Natino; David Shulman

[Jonathon Green]

> Shulman's donation of his entire collection of cryptography books to the
> New York Public Library was way too generous. He did a lot for the
> NYPL--showed up almost every day for fifty years--and got little in
> return. He noted that Eric Partridge was honored by a chair somewhere in
> the British National Library. The NYPL should honor Shulman
> somewhere--if it cares about the people who use its resources at all.

Partridge, another longterm library man, did indeed sit in the same seat,
K1, in the British Museum Reading Room (later British Library) for several
decades. But he was never honoured and in the revamped Reading Room (the
Library as many members will know has departed to a new site on Euston
Road) the seat and the row of desks to which it belonged have been
removed. Indeed, such existence as Partridge still has is less honour than
dishonour. The old shelves are now filled with a supposedly representative
selection of the works of well-known Reading Room users. Partridge is
there, but represented only by two or three late edition paperbacks of
minor works; his magna opera - the dictionaries of slang and of the
underworld - are not on offer. Other authors appear to be (mis-)treated in
a similar manner. The Reading Room, once a monument of scholarship, now
resmbles nothing more than a third-rate second-hand bookstore.

Jonathon Green