A Memoir of My Library by Salo Wittmayer Baron

by jewishbooks · September 17, 2015

Of Many Generations: Judaica and Hebraica from the Taube/Baron Collection by David L. Langenberg

The great 20th-century scholar remembers a life among books

Independently I continue to collect books for myself, after losing most of the books I had assembled before World War I during the brief Russian occupation of Tarnov in 1914. I succeeded in assembling a presentable collection on my shelves in New York after I became established there as a teacher at the JIR and at Columbia. Since I regularly spent my vacations in Europe, I maintained my apartment in Vienna for several years. This arrangement facilitated the shipment of most of my Viennese books to New York. At the same time I attended a few books auctions in Berlin, Paris, and London as well as in New York. For a number of years I also had an account at Sotheby’s in London. I thus accumulated a sizable number of rare and other desirable publications. In addition to my own purchases, I received birthday and other gifts from family and friends.

Read full excerpt at Tablet Magazine

From: Of Many Generations: Judaica and Hebraica from the Taube/Baron Collection by David L. Langenberg