In more than 30 years with Chicago’s Newberry Library, James W. Wells gained a wide reputation as an authority on the history of printing, typography and calligraphy.
“He was one of the most important rare book specialists in the U.S. from the late 1950s through the 1970s,” said Paul Gehl, the George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books with the Newberry. Gehl said Mr. Wells was known as a real bookman — the term for such a specialist used by those in the field.
“He was in so many ways the epitome of the old-fashioned bookman,” said Alice Schreyer, interim director of the University of Chicago Library. “He had an inexhaustible knowledge and a remarkable memory for every book that ever passed through his hands.”
A bookman looks at the physical characteristics of books, which Schreyer said can include “former ownership, bindings, typefaces — things that distinguish them as physical artifacts as well as conveyors of information. He was just a fount of knowledge.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-james-wells-obituary-met-20140911-story.html
Recent Comments