The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-29
ROSENBACH ART
 FILIBUSTER FOR
 RARE OLD BOOKS
Has Spent $10,00O, ,000 Get ting Old Volumes For
 Americans


 personality and more nearly human at- tributes than any other inaniMate things, according to the somewhat odd theory of Dr. A. W, s. Rosenbaeh, known throughout the world as a bibliophilist, who thus accounts for the passionate fervor of the collector and bibliophile.
 For Dr. Rosenbach doesn't think of his books in terms of dollars and cents. Their former owners did that which is why he has them now.
 To him they are first cousin to hu- man. At the least they are mummies of thought which lived centuries ago and at the most they are actually Hv- ing today, because, as he rather quaint ly views it, they contain thought, and thought is the immortal thing in man.
 Dr. Rosenbach has, probably contri' buted more than any other collector to the rapidly growing store of rare and ancient volumes rubbing shoulders on Twentieth Century shelves in Ameri. can libraries. He has just returned from "'raid" on the art centers of Eu- rope bringing with him a consignment of rare books valued at more than $1, ,600, 900 and in the past ten years or so he has spent approximately $10.- 100000 in acquiring for American libraries some of the rarest treasures of England and the continent.
 The walls of his New York library salon at 273 Madison avenue, are lined with volumes, some of which were worth kings ransom in the days when l kings were kings. There are books | everywhere. Glass enclosed cases rise | from floor to ceiling. Tables, stands, book troughs and chairs are piled high | with still more books-a congregation | of volumes dating back to the rare old Gutenberg Bible printed in 1445.
 Casually At Elbow
 In the midst of this assortment of 1 antiquity one may reach out his hand and immediately immerse oneself in the | thought of any era since the Fourteen th Century. Thin, unassuming little | volumes, yellowed, >frayed and shoddy, but with prices that make you gasp, lie | as Dr. Rosenbach looks at you ap- | provingly. Then you learn he thinks you are flabbergasted by the sheer | the fact that a dilapidated little hand
  ands of dollars.
 s"Do you think most American col- lectors feel as you do about books?" he was asked.
 T do, most emphatically. There is no sordid phase to the growing appre- citation of books in this country. Amer ica is something of a neophyte, per. haps, but her appreciation is not par yenu. Our collectors are actuated by a real love for their books; generally it is passion, but an intelligent passion. The real bibliophile has it born in him. He is not the product of environment or geographical influence, though na- turally these things help foster his ap- preciation.
 Book collecting in America is as old as the country's history almost. Many of our Presidents, beginning with Washington, were ardent collectors and today there is living in Brooklyn the greatest authority in the world on rare books-perhaps he is the greatest that ever lived. He is Wilberforce Flames, formerly head of the Lenox Library, which contains one of the finest col lections to be found anywhere.
 There isn't in England today a pri- vate library which can compare with those of J. Pierrepont Morgan or the late Henry E. Huntington. Of course it is doubtful if the collections of the British Museum and the National Li- brary of France ever will be equalled. Each has been in process of develop ment for hundreds of years and each contains more than one million vol. umes.
 There has been a marked acclera- tion in Americas interest in book col lecting during the past ten years; but there were many fine collections here as far back as Colonial days. In the Seventeenth Century Thomas Prince and William Byrd of Westover, Va, had splendid libraries. About 1880 Benjamin Franklin started a collection of Americana, consisting ot early books relating to the discovery and settle ment of the early colonies which he presented to the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1700.
 George Washington at Mount Yer. non and Thomas Jefferson at Monticel. | 10 had valuable libraries containing | many rare volumes. /
 Old Libraries Bought
 Part of Washington's library was bought en block by the Boston Athe- neum where it is preserved, and most | of Jefferson's collection was purchased by the Library of Congress. Since then l there have been many celebrated col- lectors who have formed great libraries such as S. L. NJ. Barlow, George Brin. ley, Brayton Ives, James Lenox, found4 | CT of the Lenox Library; Marshal T. Lefferts, Beverly Chew, Henry W. Poor and Winston H. Hagen.
 The truth of the matter is that rare books have never reached tn: price levels of other antiques, such as stat. uary, paintings, tapestries, bronzes, porcelAins and so on. But the time will come when they will. Actually, old books have a greater intrinsic value than any other type of antique but a proper appreciation of them requires greater discrimination and thic neces- sarily narrows the field of interest
 "To properly value books one must be able to appreciate their contehtE as we'll as the beauty of their bindings md their age"
 Several copies of the Gutenberg Ri- ble, the first book ever printed so far As is known, and copies of which are exceedingly rare, have been in the pos session of Dr. Rosenbach at various times and one, a perfect copy, he sold recently for $60,000. As he told this he caressed a thin, yelluwed little volume resembling the primers of our Colonial forefathers.
 ''What is it's value?" he was asked.
 "Oh, three or four thousand dollars" be replied.
 Tt had been written in 1645 by an llmost prehistoric gentleman and con. kained marked passages concerning Venus and Adonis which are believed