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Helmut N. Friedlaender (right), with Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library. (new york times/file 2006) |
Helmut Friedlaender, 95; bibliophilic lawyer with sense of fun
By
William Grimes
New York Times
/
December 19, 2008
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NEW YORK - Helmut N. Friedlaender, a book-loving lawyer and financial adviser whose quietly assembled collection of early printed books and illuminated manuscripts caused a stir in bibliophilic circles when it went to auction, died Nov. 25 in Yarmouth, Maine. He was 95 and lived in Manhattan.
The death was confirmed by his daughter, Judith.
At a two-day sale in April 2001, Christie's auctioned off most of Dr. Friedlaender's important collection, which he had assembled over 30 years. For friends who thought of him primarily as a lawyer, or as the financial adviser to the philanthropist William Rosenwald, or as a director of
The books and manuscripts sold included one of the first classical texts ever printed, Cicero's "De Officiis" ("On Duties"). Published on vellum in Mainz, Germany, in 1465 by Gutenberg's successors, it fetched $666,000. A 14th-century illuminated manuscript of St. Gregory's "Moralia in Job" ("Commentaries on the Book of Job"), in its original doeskin binding, from Bohemia, went for $248,000.
In all, 559 lots went under the hammer. Some later reappeared on the market, whereupon none other than Dr. Friedlaender snapped them up.
"He would look at them as orphans and say, 'I'm going to take them back and give them a proper home,' " said Nicholas Poole-Wilson, the managing director of the London antiquarian bookshop Bernard Quaritch. "He simply loved old books."
Helmut Nathan Friedlaender was born in 1913 in Berlin, the son of a prominent lawyer, and received a rigorous education that stressed Greek and Latin. In 1933, fearing that Hitler was preparing to seal Germany's borders, he fled to the Netherlands with his sister and made his way to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he received a doctorate in administrative law, writing his thesis on hydroelectric enterprises.
In the 1930s, after learning international arbitrage at a London brokerage, he immigrated to the United States and began a career in investment banking at Abraham & Co. in Manhattan. Unaware of Wall Street ways, he showed up for his job interview in the traditional City of London attire of striped pants, black jacket, gray tie, and a bowler hat, clutching a tightly furled umbrella. As he waited to be summoned by the boss, a small army of clerks gathered to gape and snicker. But he got the job.
During World War II, Dr. Friedlaender worked as an announcer for Voice of America, broadcasting to Europe. In 1944 he became an adviser to Rosenwald.
Rosenwald, whose father was a chairman of
In 1944, he married Ernestine Fried, who died in 1982. In addition to his daughter Judith, of Yarmouth, he leaves another daughter, Jane Lury of Manhattan, and a granddaughter.
As a young man Dr. Friedlaender had collected stamps. In 1970, he began collecting rare books, specializing in incunabula - European books printed before 1501 - and medieval illuminated manuscripts. He also bought rare editions of favorite writers such as Goethe, Kafka, Heine, and Pushkin.
Dr. Friedlaender, a member of the Grolier Club, supported many libraries and book projects. Notably, he helped finance the six-volume, 3,000-page catalog of the incunabula in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.
To the world of rare books Dr. Friedlaender brought a rare commodity: a sense of fun. The big Christie's sale was, as much as anything, a grand party for him and his collection. Before the event he edged several of the catalogs in gold and gave them as presentation copies to friends.
"He enjoyed the theater of seeing his own books sold during his lifetime," Poole-Wilson said.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
