The stories of the great 20th century refugee scholars, artists, and poets are known. This newsletter is dedicated to the lesser known ones, the quirky and sometimes strange individuals who shaped the world that emerged after 1945.
While their research was published, little evidence of their daily lives survives. For the last years, I’ve been building a small library of the books they wrote, owned, inscribed, gifted and lost. The books are the access points through which I research the biographies of these scholars, authors and artists. Every month, this newsletter features a new addition to the shelves.
“To A.M.C. in happy remembrance of his escape from philosophy, E.W. Oxford 1971”.
In 1960, sixty-year-old Art Historian Edgar Wind gave a series of lectures live-streamed on the BBC titled “Art and Anarchy”. If you listen to the recordings, some of which are still available on the BBC’s website, you will hear his thin voice with an unmistakable German accent and a British pronunciation coloured by years spent in the US. And, if you try to follow his words, you will shift between philosophy, psychology and history. The lecture series represented both what Wind thought and who he was - an eclectic mind and a restless person.
“Art and Anarchy” became Edgar Wind’s claim to fame. At 60, he had almost concluded his career that had begun some 40 years earlier, in the chaotic days of the Weimar Republic. As the Nazis rose to power, Wind had fled to the US, had later returned to the UK and, in 1955, become Oxford University’s first professor of art history.
At Oxford, Wind finally had the freedom to develop his own thoughts. He was unsatisfied by Oxford’s collections and argued for the creation of a new art historical department and immediately began ordering books for the new library. It grew into a vast collection that, until today, is called the “Wind Reading Room” in Oxford’s Sackler library.
When he wasn’t tracking down books, Wind gave lectures on Renaissance art, worked on books that were never completed and spent afternoons in the College gardens. In this idyllic setting, Wind developed “Art and Anarchy”.
Wind vs. Modern Art
Soon after its publication, “Art and Anarchy” was construed as the anti-modern manifesto, as an outright attack on modern art. That struck a note with many who struggled to find deeper meaning in Rothko’s untitled series (1960) and Andy Warhols Campbell Soups (1962).
Wind’s views, however, were much more nuanced. He wasn’t attacking modern art, he was challenging modern audiences. “If modern art is sometimes shrill,” he wrote in the introduction of “Art and Anarchy”, “it is not the fault of the artist alone. We all tend to raise our voices when we speak to persons who are getting deaf.”
“To A.M.C”
This copy of “Art and Anarchy” is unique for a few reasons. It’s the first edition published by Faber and Faber in 1963 and its inscribed by Wind to an unknown friend, A.M.C, in the final months leading up to his death in September 1971.
Wind rarely left inscriptions in books. In fact, this copy is the only inscription I’ve been able to locate in the past few years. I have tried to solve the riddle of “A.M.C” for some time now, combing through his letters and lists of friends and colleagues. So far, without success. Two Wind specialists, who kindly helped me, also could not identify “A.M.C”.
In his final days, Wind spent most of his time in London. He had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1965 and had retired from his position in 1967. In 1970, he travelled to Italy a final time before withdrawing from public life. “A.M.C” must have been a close friend.
The final remark, congratulating “A.M.C” on their “escape from philosophy”, might also be a testament to Wind’s own career. Throughout his career, he was criticized by art historians for his philosophical excursions and by philosophers for his focus on art. As far as disciplines matter, this struggle was at the core of his life. In the end, he became an art historian. He, too, had somewhat escaped from philosophy.
Three Wind facts:
Wind travelled to Paris in the 1950s and met up with Albert Camus, W.H. Auden and other writers to discuss future of art in the Cold War. Auden subsequently dedicated a poem to Wind.
In the US, Wind registered as a Democratic voter and publicly objected to the purge of left-leaning academics during the McCarthy era.
Wind’s role in saving the Warburg Library, one of Europe’s most important libraries, is often overlooked. Together with Fritz Saxl, he ensured that the books arrived safely in London where they remain until today.
Two articles to read:
“Edgar Wind and the World Famous Komodo Dragon” in The Centennial Review.
“Edgar Wind as Man and Thinker” in The New Criterion.
One book I would have liked to buy:
A few weeks ago, a US-based bookseller put up two volumes of Yeats’ Poems from the library of Oxford don Maurice Bowra. At about £5,500, that is slightly beyond my budget. The books are fascinating because of their past owners. After Bowra, the books belonged to various members of Britain’s elite before finding their way into the hands of Sir Ian Flemming, the creator of James Bond.
*A note on gender. Many of the books I bought in the past few years have been written, edited and published by men. Female refugee academics were marginalized for being both - female academics and refugees. In the past couple of months I have focused my research particularly on female authors. Please reach out if you have any specific pointers or ideas.