“A Book Never Dies”: The American Library Association and the Cultural Reconstruction of Czechoslovak and Polish Libraries, 1945–1948

ABSTRACT

The American Library Association (ALA)'s role in the postwar cultural reconstruction of East Central European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland has not been widely studied. The paper contributes to a better understanding of American cultural influence in that part of Europe by examining the ALA's efforts of sharing the works of American culture and science with war-devastated libraries in the context of war losses suffered by Czechoslovak and Polish libraries and a rising tide of totalitarianism in Eastern Europe. Particular attention is given to individual requests for books and periodicals as they offer a firsthand account of the war devastation and an insight into various needs of Czechoslovak and Polish libraries in early postwar years.

KEYWORDS:

• American Library Association
• Czechoslovakia
• Poland
• reconstruction
• war losses
• libraries
• American Book Center

Acknowledgment

Assistance from the American Library Association Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1. Grayson N. Kefauver and Carl M. White, “The Library Situation in Europe,” Library Journal 70 (May 1 and 15 1945): 385–89, 473–76.

2. For more about the destruction of books and libraries in the twentieth century see works by Rebecca Knuth, Libricide (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003) and Burning Books and Leveling Libraries (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006).

3. Kefauver and White, “The Library Situation in Europe,” 385–89, 473–76.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Pastuszka to ALA, February 23, 1946, Poland file, Record Series [hereinafter, RS] 7/1/52, Box 4, American Library Association Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [hereinafter, ALAA].

7. Kefauver and White, “The Library Situation in Europe.”

8. Ibid.

9. Flora B. Ludington, “Cultural Lend-Lease,” 1944, “Cultural Lend-Lease” file, RS 7/1/6, Box 2, ALAA.

10. Ibid.

11. Gary E. Kraske, Missionaries of the Book (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 4.

12. Patti Clayton Becker, Books and Libraries in American Society During World War II (New York: Routledge, 2005), 127. See also Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), 24.

13. Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War, 41, 52. However, 1.5 million books were rejected as “unsuitable for the training camps.”

14. Ibid., xiv.

15. Kraske, Missionaries of the Book, 267.

16. Ibid.

17. ALA Committee on Aid to Libraries in War Areas, Periodical Purchase Program, July 1941 to June 1947 (Washington, DC: American Library Association, 1947), 1.

18. Ibid., 1, 35. Journal purchases were supplemented by donated issues, often from publishers.

19. Ibid., 35.

20. Ibid.

21. Markings on the packages shipped to Prague read: “Gift of American Library Association.” Ernst to Comins, December 1, 1945, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

22. Bĕlehrádek to ALA, October 12, 1945, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA. See also Brumlik to ALA, June 13, 1945, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

23. “Journals Being Sent to UNRRA for the Medical Library of Charles University, Prague,” Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

24. “List of Sets of Periodicals With 1946 Subscriptions Ordered by the Committee on Aid to Libraries in War Areas for University of Warsaw,” Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

25. Dziewulski and Iwanowska to ALA, August 29, 1947, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

26. Raabe to ALA, October 24, 1946, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

27. Ibid.

28. Brumlík to Lydenberg, January 2, 1946, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

29. Ibid.

30. Ksawery Pruszyński, “Books, Books, Books,” [1946?], Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA. The essay was originally published in Poland of Today 3 (May 1946): 1–2.

31. Shelley to ALA, October 4, 1946, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

32. Kuntze to American Library Association, May 31, 1947, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

33. For example, see a letter from Hanna Maciejewska, head librarian of the Poznań Academy of Commerce Library, who asked for more American periodicals, explaining that “we have great difficulties in getting books on the Polish market and no money to buy them abroad.” Maciejewska to the College Press, June 16, 1947, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

34. International Relations Office of the American Library Association, “Books for War Areas Program: Final Report to the Rockefeller Foundation,” May 1948, Books for War Areas Program file, RS 17/1/6, Box 17, ALAA.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid., 4.

38. Milczewski to the Minister of Education [in] Prague, February 8, 1946, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA. Milczewski to the Minister of Education [in] Warsaw, February 8, 1946, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

39. Ibid. The first selection list, compiled by Charles McCombs, chief bibliographer of the New York Public Library, was published in 1945, see Books Published in the United States 1939–1943: A Selection for Reference Libraries (Chicago: American Library Association, 1945). The subsequent lists, prepared by Foster Palmer, reference assistant of the Harvard College Library, were published in 1946 and 1947.

40. Milczewski to the Minister of Education [in] Prague.

41. Viola Mauseth, “Czechoslovakia Shipment,” April 30, 1946, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA. Of course, the estimated value is stated in 1946 dollars.

42. [“Check list of the titles included”], February 8, 1946, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

43. Ibid.

44. For example, see acquisitions lists published in Novinký Národní a Universitní Knihovny a Knihovny Vysokých Škol Technických v Praze (March–April 1947), Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

45. Milczewski to the Minister of Education [in] Warsaw. The shipment most likely included the same titles that were sent to Czechoslovakia.

46. “Books for War Areas Program: Final Report to the Rockefeller Foundation.”

47. China, England, Russia, and France topped the list.

48. “Books for War Areas Program: Final Report to the Rockefeller Foundation,” 18.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. The ALA had “up to two million dollars worth of requests on hand.” “Books for War Areas Program: Final Report to the Rockefeller Foundation,” 5.

52. Ibid.

53. Morison to Jedlewski, November 2, 1945, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

54. Comins to Shelley, November 25, 1946, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

55. Maria Danilewiczowa, Losy Bibliotek Polskich (London: F. Mildner, 1942); Maria Danilewicz, The Libraries of Poland (St. Andrews: W.C. Henderson, 1943), Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

56. Benedict Hirsch, “The Fate of Polish Libraries,” November 1943, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

57. Dorothy Comins, “Notes on Damage to Libraries in War Areas,” May, 1943, Aid to Libraries in War Areas file, RS 7/1/6, Box 2, ALAA.

58. Hurban to Lydenberg, September 20, 1945, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

59. Ibid.

60. Lydenberg to Hurban, September 28, 1945, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA. Lydenberg mentioned his personal ties to the New York Czech community whom he helped “to gather the special [Czech] collection at the Webster branch of the New York Public Library.”

61. Lange to Milczewski, February 22, 1946, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

62. Management of the Central Library, Brno, to Shaeffer, September, 1946, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

63. Kipp to Librarian, Central Library, December 1, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

64. Velíšek to ALA, September 12, 1946, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

65. Kipp to Velisek, November 26, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

66. Cromwell to Donick, May 25, 1948, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

67. Ibid. In ALA's correspondence, the Komenský (Comenius) University is also referred to as the Slovak University, which was its official name from 1939 to 1954.

68. Mauseth to Baker and Taylor, March 25, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

69. Rachton to American Library Association, August 25, 1947, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

70. Ibid.

71. Special Requests, 9332, 2-25-48 [for] History Department Jagiellonski University Krakow, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA. See also Cromwell to Director, History Department, February 26, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

72. The book (the exact copy donated by the ALA in 1948, call number 6515 I) was not purged from the collection and survived Poland's political upheavals. It is held by the history department library. The original ALA logo is still affixed to its cover. I am grateful to Barbara Bułat and Maria Gajda from the Jagiellonian Library for verifying the holdings information.

73. Lepikówna to Meritt, February 26, 1947, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

74. Cromwell to Lepikówna, February 26, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

75. [Acknowledgement from] University Archaeological Institute Wrocław, April 30, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

76. The school, called in Polish Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku, was originally located in Sopot near Gdańsk.

77. Wnuk to Wessells, January 6, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

78. Ibid.

79. Wnuk to Mauseth, March 20, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

80. Cromwell to Kalda, February 4, 1948, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

81. Helsztyński to Cromwell, October 8, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

82. Cromwell to Miłosz, September 24, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

83. Mauseth to Krokiewicz, March 23, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

84. Opichal to Milczewski, March 3, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

85. Kipp to Kożoušek, December 1, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

86. Kierownik Biblioteki [Library Director] to ALA, April 30, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

87. Żenczykowski to Director ALA, May 18, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

88. Húščava to Cromwell, March 20, 1948, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

89. Łodyński to ALA, September 17, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA; Mauseth to Łysakowski, September 27, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

90. Mauseth to Więckowska, September 27, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

91. “Books for War Areas Program: Final Report to the Rockefeller Foundation,” 29–42. The other report puts the number of “special requests” books for Czechoslovakia at 620. See, “Books and Periodicals Sent to Czechoslovakia Libraries by the American Library Association, 1945–1948,” August 31, 1948, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

92. As evidenced by a letter from Josef Bečka to ALA in December 1947. See note 117.

93. For example, see Alfred A. Reisch, Hot Books in the Cold War (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2013) and John B. Hench, Books as Weapons (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 2010).

94. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948 (New York: American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, 1953), 53–54.

95. Kraske, Missionaries of the Book, 169.

96. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, 1.

97. For British-sponsored reconstruction efforts, in particular the establishment of the Inter-Allied Book Center in London, see The Library Association Committee for the Recovery of Books and MSS, The Restoration of Libraries (London: Headley Bros., 1946) and Carl M. White and P. S. J. Welsford, “The Inter-Allied Book Centre in London,” The Library Quarterly 16, no. 1 (1946): 57–62.

98. “An Appeal from the American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc.,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 10, no. 1 (1947): 98.

99. “The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries,” Econometrica 14, no. 3 (1946): 256.

100. Laurence J. Kipp, The American Book Center: A Report in Progress to Its Friends and Participants (Washington, DC: American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, 1947), 3.

101. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, iv.

102. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, iii.

103. Ibid.

104. Kipp, The American Book Center, 3.

105. Ibid.

106. Ibid.

107. Ibid. The National Library in Warsaw admitted receiving “mostly technical and medical” publications and asked for books and periodicals “of other specialties,” including art, classics, English, and Slavonic. See Wierczynski to Kipp, November 25, 1947, American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries file, RS 7/1/6, Box 1, ALAA.

108. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, 1.

109. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, 51. See also Irena Morsztynkiewiczowa, “Książki zagraniczne dla bibliotek polskich” [Foreign Books for Polish Libraries], Bibliotekarz 14, no. 9–10 (1947): 132–33.

110. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, 51.

111. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, 56.

112. Additionally, the Rockefeller Foundation provided $50,000 for the Committee for the Rehabilitation of Polish Science and Culture, Inc, which cooperated with the Polish Ministry of Education. The sum provided was sufficient to purchase approximately 1,000 volumes of American books to ten Polish libraries, including the National Library, the University of Warsaw Library, and the University of Poznań Library. See The Rockefeller Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report 1946 (New York: The Rockefeller Foundation, 1946), 263–64, http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/about-us/annual-reports (accessed March 2015).

113. The American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries, Inc., 1944–1948, 56. There may have been small monetary contributions from individuals that were not listed in the report.

114. Vaclav Mostecky, “The Library Under Communism: Czechoslovak Libraries From 1948 to 1954,” The Library Quarterly 26, no. 2 (1956): 105–17. Marek Sroka, “Soldiers of the Cultural Revolution: The Stalinization of Libraries and Librarianship in Poland, 1945–1953,” Library History 16, no. 2 (2000): 105–25.

115. Mizwa to Kipp, January 16, 1948, Poland file, RS 7/1/52, Box 4, ALAA.

116. Ibid.

117. Bečka to ALA, December 11, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

118. Milam to Bečka, December 17, 1947, Czechoslovakia file, RS 7/1/52, Box 1, ALAA.

119. See, “Books for War Areas Program: Final Report to the Rockefeller Foundation.”

120. Kraske, Missionaries of the Book, 166.

121. Ibid., 168.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marek Sroka

Marek Sroka is Literatures and Languages and Central European Studies Librarian and an associate professor of library administration at the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign, USA. His research interests include the history of Polish libraries and the recovery of cultural objects in the aftermath of World War II.