Before Andy Ansel goes into the events at Cleveland, Michael
Negele reports on his Fiske research and adds some photos from
his stopover in Iceland (outward flight) and from the visit to the Niagara
Falls / Toronto subsequent to the Cleveland meeting:
Those who remember my contribution THE KING OF COLLECTORS AND HIS PEERS
in KARL 4/2004 know that I had already dealt there with Daniel
Willard Fiske.
Meanwhile I have succeeded to acquire a number of works published by his
literary executor Horatio S. White and to immerse myself deeper in this
exciting life. You may assign many titles to Fiske: "Book collector,
librarian, linguistic genius, writer, chess player, chess organizer, chess
author, journalist, university professor, unsettled traveler, disputatious
citizen".
Kristín Bragadóttir: Willard Fiske - vinur Íslands
og velgjörðamaður
(Cover verso) |
In the a.m. KARL I wrote (the original quotation is given on
our corresponding German page):
Prof.
Daniel Willard Fiske (*11/11/1831, †17/09/1904 in Frankfurt on the
Main), a man of unusual energy whose life should be outlined briefly.
Due
to his enthusiasm for Nordic legends,
Fiske had studied at Copenhagen and Uppsala in his
very young days and
returned to New York in 1852. He was a real chess enthusiast; so he edited
together with Paul Morphy and later on also with Sam Loyd the “Chess
Monthly” from 1857 to 1860. Arguably it was Fiske’s merit
as well that the "First American Chess Congress New York 1857"
came a reality, the tournament book written by him is a bibliophile tidbit.
Later on Fiske’s interest in chess waned considerably, he travelled
a lot through Europe and allegedly disbanded his (first) extensive collection
of chess literature. (Von der Lasa reported on that in DSZ, April
1864, p.99.)
From 1868 to 1883 he was a lecturer for Nordic languages at the newly
founded Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y., and at the same time he was
recorded as their first librarian. In July 1880 Fiske married the tuberculous
millionaire heiress Jennie McGraw who died barely two years later after
travelling together to Italy. Caused by a seemingly only formal obstacle
in the university statutes, there developed a long lasting acrimonious
legal dispute between the widower and the Cornell University about the
considerable part of her inheritance (about one million US$) that Mrs
McGraw-Fiske had donated to the university.
This for the American dispensation of justice important “last will
case“ was even brought to the Supreme Court of the USA, finally
in 1890 Fiske got his rights. Obviously Fiske hadn’t been able at
that time to agree with two trustees of the university about certain terms
of use regarding the library building which had to be newly set up. The
positions had rapidly hardened as in the legacy case Fiske felt inadequately
informed (and deceived) by the executors and trustees, subsequently he
insisted on a passage in the inheritance law of the New York State which
prohibited that more than 50% of a heritage could devolve on charitable
objectives.
In conflict with the Cornell University, already in 1883 the excellent
Dante expert Fiske had gone to Italy near Florence to pursue his research
there. Again he built up a large chess library which he later donated
to the Icelandic national library (Landsbokasafn) at Reykjavík.
1901-02 he published a chess magazine in Icelandic (I Uppnami = En prise),
1905 his work “Chess in Iceland” was posthumously published.
But Fiske bequeathed the Cornell University his great Dante collection
(7000 volumes) together with his remaining library (10000 titles on Iceland,
1200 volumes of Rhaeto-Romanic literature, more than 3500 volumes on Petrarca)
as well as a considerable estate (about 500 000 US$); apparently Fiske’s
grudge had passed after more than 20 years.
My
companion
Bob van de Velde
at the Icelandic airport Keflavík. |
This
time I got myself in the right mood, so to speak, with a short visit to
Iceland (Unfortunately there was no time to make a detour to Reykjavík
which is about 50 km away from the airport Keflavík.) in order to
immerse myself particularly in the mystery of the so-called Rou(x) manuscript
afterwards at the Cleveland Public Library. For a "Hunter of the lost
books" this manuscript – allegedly written in 1734 – would
of course be a special tidbit, but maybe Fiske has actually "invented"
it as the Messrs. Eugene B. Cook, John G. White and John Keeble persistently
affirmed. You can learn more about that from my presentation, and in the
CPL you will find the reasoning (from 1925) elaborated handwritten by John
Keeble why such a manuscript couldn’t have existed. J.G. White's letter
to Keeble (dated March 1926) is linked in the following: page
1 / page
2.
Michael Negele’s presentation at our general meeting: Daniel
Willard Fiske - An American Pioneer of Chess Book Collecting (PDF, in
the member section; 5.5 MB)
But not only about Daniel Willard Fiske, also about Emanuel Lasker as well
as about another "lost book" I found new, up to now undiscovered
material in this treasure trove for each chess researcher.
Michael
Negele between Icelandic lumps of rock. |
Card
of Iceland - click to enlarge! |
From
Cleveland I went via Toronto to Niagara Falls, whereby my childhood dream
could came true. Next afternoon I met our member Ken MacDonald in the Canadian
metropolis on Lake Ontario – what more could I expect?
Michael Negele
Three
KWA members who managed to reach the Niagara Falls
some days prior to me. |
View
from the Sheraton Hotel, the Niagara Falls in the background. |
|
