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User:Jveazue/sandbox/Walter Hart Blumenthal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Hart Blumenthal (1883-1969) was an American Jewish author, book-collector, and bookseller.

Life

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Walter Hart Blumenthal was born in Clinton, Iowa on 9 February 1883 to Ida Rawich and Hart Blumenthal (1859-1941), a noted book-collector and scholar of Lincolniana[1]. Walter Hart Blumenthal graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and later with a PhD from the University of Halle, Germany in 1904[2]. W. H. Blumenthal married Claudine Eleanore Brown in Mobile, Alabama on 29 January 1919.[3]

After moving to Philadelphia, Blumenthal served as literary editor for the New Jewish Encyclopedia and later served as the associate editor of American Hebrew magazine (also known as The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger) from 1921- 1936. He was a prolific writer during this time, authoring essays, articles, and publications in a wide-variety of topics including American History, sexuality, and etymology. Along with the publications of his own titles, W. H. Blumenthal was the editor of several others' works, including an encyclopedia of quotations, a historical account of the Russo-Japanese war, and as revision editor for the 10-volume set ‘Universal Encyclopedia’ and the ‘Standard Jewish Encyclopedia.’ Due to his expertise in the literary world, he also found later success as an antiquarian book dealer in New York and Philadelphia in the 1930s.

During World War I, Blumenthal was Chief Librarian at the Camp Green Library in Charlotte North Carolina.[4]

Walter Hart Blumenthal died in Philadelphia in 1969.

Published Works

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Blumenthal is the author of more than 30 books, as well as numerous published newspaper articles and magazine essays, all focusing on wildly varying subjects ranging from word origins, to women of the American Revolution, book bindings, book histories, and the plight of the American Indian.


  • In Old America: Random Chapters on the Early Aborigines (1931)
  • The Bouquet of Old Books (1937)
  • Rendezvous with Chance (1954)
  • American Indians Dispossessed: Fraud in Land Cessions Forced Upon the Tribes - A Recital based on Documentary Sources (1955)
  • Filigree Lettering (1957)
  • The Mermaid Myth: Shakespeare Not Among Those Present (1959)
  • Bookmen's Trio (1961)
  • A Charm of Books (1961)
  • American Panorama: Patter of the Past and Womanhood in its Unfolding (1962)
  • Eccentric Typography and other Diversions in the Graphic Arts (1963)
  • Shakespeare: Veneration versus Verity (1963)
  • Franklin Sampler: A Garner for the Mind's Delight (1964)
  • The Pepper Shaker (1964)
  • Wise and Otherwise: A Grave and Gay Garner [At the Sign of the Jaded Jester] (1965)
  • False Literary Attributions (1965)
  • The Jaded Jester (1965)
  • Heaven and Hades (1965)
  • Imaginary Books and Phantom Libraries (1966)
  • A Dime a Dozen (1967)
  • Whirligig (1967)

Professional Memberships

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  • American Association for Advancement of Science
  • American Bibliographical Society
  • New York Historical Society
  • Pennsylvania Historical Society
  • Philadelphia Chapter of the American Council for Judaism
  • Society of American Folklore
  • Society of American Indians


References

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