Cleveland Public Library, John G White Department: Catalog of the Chess Collection (Including Checkers)

2 volumes: [iv]+613 pages; [iv]+578 pages. Folio (14 1/4" x10 1/4") bound in original red gilt lettering to spine. Introduction by George J Maciuszko. (Betts: 1-58) First edition.

This catalog consists of some 15,000 items from the chess and checker section of the John G White Collection housed in the Cleveland Public Library. The catalog entries from the card catalog have been photographically reproduced (size reduced) with 21 entries to each page in three columns of seven. In the author portion, titles are further arranged chronologically by date of publication. The titles in the subject part are classified by a local extension of the Decimal Classification. Cataloging practice appears to conform largely to the Dewey Decimal code, with some divergence of practice over the years. Some annotation of the bibliographical nature is given where relevant.

The collection originated as the personal library of John Griswold White, a noted Cleveland attorney, who served many years as President and member of the Cleveland Public Library's Board of Trustees. White was an outstanding benefactor of the Library. His gifts to the Collection that was to bear his name began in the 1880's and continued to his death in 1928. "The largest chess library in the world," wrote the famous chess historian Harold J R Murray about this collection in his work in 1914. Hundreds of titles have been added since that time, including many of the choicest volumes from the library of J W Rimington Wilson, a British collector whose fine chess library was broken up after his death in 1927.

Condition:

Some light rubbing to the extremities else a very good set.