Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2006 Issue
Some Varied "Newe Arryvals" From Between The Covers Rare Books
Class of '44 signer Herman Raucher and classmates.
If George W. Bush wrote a book, would he call it Whither Bound? Probably not, but that was the title of Franklin Roosevelt's first book. Just one of many differences between the two presidents. It was actually a lecture he gave at the Milton Academy in 1926, while Roosevelt was recovering from paralysis and contemplating a return to public office. In it Roosevelt deals with the issue of positive advancements in technology versus the loss of traditional ways of life. It is a question every generation faces, and one that only grows in intensity as technology advances at an ever faster pace. We could use Roosevelt's insights on computers and the internet, but he was speaking about electricity and the telephone. Item 49. $175.
Moe Berg was an odd, mysterious, yet quintessentially American character from the first half of the 20th century. Born in New York of parents of very modest means, Berg had a remarkable mind to go along with his mysterious ways. Berg would graduate from Princeton and Columbia Law School, spoke seven languages, and became a sensation with his success on a late 1930s radio quiz show. Berg was also a major league baseball player, playing on several teams during the 1920s and 1930s. His linguistic fluency led to the famous quote about him, that he could speak seven languages "and can't hit in any of them." However, his adequate fielding ability, particularly at catcher, enabled him to have a long career, though through most of it he bounced around from team to team, regularly being cut. He was selected for a couple of major league tours of Japan, more likely because of his language than his hitting prowess, and on one of them, he took movies of Tokyo and its harbor from the top of a tall building. He would screen these movies for the military during the war to assist their planning for bombing raids, and would then work for the government as a spy. He was evidently very helpful, as he would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor, which he refused, but his sister accepted on his behalf after his death. He apparently was less successful as a spy after the war, and ended up spending the last two decades of his life living with relatives and doing little else. Berg died in 1972. Item 94 is Berg's personal copy, with his stamp, of Isaac Taylor's The Origin of the Aryans, published in 1890. It is signed "E. Berg," evidently Moe's sister Ethyl, with whom he lived during the final years of his life. $950.
The website for Between The Cover Rare Books is www.betweenthecovers.com, phone number 856-665-2284.
