ROSENBACH, A. S. W. 1876-1952

BOOKMAN

"The Napoleon of the Auction Room."

Dr. Abraham Simon Wolfe Rosenbach was the greatest rare-book dealer in the world during the 1920s; indeed, he is regarded as the greatest one who ever lived. Combining scholarship with salesmanship and showman-ship, Rosenbach bought and sold more great books and manuscripts and built more major collections than anyone else. He boasted that the books and manuscripts in his vault were worth more than the total inventory of Macy's department store.

An Era of Bibliophiles

Great men match their times; their achievements are encouraged by the spirit of an era. The 1920s produced wealthy collectors who cherished their books and enjoyed the competition for rarities. By setting record prices in the auction rooms of New York and London, Rosenbach validated the cultural and investment values of books and manuscripts.

Training

A Philadelphian, Rosenbach was the nephew of antiquarian bookseller Moses Pollock and started pursuing books in his boyhood. Rosenbach planned an academic career, but after taking his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania he began selling books in his brother Philip's antique store. A bon vivant who drank a bottle of whiskey a day, Rosenbach had the ability to develop friendships with his customers, thereby converting business dealings into collaborations. His Philadelphia and New York premises were clubs for favored buyers, and the hospitality was lavish. His early patrons included the Widener family, especially Harry Widener. After the young bibliophile perished in the Titanic sinking, Rosenbach compiled the catalogue of the Widener collection at Harvard.

Fulfillment

The death of Rosenbach's rival George D. Smith in 1920 enabled "Dr. R"—as he became widely known—to acquire the business of Henry C. Folger, who was assembling what became the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Henry E. Huntington, who was responsible for the greatest library ever built by one man. Bidding for wealthy collectors as well as for stock, Rosenbach endeavored to dominate every major sale during the decade; he also developed the habit of retaining favorite items for his own collection. Thus, at the John Quinn sale during 1923-1924 he paid __BODY__,950 for the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses and took it home. Rosenbach's strategy was to secure at least one headline-making item at any major auction he attended. In 1928 he paid £15,400 ($77,000) for the manuscript of Alice In Wonderland. He later sold it with two copies of the first edition for $150,000.

The World of Literature

Most antiquarian book dealers specialize in a field or a period, but Rosenbach embraced all literature from medieval manuscripts to twentieth-century fiction. He had a prodigious memory and knew the material. Rosenbach customarily bought books and manuscripts for stock because he believed in their literary value: at the Quinn sale he spent $72,000 on Joseph Conrad manuscripts, most of which he kept. His personal collection included Judaica and early American children's books. Although his customers were perforce wealthy individuals or institutions, his own activities and fame surpassed their prestige in proclaiming the importance of great books. The impressive printed catalogues of the Rosenbach Company were useful scholarly books on their own. The 1920 catalogue consisted of twenty-nine Shakespeare quartos—"the largest collection ever offered for sale of books by or relating to Shakespeare." In 1926 he marked the sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence with a catalogue that featured the original Declaration with the 1777 Articles of Confederation ($260,000). Rosenbach's activities were resented in England because he took many of the rarest British books to America. Not only did he dominate the London auction rooms, he plundered some of the richest private libraries in Britain. The most famous and most valuable book is the Gutenberg Bible (1454-1456), allegedly the first book printed from movable type. In 1926 Dr. R acquired a Gutenberg for Mrs. Edward Harkness at $106,000, the highest price for a printed book until 1947, when he paid $151,000 for the Bay Psalm Book (1640), allegedly the first book printed in North America. The last great book auction of the 1920s was the 1929 sale of the library of songwriter Jerome Kern: Rosenbach spent $410,000 of the __BODY__,729,462 total.

Change

The book boom ended—not just because of the Depression but because many of the great collectors died. However, their deaths provided opportunities for Rosenbach to reacquire books he had previously sold. Rosenbach maintained his position as the preeminent antiquarian bookman through the 1940s. After the deaths of the bachelor brothers, the Philip H. and A. S. W. Rosenbach Foundation has maintained a library in their Philadelphia home. The treasures of that institution are the books that Dr. R kept for himself.