BENJAMIN TIGHE, BOOK SCOUT, 1895-1975 in Two Parts an Account of His Life, with His Memoirs Introduced and Edited by Marcus A
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.
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