Edwin Wolf II (December 6, 1911 – February 20, 1991) was an American librarian and collector who was one of Philadelphia’s most prominent bookmen during the 20th century.

Biography

Education and career

Wolf attended the

William Penn Charter School William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an elite private school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to b ...

in Philadelphia then enrolled at the

Bedales School Bedales School is a coeducational boarding and day public school, in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by Amy Garrett Badley and John Haden Badley in reaction to the li ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He then returned to Philadelphia to work with A. S. W. Rosenbach, the bookseller and bibliophile who attained a worldwide reputation. at his rare book firm, the Rosenbach Company. Wolf joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(1943–1946), and was stationed in Europe where he participated in the recovery of ancient and rare books plundered and hidden by the Nazis. His training at Camp Ritchie's Military Intelligence Training Center places him among the ranks of nearly 20,000 other

Ritchie Boys The Ritchie Boys, part of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service (MIS) at the War Department, were an organization of soldiers in World War II with sizable numbers of German and Austrian recruits who were used primarily for interrogation of pri ...

. In 1952 Wolf joined the

Library Company of Philadelphia The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) is a non-profit organization based on Locust Street in Center City, Philadelphia, Center City Philadelphia. Founded as a library in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company of Philadelphia has a ...

as a consultant and advisor. Over the decades he was instrumental in morphing the Library Company into an active research library. He ultimately became Chief Executive Officer and was named Librarian of the Library Company. He established a reputation as a scholar, published numerous articles and exhibition catalogues, and fostered collaborative projects with other

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

historical institutions, including the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...

and the American Philosophical Society. He became President of the Friends of the University of Pennsylvania Library in 1947. He gave the A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures in Bibliography in 1963. He was President of the

Bibliographical Society of America The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is a North American organization that fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was constituted from the earlier Bibliographical Society of Chicago (created in 1899) as the national membership began ...

from 1966-1967. He was the Lyell Lecturer in Bibliography in 1985-1986 and the augmented lectures were published as ''The Book Culture of a Colonial American City: Philadelphia Books, Bookmen, and Booksellers.''

Personal life

Edwin Wolf II married Margaret “Peggy” Gimbel Dannenbaum in 1934. Together they had three children, Ellen, Anthony and Mary. Margaret died in a car accident in 1964. In 1965 he married Mary Paxson Matthews.

Awards and recognition

Wolf's contributions were recognized by the 1981 Philadelphia Award, established by

Edward Bok Edward William Bok (born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok) (October 9, 1863 – January 9, 1930) was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the ''Ladies' Home Journal'' for 30 years (1889–1919). He ...

and given each year to a citizen of the Philadelphia region who, during the preceding year, acted and served on behalf of the best interests of the community.

Selected bibliography

*Wolf, Edwin. ''The Book Culture of a Colonial American City: Philadelphia Books, Bookmen, and Booksellers.'' Oxford, Oxfordshire, England: Clarendon Press, 1988. *Wolf, Edwin. Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries. 1988. ''Legacies of Genius : A Celebration of Philadelphia Libraries ; a Selection of Books, Manuscripts, and Works of Art.'' Philadelphia: Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries. *Wolf, Edwin. ''At the Instance of Benjamin Franklin: A Brief History of the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1731–1976.'' The Library Company of Phil, 1976. *Wolf, Edwin, and John Francis Fleming. ''Rosenbach: a biography.'' Cleveland: World, 1960.

External links

The professional and personal papers of Edwin Wolf, 2nd
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Edwin Wolf collection of American Jewish historical documents
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Edwin, 02 1911 births 1991 deaths American librarians Presidents of the Bibliographical Society of America Ritchie Boys United States Army personnel of World War II People educated at Bedales School