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The December 2012 issue of Chess Life has a six-page article on the John G. White Chess Collection at the Cleveland Public Library (CPL). It is the largest in the world comprising 32,500 volumes of books and serials, including more than 6,300 volumes of bound periodicals.
It has unique material in manuscript, correspondence and ephemera as well. There are displays of rare and unusual chess sets, Bobby Fischer’s score sheets from the Siegen Olympics and unsorted boxes of personal papers from Morphy’s biographer, David Lawson, GM Laszlo Szabo and the notorious Claude F. Bloodgood, among others.
I visited the Collection almost twenty years ago. At the time I was interested in composed endgame study books and wanted to look at some I thought I would never own – Sehwers, the Platov brothers and Selesniev. This, of course, was before you could buy books online. I also wanted to consult some old periodicals and books about the Euwe-Alekhine matches.
First I went to the City of Toronto Central Reference Library and consulted the two-volume set it had of the J.G. White Collection [see notes on the auction, below]. I found a lot of wonderful stuff I wanted to see. Then I sent the list off to the CPL and told them when I would be coming.
I had promised my young son a vacation together and for two days with the Collection I would give him two days at the Cedar Point Amusement Park in nearby Sandusky, Ohio.
In the library everything was ready for me. The books I could Xerox were limited and I had to have rolls of dimes to use the photocopy machine. You must wear teeny cotton gloves to handle the delicate material. My son was made welcome in the Children’s Department while I labored away like a galley slave down the hall.
Now I would look everything up on the Internet and come with a microfilm camera, if this were allowed, and give myself five days. There was just too much to fit into the short time I allotted.
My son had a wonderful time on the roller coasters at the Park. I remember, in particular, the Gemini, in which two trains go down the tracks parallel to each other. I think he said you could reach out and touch the hand of a guy in the other train!
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There is a chess book auction coming up in Goteborg, Sweden on March 24, 2013. The catalogue with suggested minimum prices in Swedish Kronor (SEK) and the terms and conditions can be downloaded as Word documents at:
http://www.ssmanhem.se/aktiviteter/bokauktion.php#eng
It is interesting to see what prices books are getting these days. 100 kronor are worth about $16 Canadian.
The three most interesting offerings are:
1. Public Library. John G White Dept., Catalog of the Chess Collection, vol I: Authors + vol II: Subjects, ca 15.000 cards repr., Folio, original bound, good condition, Boston 1964 seldom/selten – min. bid 3900 SEK
2. Autograph and Guestbook of the chess book store Skakhuset 1952 -1974, 286 p, hardcover. A gallery of well-known chess profiles, World Champions etc. having visiting this legendary shop in the centre of Copenhagen. Personal signatures by a. o.: Bobby Fischer 1962, 1968 – Bent Larsen 1953, 1956 (clip) Tigran Petrosian 1960 – Vassilij Smyslov 1974 – David Bronstein 1974 – Mikhail Tal 1957 – Boris Spasskij 1957 – Lothar Schmid 1965 etc etc - min bid 4900 SEK
3. David DeLucia's Bobby Fischer Uncensored, 394 p, excellent hc, mint copy, Lim. ed 130, This book one of the very last for sale, numerous reproductions of Fischer letters, hundred of photos, game scores (some not previously published), many letters... Darien, 2009 - min bid 3200 SEK
The first item is rarely offered for sale and the second is unique. It will be interesting to see what prices these items finally get.
It has unique material in manuscript, correspondence and ephemera as well. There are displays of rare and unusual chess sets, Bobby Fischer’s score sheets from the Siegen Olympics and unsorted boxes of personal papers from Morphy’s biographer, David Lawson, GM Laszlo Szabo and the notorious Claude F. Bloodgood, among others.
I visited the Collection almost twenty years ago. At the time I was interested in composed endgame study books and wanted to look at some I thought I would never own – Sehwers, the Platov brothers and Selesniev. This, of course, was before you could buy books online. I also wanted to consult some old periodicals and books about the Euwe-Alekhine matches.
First I went to the City of Toronto Central Reference Library and consulted the two-volume set it had of the J.G. White Collection [see notes on the auction, below]. I found a lot of wonderful stuff I wanted to see. Then I sent the list off to the CPL and told them when I would be coming.
I had promised my young son a vacation together and for two days with the Collection I would give him two days at the Cedar Point Amusement Park in nearby Sandusky, Ohio.
In the library everything was ready for me. The books I could Xerox were limited and I had to have rolls of dimes to use the photocopy machine. You must wear teeny cotton gloves to handle the delicate material. My son was made welcome in the Children’s Department while I labored away like a galley slave down the hall.
Now I would look everything up on the Internet and come with a microfilm camera, if this were allowed, and give myself five days. There was just too much to fit into the short time I allotted.
My son had a wonderful time on the roller coasters at the Park. I remember, in particular, the Gemini, in which two trains go down the tracks parallel to each other. I think he said you could reach out and touch the hand of a guy in the other train!
++++
There is a chess book auction coming up in Goteborg, Sweden on March 24, 2013. The catalogue with suggested minimum prices in Swedish Kronor (SEK) and the terms and conditions can be downloaded as Word documents at:
http://www.ssmanhem.se/aktiviteter/bokauktion.php#eng
It is interesting to see what prices books are getting these days. 100 kronor are worth about $16 Canadian.
The three most interesting offerings are:
1. Public Library. John G White Dept., Catalog of the Chess Collection, vol I: Authors + vol II: Subjects, ca 15.000 cards repr., Folio, original bound, good condition, Boston 1964 seldom/selten – min. bid 3900 SEK
2. Autograph and Guestbook of the chess book store Skakhuset 1952 -1974, 286 p, hardcover. A gallery of well-known chess profiles, World Champions etc. having visiting this legendary shop in the centre of Copenhagen. Personal signatures by a. o.: Bobby Fischer 1962, 1968 – Bent Larsen 1953, 1956 (clip) Tigran Petrosian 1960 – Vassilij Smyslov 1974 – David Bronstein 1974 – Mikhail Tal 1957 – Boris Spasskij 1957 – Lothar Schmid 1965 etc etc - min bid 4900 SEK
3. David DeLucia's Bobby Fischer Uncensored, 394 p, excellent hc, mint copy, Lim. ed 130, This book one of the very last for sale, numerous reproductions of Fischer letters, hundred of photos, game scores (some not previously published), many letters... Darien, 2009 - min bid 3200 SEK
The first item is rarely offered for sale and the second is unique. It will be interesting to see what prices these items finally get.
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