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."