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Bookplate Index by Library or Collector |
Nat Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor, San Francisco Public Library A jester figured on
a bookplate would suggest books of a merry disposition, and a jester is
just what the San Francisco Public Library has provided for the 3 1/2- by
4 1/2-inch bookplate of the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor. Nat
Schmulowitz (1889–1966), attorney and bibliophile, initiated this
collection for the library on an appropriate date, 1 April 1947, by
donating 93 books from his personal collection of literature on humor,
wit, jest, anecdote, and the psychology of laughter, wit, and humor. He
also donated $500, a tidy sum then, to the library for the development of
the collection, but his own fascination with the books kept him adding to
it himself. Frances K. Langpaap, retired head of cataloging, wrote in her
reminiscences of Schmulowitz that she recalled him saying "It's a
disease! My spare moments are completely filled with reading catalogues
and sending orders. It's a wonderful, wonderful disease!" He bought
books, pamphlets, and journals from dealers all over the world; a
comprehensive collection was his goal. The Catalog of
the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor, published in 1962, listed
11,200 titles, and the 1977 Supplement One added 3,100 more. These
two catalogs record several centuries of intriguing titles such as Anecdotes
of the Learned Pig or Earthworms Through the Ages as well as
titles clearly related to the 1990s, such as A Skeptic's Political
Dictionary and Handbook for the Disenchanted. The Schmulowitz
Collection contains many titles relating to Nat Schmulowitz's own
profession, such as The Lawyer in History, Literature, and Humor. A
practicing lawyer in San Francisco, Schmulowitz specialized in probate and
corporate law. Nevertheless, his most famous case was probably the
successful defense of Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle, the famous movie
comedian, for the murder of a movie starlet. Schmulowitz published in
legal journals, and was a highly successful lawyer, but humor prevailed,
even in the naming of his country home, "Smilin Thru," in Saratoga,
California. In 1963 William L.
Ramirez, then Principal Librarian of the Department of Rare Books and
Special Collections, wrote that Schmulowitz edited and published five
volumes of Anecdota SCOWAH, the American Journal of World Folklore,
in addition to his legal writings and presentations.[i]
The five volumes of Anecdota
SCOWAH are historical studies on humor published as keepsakes for
Roxburghe Club members. The first issue, published in a run of 250 by the
Grabhorn Press, featured epitaphs. The text of one of the more subtle
pieces of humor reads: Here lies Jane
Smith, Wife of Thomas Smith, Marble Cutter. This monument was erected by
her husband as a tribute to her memory and a specimen of his work.
Monuments of this same style are two hundred and fifty dollars. Schmulowitz was an
active library supporter even before he donated his humor books. He was a
member of the Library Commission of San Francisco for seven years and its
president in 1944. He spoke about the Friends of the Library for the
California Library Association and again in 1951 about his own collection.
On 30 November 1950, when the San Francisco Public Library opened a
special room to house the wit and humor collection, Schmulowitz spoke
about his decision to present his books to the library. I reflected upon
the fun and pleasure which had been experienced in the acquisition of
these jest books, and how selfish it was to keep them in a home library .
. . How much better it would be if the whole community could somehow enjoy
these books. Although
he appears solemn in photographs in the collection archives, Schmulowitz
clearly had a delightful sense of the droll because he went on to relate
how he dozed off and found his room swarming with books—one of which
spoke to him. The books insisted on speaking for themselves at the
dedication ceremony. Schmulowitz said, Suddenly, there was
a commotion. Prefaces, title pages, tables of contents, indexes, leaves
and gag-lines seemed to be floating through the air, accompanied by
laughter in all of its infinite varieties, and then suddenly they seemed
to coalesce into the jest books from which they had come. He
reports that he awoke to find that the books had left him with "an
unusual manuscript," a message in their handwriting. This message about
the value of books and humor he proceeded to share with his audience that
day. Apparently others
found the books unruly, too, for shortly after that dedication ceremony an
18 December radio broadcast of "This is San Francisco" highlighted the
difficulty of housing humor books in a public library with No Silence
rules! At his death in
1966, Nat Schmulowitz endowed the collection's acquisitions fund. His
sister Kay Schmulowitz continued to support the collection during her
lifetime and gave an additional endowment at her death. The wit and humor
collection currently has over 20,000 volumes, spans four centuries, and
now includes the twentieth century. Its books are written in over
thirty-five languages and dialects. It is also part of the San Francisco
Public Library's Book Arts & Special Collections Center, formed in
1964. The Center continues to grow and provide an important research
center for a number of special collections, large and small. Among these
is the 9,000-volume collection on the history of books and printing which
was initiated with the gift of the personal collection of the noted
printer Robert Grabhorn, the 800 examples of modern calligraphy in the
Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy and Lettering, and the 250
volumes of Anthony Boucher's Sherlock Holmes collection. The Center's
collections all provide remarkable resources. However, only the
Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor can proclaim with a grin that
stand-up comedians consulting the collection for material are among its
"researchers." Judith
A. Overmier, University of Oklahoma Notes
[Originally published in Libraries & Culture, vol. 34, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 175-177.] |
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