Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach

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Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach abbreviated: ASW Rosenbach (* July 22, 1876 , † July 1, 1952 in Philadelphia ) was an American antiquarian and bibliophile .

Life

Abraham was the youngest of eight children of Morris Rosenbach (May 14, 1820– May 8, 1885) and Isabella H. Polock (November 26, 1834– July 25, 1906), who married on November 11, 1857. As a child, Abraham spent a lot of time in the workshop of his maternal uncle, Moses Polock (May 14, 1817– August 16, 1903), a well-known and slightly eccentric antiquarian. Polock ran a second-hand bookshop on 406 Commerce Street in Philadelphia. Abraham started collecting when he went to the University of Pennsylvania . He then founded his own second-hand bookshop "Rosenbach" and built up the holdings of the Huntington Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library . He also worked for private clients such as JP Morgan , Lessing Julius Rosenwald , and Harry Elkins Widener . He published several articles and books to increase interest in rare books and manuscripts. Rosenbach was instrumental in popularizing and collecting American literature at a time when European literature was almost exclusively used as antiquarian collector's items. He spread the idea of ​​book collecting as an investment and investment.

Since 1928 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society .

Collectors and patrons

Together with his brother and business partner Philip Hyman Rosenbach (September 29, 1863– March 5, 1953), he founded the Rosenbach Museum & Library . In 1954 it passed to the state through a willing gift. He lived from 1926 to 1952 in Philadelphia on Delancey Place in house no. 2006, which is also near the museum (no. 2010). He was a collector and scholar who turned his passion for books and manuscripts into a successful business led, and became a dealer of rare books and manuscripts in the first half of the 20th century. He helped build some of the most important private collections and always urged them to be made public. Rosenbach received many treasures for his own collection, such as the Ulysses manuscript from James Joyce and the earliest known letter from George Washington .

Works (english)

  • The Unpublishable Memoirs. Casle, London 1924.
  • An American Jewish Bibliography, Being a List of Books and Pamphlets by Jews or Relating to Them. Printed in the United States from the Establishment of the Press in the Colonies Until 1850. Mansfield Center, Martino 1929; Reprinted in 1999.
  • Early American Children's Books. With Bibliographical Descriptions of the Books in the Private Collection . Southworth Press, Portland (Maine) 1933.
  • A Book Hunter's Holiday. Adventures with Books and Manuscripts. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936.

Web links

literature

  • Edwin Wolf II .: Rosenbach. A biography. 1960.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member History: ASW Rosenbach. American Philosophical Society, accessed January 26, 2019 .
  2. ^ History on the website of the Rosenbach Museum & Library
personal data
SURNAME Rosenbach, Abraham Simon Wolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosenbach, ASW (abbreviated)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American book antiquarian and bibliophile
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1876
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1952
Place of death Philadelphia