BENJAMIN TIGHE, BOOK SCOUT, 1895-1975 in Two Parts an Account of His Life, with His Memoirs Introduced and Edited by Marcus A
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BENJAMIN TIGHE, BOOK SCOUT, 1895-1975 In Two Parts An Account of His Life, With His Memoirs Introduced and Edited by Marcus A. McCorison Part I, A Brief Biography I. R. (Ike) Brussel of Brooklyn, New York, Island, on November 7, 1895, the son of Joseph and was not, as he billed himself, L.O.G.S., “Last of the Mary (Schlansky) Tighe. 1 The family moved to Mill- Great Scouts,” although he certainly was a represen - ville, Massachusetts, where, according to Ben, he tative of an endangered species, the denizens in a cor - played baseball with Gabby Hartnett, later the great ner of the American used and rare book trade. Brussel catcher of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. If so, the and his fellows were book hyperbolizing Ben must have scouts—energetically peri - been athletically precocious patetic, invariably intelligent, because he left home at the age sometimes only rudely educated. of fourteen. He was precocious These men (and sometimes otherwise also, reporting that women) were driven by curiosity he began to collect books at the and an inextinguishable passion age of twelve – among them for gathering up printed matter. Gibbon’s Decline and fall of They scoured second-hand the Roman empire, which he shops, charity stores, yard and read in its entirety, and the rummage sales, local auctions, Genuine works of Flavius flea markets, and library duplicate shelves in their Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian. hunt for the saleable, (and the sometime unusual or Benny arrived in Worcester in 1912. He important) book, manuscript, or print. Their efforts earned his living as a sign painter for the city’s three brought to light materials that could produce new his - Fox-Poli theaters, his shop being located at the Palace torical insights or bring delight to the minds and the Theater. Although he claimed to be a “collector,” not eyes of collectors. a dealer, by 1919 Ben was scouting seriously for Benjamin Tighe, book scout of Worcester and books and a revealing event in 1927 surely would Athol, Massachusetts, was a member of that all-but- have encouraged him to continue. In response to one extinct, if not obliterated by the Internet, circle. By of his advertisements, Ben located in rural western incessant laboring in his far-ranging vineyard, Benny Massachusetts a mint lot of at least fifty books printed Tighe successfully picked the fruit of it while actively for children. Some had been issued by Isaiah Thomas, patrolling its borders to suppress poachers. Like his printer of Worcester, in 1786 to 1788. 2 To continue New England successors of the final generation, Ken - the fiction of “collector,” Benny stated he had given neth Leach of Brattleboro, Vermont, Douglas Harding the books to the Society. He had not. He had merely of Wells, Maine, and Matthew Needle of Newbury - informed Clarence Brigham, the Society’s librarian, port, Massachusetts, Benny was constantly on the of their existence in Oakham, Massachusetts. This road pursuing books, manuscripts, and ephemera; es - coup led a local newspaper gossip columnist in “The tablishing contacts, following leads, and making Worcestershire Sauce” to call Ben, “Truly a man of deals. letters who knows his books.” Benjamin Tighe (the Irish family name came The subject of a 1933 feature article in the by some mischance) was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Worcester Telegram, Tighe, who was still painting theater signs, insisted he was not a dealer. The inter - fair dealing. Even so, a bookseller told me he once viewer wrote that “many years in one of the most fas - called on Benny. Ben chattered away so long about cinating hobbies has given [Ben] an encyclopedic children’s books the listener was driven to distraction store of information about and never returned, despite books and their makers all the presence of a stock of through the history of good, saleable books. Ben them.” Described as, “short told me he once took some and dark and quick of move - material to show to the im - ment,… he tells us he is ‘one peccable and imperious of God’s chosen people.’ Philip Hofer of the [That is true, he was!] He’s Houghton Library at Har - witty and a ready conversa - vard. Hofer threw him out of tionalist — particularly if his office. It was a mistake. you get him started on the Hofer would never know subject of books. Mr. what he lost for Harvard’s Tighe’s main interests as a graphic arts collections be - collector have been in cause of his impatience. Americana … including Ben’s selling technique was New England primers, and direct when a price was in he acquired a considerable dispute – slamming a $5.00 and valuable collection Worcester Telegram, April 16, 1933 bill down on the desk he which he ‘gave’ [quotation would say, “If you know marks added] to the American Antiquarian Society.” more about this book than I do, take the money or His “finds” included a title by Cotton Mather in its take the book at my price!” Members of the trade who first edition that found its way to Cleveland, Ohio, to knew him continue to hold him in high regard. Henry William Gwinn Mather (now at the library of the Uni - Hurley, in Westmoreland, N.H., recalls Ben as “a versity of Virginia); a 1752 pamphlet proposing the great character; bigger than life, and of real help to establishment of King’s College (now Columbia Uni - beginning booksellers,” including himself. Matthew versity), and a foundation document of our republic, Needle of Newburyport, who began business in 1969, The Federalist (New York, 1788), as well as curious thinks of Benny in only good terms, as honest and works on religious cults, and American history. The generous. Like Hurley, Ben helped Needle in the remainder of the article was about lost opportunities early days by giving Matt his list of librarian cus - — the best books in a lot had been burned; others had tomers. Benny dealt with many New England dealers, been thrown down an old well. [Illus.] Once he com - now gone to a better place – George Gloss of the missioned a junk dealer to collect books printed be - Brattle Book Shop in Boston; John Walsh, another fore the year 1821. The junk man and his accomplices scout; Steven Rasamas of Spencer, Mass.; Sam Mor - thereupon accumulated a huge weight of them to be rill of Edward Morrell & Son; Ephraim’s Book Store sold to Ben for $1.00 a pound. The lot proved to be in Worcester; Arnold Silverman who unerringly as - exactly junk which Benny declined to buy. The irrate sessed Goodspeed’s incoming stock at its Milk Street junk men then declared Benny to be a “fakir”! 3 Branch, Sam Murray of Wilbraham, Mass. 4 Those at In 1938 Ben Tighe gave up sign painting. No a distance such as Richard Mohr at International longer a “collector,” in his new work he became an - Book Finders in Beverly Hills, and Roger Butterfield other kind of artist. Benny Tighe was often crude and of Hartwick, N.Y., did not have to suffer Benny’s one- loud, talked incessantly, and told bad jokes. Those liners, such as the one in which Benny would ask his factors could disguise his better qualities of intelli - auditor to namethe famous person who had originated gence, remarkable memory, generosity, and loyalty. the profound-sounding aphorism, just uttered by Ben. He earned a well deserved reputation for honesty and When the aditor could not respond, Ben triumphantly – 2 – said, “I did!” It was a hard life dealing with Benny Canner & Co. I was seventeen or eighteen. Ben had Tighe! a pile of Elbert Hubbard’s Roycroft Press books on a According to Benny, a book scout’s life also shelf. I went through them and found a copy of was hard. He described the skills needed to achieve Lyman Goff’s An 1862 trip to the west (Pawtucket, success. “A feller has to be a diplomat, and a sales - R.I.: Boys Club Press, 1926). I bought it for $10, less man, and an optimist, and a stoic all in one…. He has discount, and sold it for $1,000. That was over 50 to be hardened to rebuffs and persistent in following years ago!” Charles B. Wood, expert in antiquarian all scents. He gets into uncomfortable and even fright - architectural books, visited Benny and found “a copy ening situations.… It’s a sort of a game, this quest for of The rules of work, of the carpenters in the Town of books. You buy a book in Worcester and the woman Boston. (Boston: Samuel Etheridge, 1800). It is a very who sells it tells a friend in Old Lyme, Connecticut. scarce book. Benny knew exactly what the book was. The word spreads and soon you have a regular list.” 5 He was a bookseller’s bookseller.” Stephen Foster’s He was on the road constantly, driving an estimated first published song, one of the great rarities of Amer - 50,000 miles a year (in a very large Lincoln Conti - ican published music, appeared in 1844 bearing the nental, once he could afford more than basic trans - unfortunate title of “Open Thy Lattice, Love.” The portation) in pursuit of his quarry. On annual, winter score was there in Benny’s safe when the visiting automobile trips with Mrs. Tighe to Florida, 6 he de - Roger Stoddard, then Curator of the Harris Collection veloped a series of regular visitations to antique or of American Poetry and Plays at Brown’s John Hay secondhand dealers who would hold material for him, Library, snatched it out and put it in the University’s awaiting his next visit.