The Washington times., 1936-11-19

phile, the inter-
ma ional au- DIR. Rosenbacb
thority on Shakespeare and pur-
chaser of Gutenberg Bibles.
made the acquaintance of DR..
Rosenbach, or Rosie" the other
night at the home of Mr.. and Mrs.
Frank j. Hogan. And 1 discovered
many things about him.
"Rosie" is scholar and gen.
tleman. He's a cook and a poet.
A bargainer and a sentimentalist.
He tells with the naivete of
child stories like those one hears
at Iady's luncheon.
He's a judge of good Scotch
whiSkey. He knows the best vim.
tage years. He's never yet seen a
production of Shakespeare that
satisfied him. He likes to read
Shakespeare and put his own in
depreciation into the lines.
He Snubs and cajoles and flat
terS and ignores people who think
they are violently important. He
says he's only dealer in second
hand books. But he's successful
enough to say what he thinks
whenever it occurs to him. He's a
genius who everlastingly keeps
his mind on his job.
Before I met DR.. Rosenbach I
got down some old school books
from the back shelf in the closet
and read a few essays on Shakes
peare in order to sound knowing.
Here, said to myself, was a man
who would scare me with his in.
tellectuality. He would expect to
be talked to about Elizabethean
literature or Erasmus. He would
be gaunt and hollow-eyed from de.
tecting the false from the true.
He'd probably speak no word of
less than six syllables.
I found DR.. Rosenbach pink.
checked and smooth browed. EX-
tremely young looking, with eyes
twinkling behind nose glasses.
And a boyish zest for life that de.
lighted Washingtonians, sunk un.
der the local weight of politics.
Naturally the worlds most re-
Spected collector of rare books and
manuscripts liked to talk shop
now and then. In one of these
happy interludes he told me that
he considered Dickens the greatest
of all writer's after Shakespeare.
Among his bedroom books, some
of which he has read 20 or 80
times, DR.. RoSenbach keeps "Nich-
olas Nickleby," David Copper
field'' and 1.-THE Pickwick Papers"
He owns 81 pages of the original
manuscript of ''PickWick Papers" :"
He also dotes on detective stories
and reads them in bed by the
dozen.
When he had lighted a strong
Havana cigar after dinner he re-
membered yarns about the great.
For instance, DR.. Einstein, the
scientist, visited him once when
the temperature was below zero.
Opened all the windows in his
bedroom. Took off all the bed
clothes and slept comfortably in
the freezing wind all night long.
The late President Coolidge
startled DR.. Rosenbach with a
question once at a White House
luncheon. It was shortly after
DR. Rosenbach had purchased the
original manuscript Of "Alice in
Wonderland" He told Mr.. Cool
idge that the first edition of Alice
had been suppressed.
"You don't say so," said the
President. II wouldn't have
thought there was anything off
color in Alice"
Not off color, DR.. Rosenbach an
Swered, merely badly printed.
DR.. Rosenbach says that of his
early Americana he likes best his
collection of children'S books.
These books are usually on exhibi-
ton and travel around the coun-
try. Two hundred of George
WaShington'S letters are owned by
DR.. Rosenbach. He has some
valuable Lee letters - that short
one about Lee which Grant wrote
after Appomatix announcing Gen
eral Lees surrender.
He also owns that letter Gen
eral Lee wrote to his old friend,
Gen. Winfield Scott, in which
General Lee makes the often
quoted remark that never again
would he take up arms except in
defense of his country.
Sometimes DR.. Rosenbach lives
in New York. Sometimes in Phila-
delphia with his brother Phillip,
with whom he has book shop on
Walnut Street. He's little afraid
Of Phillip and mentioned several
volumes that he hoped Phillip
would nexer know the cost of.
DR.. Rosenbach likewise has a
CONTINUED on Page rs, Col. u
MONEY FOR