Howard Gotlieb: Archivist With Persistence, Dies at 79
Howard B. Gotlieb, a Boston University archivist who cajoled, charmed, wheedled and - most effectively, he said - groveled to snare the papers of notables like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bette Davis, not to mention Fred Astaire's dancing shoes, died Thursday at a Boston hospital. He was 79.
The cause was complications of surgery, the university said.
Over four decades, Dr. Gotlieb gathered papers and artifacts from more than 2,000 American and European individuals; they occupy seven miles of shelves at what in 2003 was named the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.
His own exuberant public personality was matched by the blithe eclecticism of his finds, which included Groucho Marx's jokes, George Bernard Shaw's scribbled instructions and John Barrymore on how to play Hamlet.
The Library Journal in 2003 said, "Since Gotlieb began his work, most college and university special collections have followed his lead."
Other major archives of popular culture include the University of Texas; the University of California, Los Angeles; and Stanford. But these collections, while perhaps larger, are not so famously the product of a single archivist's ingenuity, perseverance and idiosyncrasy.
Dr. Gottlieb stopped at virtually nothing to capture his prey. He wrote letters of protest to critics of writers or performers whom he was pursuing. He sent flowers and other gifts to potential donors, including a bed for James Mason. He told prospective donors that he was certain they would win a Nobel Prize.
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The cause was complications of surgery, the university said.
Over four decades, Dr. Gotlieb gathered papers and artifacts from more than 2,000 American and European individuals; they occupy seven miles of shelves at what in 2003 was named the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.
His own exuberant public personality was matched by the blithe eclecticism of his finds, which included Groucho Marx's jokes, George Bernard Shaw's scribbled instructions and John Barrymore on how to play Hamlet.
The Library Journal in 2003 said, "Since Gotlieb began his work, most college and university special collections have followed his lead."
Other major archives of popular culture include the University of Texas; the University of California, Los Angeles; and Stanford. But these collections, while perhaps larger, are not so famously the product of a single archivist's ingenuity, perseverance and idiosyncrasy.
Dr. Gottlieb stopped at virtually nothing to capture his prey. He wrote letters of protest to critics of writers or performers whom he was pursuing. He sent flowers and other gifts to potential donors, including a bed for James Mason. He told prospective donors that he was certain they would win a Nobel Prize.