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Caxtonian
February 2005

Ely Liebow
Interviewed by Kathryn R. J. Tutkus

Ely Liebow is listed in the Caxton directory as collecting 18th century English literature, detective fiction, and Yiddish literature. But when asked what he collects, he replies first with, "Holmes...Doyle. I've got a lot of Doyle." But then he admits, "Yiddish, too. It's hard to locate Yiddish books. And 18th Century English literature is how I began. My Ph.D. dissertation was on Henry Fielding. Back then I never thought I'd be collecting first editions of Doyle." Between my calling and our getting together for the interview, Liebow counted his Holmes: it turns out he has more than 70 first editions. Liebow went to the University of Maryland just before WWII. He signed up for the Naval Reserve after his first semester, and soon his academic career was interrupted by three years in the Navy. "I became a medic. I saw two ships: one (full of Marines) that invaded Guam, and one that brought me home. We took care of Marines injured in the fighting at Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. It was MASH with no breaks for commercials." A small monograph, How I Took Guam With My 10cc Syringe, was one outcome. After the war he went to American University to finish his B.A. and then the University of Chicago for his M.A. He went to Rutgers University to pursue a Ph.D. He is now an emeritus professor at Northeastern Illinois University. His wife, Phoebe, is a retired nurse and nurse supervisor. She collects books on medical topics.

Along the way be became interested in Yiddish. "All of a sudden I thought, I'm not doing anything with my Yiddish. My folks spoke Yiddish and English. I grew up listening to Yiddish. I can understand utmostly by ear. I used to teach Yiddish literature courses at Northeastern, and still teach Yiddish at Congregation Solel in Highland Park." Liebow wrote one book: Dr. Joe Bell, Model for Sherlock Holmes (Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1982), and coedited two books on Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. The book on Bell explains another collecting specialty: he has an extensive collection of books on the history of Scottish medicine, as well. He is also working on translating The Hound of the Baskervilles into Yiddish. He vividly recalls Caxtonian Fred Kittle's exhibit at the Newberry, which included one of Joe Bell's early surgical kits. When Liebow started collecting, "it was mostly through the mail. . .mostly from book dealers in England." He joined the Caxton Club in 1983. He found out about it from a conversation with magician Jay Marshall. He also belongs to Sherlock Holmes groups, Hugo's Companions and the Baker Street Irregulars.

Liebow has just lately been reading Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish by Dovid Katz. I asked him if the current surge of interest in Yiddish amongst the younger generation who are becoming Orthodox has anything to do with its rise in popularity as a language to be studied, spoken and collected in book form. "If you become Orthodox, it probably means you haven't been speaking Yiddish all the time. At the end of Katz's book, one of the observations he makes, and it is obviously true, the future of Yiddish is going to be with the Hassidim, the ultra-Orthodox, because they speak it at home, grow up with it. Printed books are still a small part of the Yiddish world." I asked Liebow what were his favorite things in his collection, and he instead replied with one not in his collection: "I can certainly tell you one that got away that I would love to have. Long ago, when I was in Detroit, I saw a first edition of Tom Jones, a little thing, as I recall, but several volumes. It was Henry James' copy with his notes. It was selling for $200. Unfortunately I didn't have anything like that back then. I couldn't buy it but I've thought about it ever since. I can still see it."

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