Bibliomania - Perspective of a Surviving Spouse

Overview. Paul Markham Kalanihuiheionamoku Kahn was a passionate collector, especially of old books relating to Hawaii. His collecting was a major focus of our lives, dictating when and where we traveled and even our choice of homes – the floor plan was primary and it had to have acceptable space for a suitable library. To understand Paul's collecting, you need to understand his background. He was born in San Francisco in the mid-1930's. Paul's father Sigmund, was from Louisiana but was raised in San Francisco by his Uncle Aaron Kahn after Sigmund's father Max brought Sigmund and his older sister Stella here to live with relatives in San Francisco shortly before Max died about 1900. Sigmund was a very young child at the time. Paul's mother, Alexandrina, was born in Honolulu, and moved to San Francisco after marrying Sigmund in 1913. Paul and his family spent as much time as possible visiting his mother's Hawaiian relatives in Honolulu. His first visit to Hawaii was at the age of three. Paul's great-grandmother was a pure blooded Hawaiian from Kipahulu, Maui. His grandmother was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma, so Paul heard many stories of events from Hawaiian history from the people who made that history or the children of those making that history. He became quite interested in history, especially Hawaiian history, San Francisco history, and world history. He was determined to weed fact from fiction or legend and preferred to refer to source documents to ferret out the truth.

Early Beginnings. In the late 1930's, as a very young boy accompanied by his sister-in-law, Paul Kahn made the first of many book purchases from Warren Howell, owner of Howell's bookshop on Post Street, long recognized as an important source for serious book collectors. Paul saw a large historical atlas, which he decided he must have. He asked Warren how much he wanted for it. Warren said the price was $8. Paul offered him $6. Warren laughed and asked why he offered only six dollars when the price was eight dollars. Paul's sister-in-law said that was all the money that Paul had. Paul got the book and Warren Howell and his book shop became a very important force in Paul's life. That book was Philip's New General Atlas with 74 Maps and Charts by J.H. Johnson, Edinburgh, published by George Philip and Son, 1855. I, Paul's widow, still have the book. Paul frequently said that that book was the only bargain he ever got at Howell's and that it was the best deal that Howell ever made. Paul frequently referred to Warren Howell as his "banker" and, alternatively, as his "pusher". Paul purchased his first old book on Hawaii 'Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen' by Liliuokalani from Warren Howell when he was 13. Warren was the major source for items in Paul's collection until Warren's death in 1984.

Preparation for a life's mission. Paul's passion was history. While in school he took it upon himself to learn a number of languages – French, Spanish, Italian, Hawaiian, a little Russian, and a little Japanese. These were the languages that would be of the most use to him in fitting together the big jigsaw puzzle of history. In 1960 he made a long trip to Europe which brought him into contact with many English and Continental rare book dealers, such as Maggs Bros. and Francis Edwards in London, Chamonal in Paris, and Nico Israel in Amsterdam. These dealers and others in London, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Moscow, Tokyo and Sydney were major sources of Hawaiian material over the next 30 years. As a highly educated young man, fluent in several languages, he reveled in all that he was seeing and learning. He then earned his PhD from the University of Michigan. As a PhD student, he won the tri-ennial prize of the Society of Actuaries for his paper on collective risk-theory and its application to stop-loss reinsurance. Paul and I both had training in actuarial mathematics and we both worked in Manhattan as actuaries. Hence, we had friends in common. It was through these actuarial friends that we met and we finally married. Paul's book collecting really began in earnest after we moved to California in the early 1970's.

A Fateful Encounter. In 1970 Paul's uncle died in Honolulu. Paul went to Hawaii for the funeral. It was during this trip that he met David Forbes. David was born in Honolulu and grew up there. He was doing research at the Hawaii state archives in Honolulu, using the material that Paul was seeking, when they met. David's knowledge of Hawaiian history rivaled Paul's. After we moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970's Paul invited David to stay with us while David did research at the Huntington, and hopefully undertook cataloging Paul's growing collection. David accepted the invitation expecting to find a few shelves of books and was overwhelmed to see the extent of Paul's library. Months went by and no matter how fast David worked at cataloging, Paul managed to buy more books, so it was difficult for David to keep from falling behind. David became a trusted advisor and friend.

Collection Development. Books on Hawaiian history led naturally to accounts of the early voyages to Hawaii which led, in turn, to books on natural history by scientists on those voyages. Although his first Hawaiian language acquisition was an 1843 Bible, it was only with his 1969 purchase of 50 items from the Hawaiian imprint collection of the late Sir Lester Farnsworth from Maggs Bros. of London that Hawaiian language material began to be an important element in the collection. Howell's interest in newspapers and Hawaiian imprints provided many wonderful acquisitions, particularly after Howell's purchase of the Ostheimer collection in Honolulu.

Travel Opportunities. As actuaries, we had the opportunity to participate in international conferences all over the world. Paul always made arrangements well in advance, so that we could visit important book dealers, libraries, archives, peruse important collections, and visit cemeteries. England, France, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Taiwan, were among the places important to his collecting. Paul cultivated scholars and scholarship. If there was a project that should be done, he tried to find a way to do it, often paying for it himself. He always sought the advice of experts in whatever subject he was interested.

Time to Focus. While we have a respectable collection of California and San Francisco material, because so many people collect this material Paul felt that he could make the biggest contribution to Hawaiian history. On David Forbe's advice, Paul expanded his Hawaiian collection to include manuscripts, broadsides, drawings, and photos. In the later years, it made little difference how much something cost. If something was important to the collection, a way had to be found to acquire it.

Hawaiian Contacts. From 1978 up until his death March 10, 1997, Paul maintained an actuarial consulting office in Honolulu. Commuting regularly provided opportunity to find rare items from private, local Hawaiian sources, particularly scarce and fragile Hawaiian language material and laws and government reports of the Hawaiian monarchy and republic. It also provided the opportunity to be active in the Pacific Translators Committee of the Hawaiian Historical Society and as an Associate of the Bishop Museum Library.

Kahn Collection's Importance. The combination of his love for collecting, for history and for his family resulted over time in the Paul Markham Kahn Collection of Hawaiiana, one of the world's most important collections of its kind. Assembled over a period of forty years, the Collection preserves a comprehensive body of Hawaiian material, including printed books, manuscripts and periodicals, with particular emphasis on ancient culture, Western contact with the Pacific islands, and the resulting processes of change: cultural, political and ecological.

By the mid 1980's, Paul's collection was an obligation for both of us. Men in his family had a history of death by heart attack at a fairly young age. I did not want the responsibility of deciding how to dispose of the collection. Since the collection was of institutional quality, David Forbes suggested that the Hawaii State Archives might be interested in acquiring it. Ultimately the state of Hawaii appointed a committee of notables to come visit and examine the collection, Paul photographed the "stars" in the collection for use in lobbying influential governmental representatives, Horden House from Sydney, Australia, was engaged to appraise the collection and Hawaii acquired it. The appraisal was done in March, 1992, five years before Paul's death. The appraisal states: Fate of the collection. Although intellectually he knew it was the best thing for the collection, Paul had a great deal of difficulty in parting with the collection that he had nurtured over so many years. It now resides in the basement of the Hawaii State Archives on the Iolani Palace grounds behind the state Capitol.

Extremely pleased that the collection would reside in Hawaii, Paul felt nonetheless that he had a continuing obligation to the collection. Paul continued to collect and made efforts to engage a rare book librarian to oversee his collection.

In the words of his long time friend, Monsignor Charles Kekumano, "[Paul's] contributions to Hawaii cannot be counted". Through his lifelong efforts to preserve the history of Hawaii, Paul was truly "Kalanihukiheionamoku" (the chief who gathered together the islands).

Personality traits of the collector. A picture of Paul would be incomplete without understanding the importance of friendship in his life. One of his friends articulated this quite well: A fellow book collector whom Paul and taken under his wing concludes: Continuation of the mission. Paul had an abiding love and respect for history, education, art and religion. After Paul's death I established the Paul and Linda Kahn Foundation, in December, 1997, as a tax-qualified private operating foundation to continue Paul's work in promoting educational and charitable activities from a research and scholarly perspective in the fields of History, Education, the Arts, and Religion. The foundation seeks to develop projects for which public support can be generated. As an operating foundation it offers the maximum tax advantage available to its supporters. Each project is expected to be self-supporting. The foundation has an ongoing project awarding a music education scholarship prize annually. It has completed one project in partnership with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Coulter Exhibit and Book. The Paul and Linda Kahn Foundation has embarked on another major project in partnership with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This current project also has the support of the Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library and the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association. It is also being co-sponsored by the Society of California Pioneers, the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and the California Historical Society. This project is to mount the first ever retrospective exhibit of the works of William A. Coulter, the Bay Area's premier maritime artist who chronicled the development of the San Francisco waterfront up until the time of his death in 1936. The Coulter exhibit is scheduled to open in the Park Service's visitor center at the corner of Jefferson and Hyde streets on April 18, 2006, the one hundredth anniversary of the great San Francisco fire. The Coulter project organizing committee is also working on the publication of a full color book of Coulter's life and work, including an inventory of his work. We already have over 200 of known Coulter works in our data base. If you know of any Coulter works or have any interest in this project, please contact Linda Kahn at lmkahn@mindspring.com.