins by Thornton W. Burgess, watercolor and ink, 1921.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 54:
    Ludwig Bemelmans, Pepito, portrait of Pepito from the Madeline book series, mixed media.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 79:
    Gluyas Williams, Fellow Citizens Observation Platform, pen and ink, cartoon published in The New Yorker, March 11, 1933.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 86:
    Thomas Nast, Victory, – for the moment, political cartoon, pen and ink, 1884.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 91:
    Mischa Richter, Lot of 10 cartoons for Field Publications, ink and pencil, circa 1940.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 111:
    Arthur Getz, Sledding In Central Park, casein tempera on canvas, cover of The New Yorker, February 26, 1955.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 124:
    Richard Erdoes, Map of Boston, illustration for unknown children's magazine, gouache on board, circa 1960.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 155:
    Robert Fawcett, The old man looked him over carefully, gouache on board, published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1945.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 170:
    Violet Oakley, Portrait of Woodrow Wilson, charcoal and pastel, circa 1918.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 188:
    Robert J. Wildhack, Scribner's for March, 1907, mixed media.
  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
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    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
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    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
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    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
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    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000

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