Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Two Great Bookmen

Some sad pieces of book-related news to report:

- Bibliophile Helmut N. Friedlaender, 95, died last Tuesday in Yarmouth, ME. A lawyer and financial advisor, Friedlaender assembled a well-known collection of early printed books and illuminated manuscripts which sold at Christie's in 2001. The NYTimes obituary notes that when books from Freidlaender's collection returned to the market after his auction, he often bought them again, and he had begun collecting Baedeker travel guides in recent years. Friedlaender was also known as a friend and patron of many bibliographic projects, including the publication of the Bodleian Library's six-volume catalog of incunabula.

- Librarian and bibliographer Thomas R. Adams died on Sunday at his home in Providence, RI. Adams was the librarian of the John Carter Brown library from 1957-1982. He wrote many books, including American independence: the growth of an idea; a bibliographical study of the American political pamphlets printed between 1764 and 1776 dealing with the dispute between Great Britain and her colonies (1965), Bibliotheca Americana: a merry maze of changing concepts (1969), The American Controversy: A Bibliographical Study of
the British Pamphlets about the American Disputes, 1764–1783
(1980) and several studies of the great scholar-librarian George Parker Winship. Full obituary in the Providence Journal.

Thanks to Terry Belanger and Everett Wilkie for passing along the news.