Author: David DeLucia
Year: 2003
Publisher: Self published
Place: Darien, CT
Description:
236 pages with reproductions, some in color and index. Quarto (11" x 8 k1/2") bound in original publisher's red covers with gilt lettering to spine and cover. First edition limited to 150 copies.
David DeLucia's chess library contained 7,000 to 8,000 chess books, a similar number of autographs (letters, score sheets, manuscripts), and about 1,000 items of "ephemera". DeLucia's library contains such items as "a 15th-century Lucena manuscript, score-sheets ranging from Fischer's Game of the Century against Donald Byrne to all the games of the 1927 New York tournament, eight letters by Morphy, over a hundred Lasker manuscripts, Capablanca's gold pocket watch, [and] the contract of the 1886 Steinitz-Zukertort world championship match". Ten Geutzendam opines that DeLucia's collection "is arguably the finest chess collection in the world".
David DeLucia's gift to the Cleveland Public Library includes approximately 2,400 books, 1,500 game scores, 916 letters and cards, 157 manuscripts, 160 photographs, 1,000 documents, and scores of ephemera related to the game of chess. Highlights of the collection include:
- The Bobby Fischer Collection. Bobby Fischer (1943-2008), American chess grandmaster, was the eleventh World Chess Champion, winning his first championship at age 14. The collection includes Fischer's book collection, personal notebooks, manuscripts, photographs, ephemera, and video recordings of his televised games.
- The Emanuel Lasker Manuscripts. Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), German chess player and mathematician, was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, the longest of any champion. The Lasker manuscripts feature just over 1,000 manuscripts, documents, and letters dating from the 1890s to 1940.
- Capablanca Collection. José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942), Cuban chess player, was the third World Chess Champion, from 1921 to 1927, consists of nearly 200 letters, documents, and photographs.
"This is one of the world's great private chess collections," states John Skrtic, Cleveland Public Library Chief of Special Projects and Collections. "The materials will be an invaluable addition to our John G. White Collection of Chess and Checkers."
Condition:
Near fine issued without a jacket.