Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
Extent
0.30
Name of creator
Biographical history
Alfred S. Austrian was born in Chicago June 15, 1870, the son of Solomon and Julia Austrian. He was a Harvard graduate, 1891, and was admitted to the bar, Chicago, in 1893. He married Mamie Rothschild October 1, 1901.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Alfred S. Austrian and Paul M. Godehn, both of the Chicago law firm of Mayer, Meyer, Austrian & Platt, corresponded for the purpose of acquiring rare books and manuscripts with many significant and knowledgeable dealers in the trades. The collection consists of letters, telegrams, invoices, etc. exchanged with the major U.S. and U.K. book and manuscript dealers of the period, particularly those of Chicago, New York, and London and extending into the 1930s and 1940s. It is not immediately clear if they were acting for a client, not named, or for themselves. Neither appears among the names of the membership of Chicago’s Caxton Club, a book collectors group. Among the dealer names included in the correspondence, typically with typed letters signed, are Walter Hill, Chicago; A.S.W. Rosenbach, Philadelphia; Thomas Madigan and Walter Benjamin, New York; and Dawson’s and Maggs, U.K.
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Conditions governing access
Physical access
Technical access
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Scripts of the material
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Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Obtained in 1990 from Kenneth Nebenzahl.