CAC Issue Seventeen; Lost and Found
Books stolen and 72 years overdue, beloved typeface overboard and more
Happy new year! I hope it's going well for you. I have a real dealer's Choice issue for you. Know that genre of online content that is like: I found this box of slides on the sidewalk and what's in it will shock you? I love that shit. So here are a handful of choice examples.
“When this one was checked out from the Bronx’s 160th St. Woodstock branch, Harry Truman was president, the “Red Scare” was all over American news and “Singin’ in the Rain” was about to hit theaters. Stravinsky was 69 years old.’
Son returns mom’s 72-year overdue book to New York Public Library
Hannah Frishberg
This article came in while I was working on this issue. Such a fun thing to happen. Shoutout to the NYPL’s private investigator, talk about my dream job. A good old fashioned human interest story set in the New York Public Library.
“The book was 72 years overdue, making it the most overdue book Parrott has ever heard of being returned to the branch.”
“When this one was checked out from the Bronx’s 160th St. Woodstock branch, Harry Truman was president, the “Red Scare” was all over American news and “Singin’ in the Rain” was about to hit theaters. Stravinsky was 69 years old.’
“On Feb. 9, 1953, the tardy patron was mailed a formal notice, signed by the NYPL’s private investigator Herbert Bouscher,”
“‘A woman stood up and told Patti that she had a bag of clothes that belonged to her 40 years ago and would like to return it,’”
Patti Smith has stolen possessions returned after 36 years
Dominique Sisley
A fun story about the power of our possessions. I would have loved to be at that show!
“‘A woman stood up and told Patti that she had a bag of clothes that belonged to her 40 years ago and would like to return it,’”
“So Patti pulls out these items of clothing and talks about them (the shirt she wore on the Rolling Stone cover, the Keith Richards T-Shirt you’ve seen her wear in a hundred photos)”
“he fan – also known as Doreen Bender – claimed that the items had been given to her by a friend who worked for U-Haul at the time.”
“I wanted to turn around and shout, ‘Guess what I found?’ but there were proper researchers and academics there, and I was just an amateur.’”
Amateur Historian Discovers Lost Story by 'Dracula' Author Bram Stoker Hiding in Plain Sight at a Dublin Library
Sonja Anderson
A lot of library wins in this one! Never assume that something new to you has already been discovered. Also, you can go read stuff in the archives of a public library. We can’t read Gibbet Hill just yet but I’ll be waiting. I love this story!
“The haunting tale, titled “Gibbet Hill,” was then forgotten. For more than 130 years, the piece remained in the shadows—until a clinical pharmacist chanced upon it at the National Library of Ireland.”
“I wanted to turn around and shout, ‘Guess what I found?’ but there were proper researchers and academics there, and I was just an amateur.’”
“In October 2014, he decided to take to the river to see if he could find any of the original pieces.”
Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Rescued From the River Thames
Holly Black
I almost put this in cool randos. Both for the person who threw the typeface into the Thames and for the person who fished it out centuries later. A story of spite and serendipity. Our hero is a font nerd. I would like to be a mudlark if not for my thalassophobia.
“A little over a century ago, the printer T.J. Cobden-Sanderson took it upon himself to surreptitiously dump every piece of this carefully honed metal letterpress type into the river”
“Robert Green first became fascinated with Doves Type in the mid-2000s, scouring printed editions and online facsimiles, to try and faithfully redraw and digitize every line. “
“In October 2014, he decided to take to the river to see if he could find any of the original pieces.”
““It was like Cobden-Sanderson had dropped the type from the bridge and straight into my hands. Time just collapsed”
“Just about the only thing that keeps an insider from stealing from special collections is conscience.”
The Inside Story of the 25-Year, $8 Million Heist From the Carnegie Library
Travis McDade
A Long read. A library horror. forgive my repeated Smithsonian Magazine pieces this issue. I guess lost and found stuff is their beat. I have a personal connection to this story. I went to the University of Pittsburgh for my master of library and information science. When I visited Pittsburgh in February of 2020 I bought two used books at Caliban. a beautiful Victorian copy of Aristophanes’ the frogs and a fascinating little book called printers as men of the world. Neither has any indication of being from Carnegie Library, and neither is valuable but some part of me has always wondered if I do not own books stolen from the Carnegie Library. That February Schulman had already testified so I doubt it. In any case $8 million in incunabula (great word) and antiquarian books is kind of unthinkable, even over 25 years.
“In the spring of 2017, then, the library’s administration was surprised to find out that many of the room’s holdings were gone. It wasn’t just that a few items were missing. It was the most extensive theft from an American library in at least a century”
“In short, he took nearly everything he could get his hands on. And he did it with impunity for close to 25 years.”
““Once a plump book filled with plates,” she would recall, “the sides had caved in on themselves.” All those stunning illustrations had been cut from the binding.”
“Just about the only thing that keeps an insider from stealing from special collections is conscience.”
“Schulman found another way to ready a stolen book for sale. Using materials he kept at his store, whenever he got a Carnegie book from Priore, he or one of his employees pressed small red stamp, bright as lipstick, on the bottom of the bookplate. It pronounced the book “Withdrawn from Library.”
Lightning Round
Sarah Kuta
Has a waltz written by composer Frederic Chopin been discovered in an NYC museum?
By PHILIP MARCELO and JOHN MINCHILLO
Researchers discover nearly 200-year-old message in a bottle: 'Absolutely magic moment'
Brie Stimson
Thanks again! And coming up in February, something entirely different: Beauty. We will talk then! Stay Warm!
Claude