Alfred F. Goldsmith: Letters to Edward Naumburg, Jr., 1930-1945

RLIN ID No.
NYGG01-A39

Main Entry
Goldsmith, Alfred F.

Title
Letters to Edward Naumburg, Jr., 1930-1945, and associated items.

Physical Description
1 box (.25 linear ft.)
Letters (120 items)
27 photographs

General Note
Catalogs issued by Alfred F. Goldsmith and collected by Edward Naumburg form part of the Grolier Club collection of antiquarian booksellers’ catalogs.

Scope and Contents Note
One hundred and twenty letters written by antiquarian bookseller Alfred Francis Goldsmith to collector Edward Naumburg, Jr. between 1930 and 1945. Many of the letters are illustrated with drawings by Goldsmith which pertain to his business or authors and items under consideration. A few of the items are drawings only. Collection includes presentation copy of Concise Bibliography of Walt Whitman by Carolyn Wells and Alfred F. Goldsmith, signed by both authors. Also newspaper articles and New York Times obituary of Alfred F. Goldsmith and photographs of Goldsmith, his wife, and their shop. Also two copies of bookplate used by Goldsmith’s wife Rae for her cookbook collection.

Historical/Biographical Note
Alfred Francis Goldsmith was born in Atlantic City, N.J. about 1881 and studied at the University of Pennsylviania. He opened his shop “At the Sign of the Sparrow” in the Gramercy Park area of New York City in the early 1920s. His own primary interests were in Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman. He helped Carolyn Wells acquire her major collection of Whitmaniana, which she later left to the Library of Congress. Their descriptive bibliography of the works of Whitman appeared in 1922. Wells later used Goldsmith’s shop as the scene of her mystery, Murder in the Bookshop (1936). Goldsmith died in July 1947.

Goldsmith helped Edward Naumburg, a New York City stockbroker, pursue his interests in writers of the 1920s, the work of Ford Madox Ford, and unusual association and non-book items. Naumburg was a member of a family that established the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in 1905. A graduate of Princeton University, Naumburg was an accomplished violinist and a member of the Grolier Club and the Century Association. He died in 1995 at the age of 92.

Finding Aid Note
Inventory available in repository.

Publication Based on Collection
Edward Naumburg. “My favorite bookseller.” Princeton Library Gazette, 48, n. 2 (Winter 1987), 181-90.
.
Names
Goldsmith, Alfred. Concise bibliography of Walt Whitman. 1922.
Goldsmith, Alfred. Correspondence.
Matthiessen, F. O. (Francis Otto), 1902-1950.
Naumburg, Edward, d. 1995.
Traubel, Anne Montgomerie, 1864-1954. Correspondence.
Wells, Carolyn, d. 1942. Concise bibliography of Walt Whitman. 1922.

Subjects
Antiquarian booksellers. New York (State). New York. Correspondence.

Genre
Bookplates, American. New York (State). New York.
Drawings.
Photographs.

Occupation (as reflected in collection)
Antiquarian booksellers. New York (State). New York.

Location
Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1098.


Alfred Francis Goldsmith: Inventory of Collection

Correspondence
Letters to Edward Naumburg, Jr. 120 ALS written between 1930 and 1945.
Dated letters Folder 1: 1930-1942 (30 items)
Folder 2: 1943-1945 (22 items)
Undated letters 1 folder (date range is the same) (68 items)
[Many of the letters are illustrated with drawings by AFG. Some are colored. Files include a few drawings
without text.]

Letters to Edward Naumburg, Jr. from other correspondents:
Maggs Bros. (London) to EN. 1 TLS 23 August 1937 (1 p.). Re: search for copy of Love Letters
of Charlotte Bronte.
F. O. Matthiessen to EN. 1 ALS 19 October ? (3 p.) Re: letter by Theodore Drieser.
Anne Traubel to EN. 1 ALS 16 June 1949 (3 p.) Discusses photograph of Whitman’s birthplace.

Photographs
Alfred F. Goldsmith and his wife in their bookshop. 6 images. 9 bxw photographs. 20x25 cm., etc.
AFG looking at a book in his shop. 1 image. 8 bxw photographs. 9x15 cm.
Miscellaneous photographs of the Goldsmiths, etc. 6 images. 10 photographs. 20x25 cm., etc.
[All photographs are undated]

Associated Items
Naumburg, Edward. “My Favorite Bookseller.” Princeton Library Gazette, 48, n. 2 (Winter 1987),
181-90.
Obituary and newspaper article about AFG.
Carolyn Wells and Alfred F. Goldsmith. A Concise Bibliography of Walt Whitman. Boston and New
York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1922. [Presentation copy by the authors to Edward Naumburg[
Two copies of bookplate used by Rae Goldsmith (Mrs. Alfred F. Goldsmith) for her cookbook collection.