Evening star., 1932-05-22

S~-~N ~~~-~' -
about him at the time.
\ AONTHS afterward-early last year
W. Alfred C. Potter head of the Har-
ward College Library, received letter
which boldly informed Potter that Ger
tain rare volumes had been stolen from
the Harvard Library, and for a sum Of
money the writer offered to come to Har
ward and install system that would
make such efforts impossible in the fu-
ture! This letter quite naturally startled
Potter, for it was the first intimation
he had that these volumes had been
stolen. The letter writer was promptly
arrested. He denied having had anything
to do with the stolen volumes. He ad-
mitted, however, that he associated with
a number of men who specialized in
stealing valuable books, but insisted that
he mingled with them only to obtain
material for writing a book to expose
their depredations.
The man was released, not only be-
cause there was little direct evidence
against him, but also because it was
thought that if freed and kept under
observation he might prove more valu-
able by inadvertently leading investiga-
tors to others involved in the traffic 1t
turned out to be a far-sighted move.
One day last May the suspected man left
q number of rare books with New York
dealer, who was surprised to find they
bore the stamp of the Lancaster, Mass,
Library. Apparently the man had be-
come so brazen through repeated sue
ceSses that he didn't even trouble to re
move Identification marks. The dealer
communicated with Lancaster, where the
thefts were verified. An indictment was
issued against the seller, and he finally
was located at Revere, Mass, not far
from the Boston and Harvard libraries.
Here he was arrested and sent to jail
This arrest led directly to the exposure
of the "book-thief ring" The prisoner
revealed the identity of a number of
other book thieves, showed that they
were a well organized body and gave
testimony directly duplicating one man
as the brains of the gang-the man who
through his bookShopS provided the chief
outlet for the stolen wares. When a
Fourth avenue shop on New YorkS Book
about rs stolen volumes of value were
found on the premises The libraries
of Harvard, Dartmouth and Columbia,
as well as those of Boston, Newark and
Lancaster, identified books in his posses
sion as having been taken from their
collections.
The proprietor;s arrest and subsequent
conviction brought to light a number of
disturbing facts of concern not only to
Librarians and scholars, but to the
numerous collectors scattered about the
country, who were confronted with the
possibility of having parted with large
sum of money for a stolen rarity. There
was evidence to indicate that during the
last four or five years one man alone
handed as many as 5000 stolen volumes.
Since only rare or first editions, ranging
in value from about $25 to $750 each,
were stolen, it is clear that he or his as
sociateS have robbed collections of at
least several hundred thousand dollars
worth of rare books. And since practi-
cally all these stolen volumes were again
put on the market, the collector may
well be disturbed at the thought that
one of them may be hobnobbing at this
moment with other innocent books in his
own library.
The total value of rare volumes stolen
during the last few years, however, is
much greater than the above figures, for
the suspected dealer, as it turned out, was
not the only fence involved. Other deal
erS were found guilty and sentenced to
jail, and the activities of at least another
half dozen in New York, Boston and Phil
adelphia are being Investigated. 1t is es-
timated by authorities that there are
perhaps 10 dealers acting as fences for
stolen books in the East, with as many
as 40 or so men deyoting their time ex-