Scant effort is made by Widener Library to keep the scholar cool, but the game cannot he said for the most valuable book kept there, the Gutenberg Bible. It is currently being "rested" from the summer run in an air-conditioned safe.
One of ten copies in this country, conservative estimates of its value hover around $150,000. The second most valuable tome, also in the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Room, apparently does not rate the same consideration.
"Surprise" Never Realized
For the first folio of Shakespeare for which Harry Widener paid $67,000 still sweats it out on the shelf. These two are the only books possessed by the University which are never permitted to be handled.
Bought as a "surprise" for Harry Widener by his grandfather when the young book collector was abroad, he never lived to realize that he owned it. On his return trip to this country he perished when the White Star steamer Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic in April, 1912.
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