Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey

Citation

Satija, M.P. (1999), "Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 1, pp. 47-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.1.47.5

Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey (1851‐1931), aptly given the epithet Father of modern librarianship′′ was a unique and forceful character. He left an indelible mark on the library profession and profoundly influenced the course the profession has traversed. Coming from a poor family, he moulded himself into a great leader with his untiring work and inspiring zeal. He was a visionary and a doer with wide professional interests. Among his great works, he founded library education in USA, helped the establishment of the American Library Association and started the Library Journal as founder editor. More than this, he was an inventor, and educationist and a great librarian and a forceful administrator. He foresaw public libraries as a force in adult education much earlier than the popular universal adult education movement. As a commercial venture, he established the Library Bureau, a company to sell library furniture and equipment. But to most of us, Melvil Dewey is synonymous with his Decimal Classification. Published in 1876, it is the most popular classification system used in 135 countries of the world and still going strong. While earlier biographies devoted much space to his classification, Wigend apportions only 12 pages to this enduring work. The book scrutinises his life and personality in the larger context of the social values of the pragmatic and reforming USA of the years preceding the great economic Depression.

Yet this great man had his quota of faults and foibles, and possessed some contrary traits. This philanthropist with the missionary zeal of a reformer was dictatorial in his attitude and sometimes unkind with his subordinates. Though quite religious, at times he was a hypocrite who suppressed truth for personal gains. This great educationist had an uncanny business sense who built a huge estate in the form of the Lake Placid Educational Foundation. Childhood poverty made him parsimonious: he hated wastage in any form. Out of this predisposition emerged the Efficiency society′′, his strong advocacy of the metric system (which the US legally adopted only in 1976), and his unending zest for simplified spellings. This reformer, who wore cufflinks marked r′′, cut short his name and corrupted his surname to Dui′′ but ultimately settled on the simple and shorter name Melvil Dewey. Dewey encouraged women into librarianship and recruited them in his library and admitted them to his library school, circumventing the Columbia University rules. Not only this, he gifted them with bicycles. However, he is charged with racism, anti‐semitic feelings and making inappropriate overtures to women colleagues. From the pages of this book Dewey emerges both as hero and villain.

Much has been written on Dewey′s life and work ranging from numerous small articles in journals or professional encyclopedias, half a dozen full length books including biographies, to exclusive conferences devoted to him. This work supersedes others with its detailed study of all aspects of this colourful, multifaceted and highly involved life. Dr Wigend, who has patiently and delvingly worked on this biography for 15 years, is a known library historian with some published works on Dewey already to his credit. He has identified and marshalled his resources with first rate literary and historiographic skills. Facts and events have been chronicled and interpreted with disinterest ‐‐ characteristic of a great historian. His commitment is not to Dewey but to his task. The result is a high quality product based on widely divergent, scattered but authentic sources and unmatched in its scholarship, depth and skill.

The book has been divided into three parts spread over 15 core chapters. It is a comprehensive, expansive and complete study of his long and complex life and work. From childhood to the last moments of his life, the work is densely detailed with facts and information. Above all, interpretations and narrative commentary make it an engrossing work. Figures, rare photographic plates of his professional, family and personal life, a recent OCLC cartoon, and a familiar frontispiece embellish the book. The index is detailed and obviously has been prepared with great care and industry. The production standards are high with an inviting getup.

Clearing myths and mysteries surrounding this enigmatic personality, there emerges a sterling biography portraying the dark and shining sides of an inspired genius, seer and an arch contriver. The biography reveals much to like and dislike in him. Wigend successfully portrays Dewey′s force of character and his enduring legacy in the library profession and American history. The work is highly professional and documented, informative and inspiring: a model of historical research in perspicuous and lucid language. It should be a prized possession of any library acquiring it, and may be profitably read by any one interested in American (library) history, Melvil Dewey or a good piece of historical research.