Mike Widener - celebrations

Since 2016 when we collaborated on an exhibition of Venetian law books at the Yale Law Library, Mike has been a generous and patient mentor as well as a thoughtful friend. As an art history graduate student with an interest in museum curating, I was encouraged by Mike to propose an exhibition for the Law Library's Rare Book Room. He made time to show me all of the beautifully illuminated law manuscripts and other illustrated materials related to my interest in early modern Venice. After accepting my proposal, Mike kindly shared with me his expertise throughout the entire process of curating the exhibition, from selecting objects to writing labels to designing the display to producing an illustrated catalogue. This was a formative experience for me as a young curator, and I am grateful that Mike was my colleague and advisor. Our catalogue even won a publication award from the American Association of Law Libraries. In addition to Mike's enthusiasm for law books and his willingness to take on new projects and students with no background in law, I'm grateful for his warmth and good humor, which he so often shared with me, my wife, and my kids whenever we would see him at Yale or in East Haven.

Christopher Platts Assistant Professor of Art History School of Art University of Cincinnati

Earlier this month the University of Virginia Rare Book School reported that Mike's course, "Law Books: History and Connoisseurship," to be taught this summer, was one of its very few offerings that was already close to capacity. This news is not surprising as he has earned high marks over the past decade for the superb class that he conducts at the nation's premier institute for the study of the history of the book. Continuing the course that Morris Cohen and I inaugurated in 1988, Mike has introduced dozens of librarians, legal historians, collectors, dealers, and other interested bibliophiles to the appreciation and curatorship of rare legal materials. Since 2013, Mike has taught the class in the Lillian Goldman Law Library where students have access to one of the two best collections in the country for this type of study.

Much of the material he displays and discusses are items that he himself has brought to Yale.

Mike practices what he preaches: as he states in his description to his RBS course: "particular attention will be paid to planning collections in light of intended use" and in following the Library's collection development principle "to develop and publicize what makes us unique," he has acquired new materials--and publicized old-- that make connections in little explored areas of legal history. To pick just one example, notable among these collections is that of illustrated law books (the acquisition of the Zaid collection of comic books with legal themes made a perfect complement to the Cohen collection of juvenile jurisprudence). Mike was also an early enthusiast and practitioner of a very powerful teaching tool--the blog; for a fascination history of his collecting and teaching at Yale see the 58 (!) screens, 2008 - present, of his Rare Book Blog. https://library.law.yale.edu/blogs/rare-books Mike may be retiring from his duties at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, but I hope his teaching at RBS will continue for many years. He will always have an appreciative audience for his knowledge of rare legal materials and how to acquire them, his enthusiasm for books and libraries, and his unfailing good humor.

David Warrington Librarian for Special Collections, 1986 - 2012 Harvard Law School Library

I had the privilege of working with Mike when I was the Rare Book Fellow at the Law Library in 2016, an experience that remains a highlight of my career. I cannot even begin to quantify all I learned from Mike as well as how he shaped me as a special collections librarian, and not just from his wonderful and colorful stories. He gave me the latitude to do anything and everything as a fellow with the right mix of support, the opportunity to grow, and clear expectations. Even after my fellowship ended and I eventually took a position across the street at Beinecke Library, his continued support and mentoring have meant a great deal. He’s leaving quite a legacy behind, and I’m simply glad to be a small part of it.

Anna Franz (she/her/hers) Assistant Head of Access Services Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Yale University

While I’m not sure when I first met Mike Widener, I’d like to think it was during a brief visit to New Haven in 2008 when I saw Morris Cohen for the last time, and that he introduced us.

Certainly my first clear recollection of Mike is at the American Society for Legal History’s Atlanta annual meeting in 2011, where we both spoke on a memorial panel about Morris. But it was an informal encounter with Mike over a sandwich lunch that sticks in my memory, for what I later came to recognize as his characteristic enthusiastic, cheerful, energetic informality and that remarkably wide range of bibliographical and historical reference.

Thereafter our main contacts were by email, exchanging miscellaneous information and opinions on Blackstone and his works. We also collaborated on an 2015-16 exhibition with catalog marking the 250th anniversary of the first publication of Book I of the Commentaries, based on the remarkable collection over which Mike presided, and displayed successively at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, the Middle Temple Library, London, and Adelaide’s Sir John Salmond Law Library . Then in 2017 Mike and Emma spent some weeks in residence here, preparing a report on the rare and special collections of our law library, a stay capped off by an intensive Wilfrid Prest Professor Emeritus of History and of Law Adelaide Law School The University of Adelaide

I’m so grateful to have met and known Mike and to have benefitted from his passion and enthusiasm for the law school’s rare book collection. I first met Mike at one of his alumni weekend presentations in the Rare Book Room. I always enjoyed Mike’s commentaries on the choice items he chose to share, what made them special -- how can I forget his marvelous presentation on manicules! [note to printer: insert manicule here] Mike’s enormous curiosity and capacity for wonder infected us all and inspired those of us who also care about books, ephemera and printed stuff. Over the years, I shared with him some of my harebrained ideas but Mike was always generous, encouraging and kind – for which I will always be grateful. Mike seemed timeless, like the books he cared for, and I assumed he would always be there in the years ahead, welcoming us to the Rare Book Room with a glint in his eye which signaled that he had something really cool to show us, something special. But wherever Mike goes, and wherever he is, surely a part of him will endure in the collection he cared for and added to, and the lessons and example he so generously shared. Thank you Mike.

John Firestone, YLS ’85, New York City

I first met Mike when I was a graduate student looking to see a few items in the Goldman library's special collections. Not only did he welcome me and encourage my visit but he took the time to talk in detail about my research interests, gave me a tour of the stacks, and offered some thoughts on the state of the market in antiquarian law books. I was thoroughly impressed as to that point I had yet to meet a law librarian with such deep historical and archival interests who was also willing to take the time to chat with a graduate student. As a legal historian, collector, and now curator myself, I've always been impressed with Mike's ability to engage researchers across a broad array of interests with the collections at his disposal. In addition, it's hard to think of anyone else who has been such a force in the world of legal history collection development. His growth of Yale's holdings through his joint acquisition of the Taussig collection and en bloc purchases of much of the New York Bar Association's rare continental imprints collection both stand out in my mind as signal accomplishments in just the last decade.

Finally, Mike's kindness and generosity in assisting more junior scholars and colleagues has stuck with me and should stand as an example to everyone in the world of special collections libraries.

Mitch Fraas Senior Curator, Special Collections Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania Libraries

As an English legal historian I have made considerable use of the valuable collections of the Yale Law School, and in that connection I have come to know Mike Widener over a good few years.

He seems to me to be the model of what a rare-book librarian should be: knowledgeable, and ever willing to help the reader - however demanding or tedious the requests may be. As a former law librarian myself (though only for a brief period), with a lifelong shared interest in rare law books and manuscripts, I salute Mike on his retirement and wish him every happiness in the next phase of his life.

Sir John Baker Emeritus Downing Professor of the Laws of England, University of Cambridge

Like most legal historians, I have always valued books: not just beautiful, rare books, but ugly, poorly printed textbooks, with student annotations, and cramped, early printed books that mimic manuscripts. I am always disappointed in a rare or simply old book that does not have notes and the names of past owners. Books, with archives, are central to legal history. And individual copies often have their own rich histories.

Mike Widener has served both the book community and the legal historical community well, from his time at Texas to his years at Yale. Like all the best Librarians, he is not only a scholar but also a helper. He sees it as his mission to communicate, not only by helping individual scholars, but also by communicating to the wider world through exhibitions, which he has had the imagination to make accessible online. He has helped scholars realise the importance of books as material objects, and the significance this has for the history of law. Like many, I have benefited from his kindness, scholarship and wisdom. I wish him well in his retirement.

John W. Cairns Professor of Civil Law, University of Edinburgh

Mike is a rock star in his field - we've been so fortunate to have his presence and voice, and they'll remain a great influence long after his retirement. His generous and laidback spirit, boundless knowledge, and deep curiosity have been a huge inspiration to me. I first met Mike in his role as teacher for the Law Books course at Rare Book School. I learned a ton about rare law books, but I also gained another mentor and friend in the field and a role model for fun and open engagement with special collections. Like so many folks, I feel very fortunate to have had the benefit of Mike's expertise, friendship, and encouragement along my professional journey.

Cheers to Mike on these wonderful next steps! ~Laurel Davis, Curator of Rare Books at Boston College Law School (Newton, MA) Laurel E. Davis Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law/Curator of Rare Books Boston College Law Library

I first met Mike Widener while I was in library school at UT Austin during the basic archives class in the fall of 1995, when I was assigned as a team of four students to process a collection he had at the Tarlton Law Library Rare Books and Special Collections Department. It was a law professor’s papers, whom I believe was an expert in “torts,” which didn’t mean anything to me at the time (a chocolate cake maybe?), but I later learned that the UT Law School was a breeding (bleeding?) ground for important torts professors like Leon Green and W. Page Keeton.

Mike and I kept in touch over the next two years of my graduate school experience, and I asked him for a work recommendation a few times in order to get part-time jobs during graduate school. In the summer of 1997 Mike had an opening for an Archives Assistant, and he hired me as his part-time Archives Assistant, which that fall morphed into a full-time position. Over the next year working for him, I learned so much about archives and rare books from him, it is hard to imagine how ignorant I was a mere two years before!

Mike had the “crazy” management style of giving general directions, then mostly letting his staff figure it out for themselves, and for him to be a resource for staffers when needed. I usually had a thousand questions for Mike about the task assigned, but I guess he liked that better than having no questions.

Mike was a great writer and editor due to his time as a newspaper reporter, and at times he was able to find clarity in my clumsy writings, and help me to become a better writer, historian, and archivist. At the time I also got to know his wife Emma and his son Henry, and so did my wife Mary Ann, and we have remained good friends ever since. I was very happy to be able to return the favor some 15 years later and give Henry a summer job in my archives for two summers in a row, and another archivist in the Widener family was birthed!

Thanks to that one class, and my year of working for Mike, we have remained great colleagues in the archives and rare books worlds over the past 25 years. I can honestly say that over the years, if I wanted to know how to do something properly, I always looked to see how Mike was doing it! Mike has greatly assisted me in my subsequent career, and I consider Mike one of my most important mentors. I also consider Mike, Emma, and Henry good friends that we have truly missed while they were in the “Great White North.” Come home Mike!

Mike, best of luck in retirement, thanks for being such a great mentor, and don’t be a stranger!

Mark Lambert Deputy Director for Archives and Records Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX

Like many, I first heard about Mike before I met him. While I was doing research, a librarian recommended that I take his Rare Book School course. I took the advice in 2011, and took sheer delight in Mike's teaching. As so many know, his enthusiasm is infectious. He imparts wisdom with a gleam of the eye that makes students and visitors into devotees. Once experienced, it is a joy that remains with you.

Over the years, Mike has been a great mentor to me - and I have never known someone so generous with knowledge and so professionally supportive of the endeavors of those working in a single field. His rare book collecting at Texas and Yale have been extraordinary and make unequalled permanent contributions. But his legacy goes far beyond that, to the many he has taught and inspired. On his well-earned retirement, I would like to offer deep thanks and many good wishes!

Ryan Greenwood Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections University of Minnesota Law Library

I have Mike Widener to thank, and Mike Widener to blame, for starting me on yet another collection. Over 15 years ago, I attended a talk at the rare book room at the University of Texas Law School. When Mike found out that I was a tax lawyer, he brought out a treasure to show me—a copy of the tax code of France, illustrated by French artist Joseph Hémard with hundreds of drawings, all hand colored by pochoir (stencil), humorously depicting provisions of the law. I knew immediately he had launched me on a new collection—I now have hundreds of books, pamphlets, drawings, letters, bookplates, and other works of Hémard. When Mike moved to YLS, I was able to donate copies of Hémard’s law codes the library lacked, as well as more obscure “legal” works, including illustrated pamphlets on the rules of the French National Lottery and Rules of the Road and an original cartoon of French judges on the bench. In 2012, Mike invited me to co-curate an exhibit of my Hémard collection at YLS even though only some involved the law.

Early on, I showed Mike one of my collections—laws of Italian city-states, consisting mostly of separately printed decrees and proclamations from Florence and Venice from the 16th century, on a great variety of subjects. He particularly liked a broadside banning a new type of knife with a full-size woodcut of the offending weapon. Mike is passionate about early Italian laws and, ultimately, he acquired my collection for YLS. Later, I was able to acquire for YLS several rare sammelbands (bound volumes) of 16-17th century Venetian decrees, including a series regulating early gun ownership as well as sumptuary (“anti-bling“) laws including the regulation of ostentatious jewelry, ornaments on gondolas and the uniforms of gondoliers.

Mike has been a great friend and we have discussed working on a book about the works of Joseph Hémard after Mike retires. It’s only fair since he started me on that collection.

Farley P. Katz San Antonio, Texas

Over the past fifteen years, Mike Widener has transformed the Rare Book Library of the Lillian Goldman Law Library (Yale Law School) into one of the most important legal information hubs in the world. Anyone interested in topics such as the History of Law or the Design of Legal Information would find in Mike Widener and Yale's Rare Book Library a rich fountain of reference. This is due not only to the institution's respectable and well-curated collection, but above all to Mike's open and generous temperament, always willing to share the profound knowledge that he has accumulated during these years with colleagues, professors, academics, young scholars and students. Today, his retirement is the opportunity to thank him for sharing with me and so many colleagues his passion for Law books and also the best time for celebrating in the USA, Brazil and Europe his acclaimed career as a great bibliophile. Muito obrigado, Mike! Um grande abraço.

Prof. Marcilio Franca (Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil)

Several years ago I was working on a book about late medieval criminal procedure and needed primary legal sources from that period. Getting many old books was an arduous process, but Mike saw to it that that I promptly acquired whatever I needed. I owe him a great debt of gratitude for his efforts. It is no exaggeration to say that I would still be working on this book -which was published a year ago – had it not been for Mike. I will miss him and wish him all the best in his retirement.

Mirjan Damaška Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law

In each generation, there is a handful of librarians who love to buy books and who view bookdealers as friends and partners in that effort. Mike Widener is at the top of that list. We as bookdealers have been so fortunate to work with Mike, and we know it. We have been the lucky ones, and so we believe has Yale been.

Joe Luttrell Meyer Boswell Books, Inc.

I first encountered Michael Widener some years back, when my cousin John Townsend was visiting campus. I teach a seminar at Yale called Art of the Printed Word, and John is a noted bookbinder. He’d learned of an exhibition of bindings in the Goldman Library, and the two of us headed over. Mike was there and rewarded our enthusiasm by generously showing us several other bindings that did not make it into the display cases. I mentioned my seminar to Mike and he gave me his card, which led to regular class visits every term. His ability to engage with the students is notable, and he has opened our eyes to the beauty hidden within so many historical books of law.

Mike balances erudition with lively discussion, and his affection for the collection is infectious (I am fond of his vocal cadence and sly Texasisms, and always wish I’d written them down!). One must also acknowledge Mike’s keen visual sense — he is a first rate curator and librarian, and his online image collections are a treasure for anyone interested in the graphic arts.

Bravo, Mike— Many thanks, and best wishes for a very happy retirement!

Richard Rose Lecturer in Yale College Master Printer, Jonathan Edwards College Critic, Yale School of Art

Mike Widener, a worthy successor to the great Morris Cohen, shared with his predecessor the recognition that there is much more to a law book than words written or printed on a page.

This perception guided his creation of spectacular additions to the collection and exhibits of its holdings.

John D. Gordan, III New York, NY

Mike, as Dr. Seuss wrote: "Congratulations! Today is your day! You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!" From the fateful afternoon at UT when we met through the day we broke down "Law's Picture Books," from "Judicial Bobbleheads" and "Blackstone Goes Hollywood" through the Joseph L. Andrews Award, from boozy brew pub crawls to conversations about legal history over pizza and Coke at Yorkside, it's been nothing but a pleasure. I won't embarrass you by enumerating your many talents (though I hope other people will, at least a bit—if there's ever a place & time, it's here & now). Instead, as you and Emma begin your next chapter together, just know that back in New Haven you have a couple of pals chanting "Iko Iko" on your behalf. See you in DC—see you in Tejas.

Mark Weiner

Mike, I wish you the very best in your next adventures. A lot of people invest so much of themselves in their job that retirement becomes a source of anxiety or they have a really hard time finding meaning in other forms. I don’t think you will have those problems, mainly because it was always my sense that your love for life animates you more than love for your role as rare book librarian. Sure, it makes it easier to love life when you pay the bills by assembling collections of books that so many minds and hands went into producing and conserving with their own love and care, but you brought a sense of wonder and appreciation to the job that was special, and that I believe you will take with you.

When people ask me what my job at the law school is, I have a few different answers. There’s the pedestrian “I coordinate international conferences, a couple in-house lecture series, student and faculty exchanges, and some translation book series.” But sometimes I respond that I have the second-best job at the law school because I do things that, at other universities, faculty have to do for the most part themselves. As a result, I get to spend most of my time engaging amazing scholars and students without actually having to teach or publish myself.

Then I wait to see if they bite and ask what the best job is. Almost no one does – probably foolishly assuming that the dean has the best job – but those who do learn about Mike Widener, the Rare Book Librarian. To tell the truth, it just occurred to me that, with your retirement, I might now have the best job in the law school. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone else doing your job with the same infectious relish and attentiveness, and those qualities clearly made your position shine.

In any case, if any doubt at all lingers about your place in the pantheon, just remember that you are right up there with Dean Mike Thompson. You might not warrant at least one and maybe two or three coffee cup-holding statues in different parts of the building like he does, but you and him are the only people who I know that were able to get an email address that is “mike” instead of “michael.” No small feat. Please stay in touch!

Bradley Hayes Coordinator of International Programs at Yale Law School

I’ve known Mike for almost 20 years, starting with AALL’s Legal History & Rare Books Special Interest Section, back when he was at UT Austin and I was at Boston College. We’ve connected at AALL, at various symposia, at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair, and socially in the years since. Mike has been a great colleague and an inspiring mentor, always generous with his time and advice, and unpretentious in his demeanor. When I began my job at Harvard in 2011, he hosted me at Yale on a listening tour, and has been a fantastic sounding board many times throughout my career. Mike has brought both deep expertise and a great sense of fun, joy, and wonder to our corner of the profession, and I owe him a wellspring of respect and gratitude. I know he’ll approach this next chapter in his life with the same enthusiastic and curious spirit he has brought to his career, and I wish him all the best.

Karen Beck Manager, Historical & Special Collections Harvard Law School Library Cambridge, Massachusetts

It was my great honor and pleasure to work with Mike (and Mark Weiner) to bring Mike’s vision for Law’s Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection to fruition. Mike’s codification of illustrated law books is nothing short of groundbreaking in a world that has long thought of law books as nothing but words. His accomplishment couldn’t be timelier in the highly visual world that we live in today. I am proud to have been a part of it, and to call Mike a friend. On the occasion of his retirement and next chapter, my wish for Mike is, in Bob Dylan’s words, “May your hands always be busy/May your feet always be swift.”

Valerie Horowitz Managing Editor, Talbot Publishing (a division of The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.), retired 2020 Verona, New Jersey

I am sorry to have Mike leave the area, although I send my best wishes for a wonderful retirement. He is both a friend and a scholar. I found meaningful our times together working on Yale's collection of legal books for children and preparing materials for the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society. He helped me by providing documents and commentary for several law review articles. I especially enjoyed viewing Mike's displays of the Yale Law School archives of legal books.

Henry Cohn, Connecticut Judge Trial Referee

I well remember first seeing Mike Widener when he was a featured speaker at a special one day AALL training on archives, over a decade ago now. I was a relatively new member of the law library profession and a bit intimidated to talk to him. Nonetheless I chanced to sit with him during lunch and a group other AALL members and found him approachable and engaging from the get go. Since then I have gotten to know him better through activities in AALL’s Legal History and Rare Books Special Interest Section. I appreciate his staying active in LHRB in a range of roles from chair to newsletter editor. It would have been easy for him to rest on his laurels or retreat fully into the rare book world. But instead running into him at the Annual Meeting or a quick email exchange on legal history was always a bright spot for me over the years. Enjoy your retirement Mike!

Kasia Solon Cristobal Tarlton Law Library University of Texas School of Law Austin, Texas

Per chi, come me, da qualche decennio si occupa di statuti dei Comuni medievali e di età moderna Mike è stato un corrispondente attento e sempre amichevole. La grande raccolta di Yale (oltre mille volumi), con quella della Library del Congress, è notoriamente preziosa ed è stata accresciuta con passione e cultura da Mike. La visita personale di qualche anno fa ha solo rinsaldato un rapporto già forte. Il quale si perpetua nella lontananza grazie ai bei cataloghi cui Mike ha dato un apporto importante, come quello per i 250 anni dei Commentaries di Blackstone (2015) e l'elegante selezione concentrata in Law's Picture Books della Yale Law Library Collection del 2017.

Se si pensa poi ai libri di opere universitarie di giuristi antichi si apre un altro grande capitolo in cui il colloquio è stato facile.

Dispiace solo che non si sia potuto realizzare un incontro come quello in Toscana tra le Università di Siena (Circolo giuridico) e quella di California a Berkeley (Robbins Collection) che condusse ai Proceedings del 1999: Rare Law Books and the Language of Catalogues, da me introdotti con Laurent Mayali: il rapporto digitale non esclude quello materiale!

'Il tempo è galantuomo' diciamo noi (anche se non è sempre vero...), e non è escluso che si possa ancora trovare il tempo per ritrovarci, superata la fase drammatica che viviamo e che, forse ovviamente, non poteva che farmi contribuire a...un libro su libri epidemici antichi. Ne ho avuto una segnalazione recente in inglese, che invio volentieri a Mike e al suo 'club'!

Mario Ascheri

Knowledge makes humane the.proffessional behavior of great docents. More than thirty years ago, my wife and I, had the pleasure to meet “Miguelito “ or Mike, a rare and exceptional person hidden in the shelves of the Law Libraries of two great Universities.

As a visiting scholar at UT Austin We gather around the most incredible collection of books that He had helped to collect from private repositories from around the world. Sometimes I encountered him walking in the central venues of Mexico City looking for special editions of books on the legal history of Spain, Mexico and Latin America.

I wish Mike and Emma the best enjoyment of retirement. Their energy and interests will continue however, and I hope to have the privilege again to keep talking about the wonderful topics derived from authors and issues, past and present, that He knows.

Austin, TX. April 13, 2021 Manuel González Oropeza Law Professor Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico

It is a honor and a joy to choose words fitting for Mike's retirement! One of the things that will not stop on leaving the collections of the Lillian Goldman Law Library is his infectious enthousiasm. In fact the first time I really noticed him was when he showed items from the collections in his care with equal enthousiasm to school children and historians. One of his great strengths is the way he tells stories about legal books which make you look beyond the printed word. His efforts to build a valuable collection of illustrated legal books resulted in an incomparable collection which will continue to enrich our understanding of the images of law and justice. It will remain a cornerstone of research into legal iconography worldwide. His exhibitions, both in situ and virtual exhibitions, show his deep knowledge and his eagerness to share it with anyone interested.

Mike is a librarian aiming to help anyone interested in legal history, and a most judicious book collector with all the skills needed to find the exceptional and representativve works. The acquisition for Yale University of the manuscripts on English legal history collected and described by Anthony Taussig is perhaps his greatest feat. Working and communicating with Mike Widener is a wonderful experience. I am most thankful for his contributions to the world of old books and manuscripts, and to legal history at large.

Otto Vervaart Special Collections, Utrecht University Library Utrecht, Netherlands

I was a Yale Law School student in the 1980's, at a time the riches of the Rare Book collection were neither referred to, nor recommended for reading or research, in any class I ever took-not even The History of English Law. In fact, though I was quite interested in early legal documents and books at the time, and had even acquired some, I had no idea they might be readily available in the law school building for reading, research, or examination. That situation changed years later, after Mike came to Yale Law School as its Rare Book Librarian. It's been a great pleasure during the years of his tenure, to see the Rare Book collection become so widely integrated into the law school experience, and so readily available for study, research, and just plain viewing and holding. Mike's blogs, library talks, online videos, and exhibits always introduce new concepts to the Yale community and the public, and it's been wonderful watching the Rare Book collection digital content become increasingly diverse, and available for student and scholarly viewing. The collection has also been greatly expanded and brilliantly hauled into the Twenty-First Century, under his guidance. Needless to say, Mike's open-door welcomes to the Rare Book collection will be missed, and a trip to New Haven won't be the same without them. Best wishes to Mike and his family, for whatever comes after.

Lois Montbertrand

While not sure when I first met Mike Widener, I’d like to think it was during a brief visit to New Haven in 2008 when I saw Morris Cohen for the last time, and that he introduced us. But my first clear recollection of Mike is at the American Society for Legal History’s Atlanta annual meeting in 2011, where we both spoke on a memorial panel for Morris. It is the informal encounters with Mike on this occasion that stick in my memory, for what I later came to recognize as his characteristic enthusiastic, cheerful, energetic informality and exceedingly wide-rangingbibliographical interests and knowledge.

Thereafter our main contacts were by email, exchanging miscellaneous information and opinions on Blackstone and his works, interspersed with occasional political and personal news and views. We also collaborated on an exhibition and catalogue, ‘250 Years of Blackstone’s Commentaries’ marking the anniversary of the first publication of Book I of the Commentaries, based on Yale’s unique collection and displayed successively at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, the Middle Temple Library, London, and Adelaide’s Sir John Salmond Law Library. Then in 2017 Mike and Emma spent some weeks in Australia preparing a report on the collections of our law library, a stay capped off by a marvellous intensive workshop on collecting rare law books, which attracted participants from across the country. I’ll attach two photos from that splendid event, something that it would be terrific to repeat, once the current crisis passes.

Wilfrid Prest Professor Emeritus of History and of Law University of Adelaide

Dear Mike, I will never forget how our friendship began in your office at the Law Library in Austin.

On your desk I found copies of the Brethren Schmidt's correspondence (Gustavus and Carl) and I asked you if you could get a copy, too.

I could - and that resulted in a wonderful friendship, where we have met not only in New Haven but also in Lund/Sweden.And for me a most interesting research in comparative legal history, which I hope to present at the annual meeting of ASLH in New Orleans in November.

Thank you Mike for a warm and generous friendship throughout the years and let's hope that our cooperation will continue - even if you now get the status of an emeritus.I congratulate you to a marvellous job as a law librarian and to all your efforts not only for the rare book collection at Yale but for rare law books in general.

A warm "corona hug" to you, and all the best to you and your family Kjell Å Modéer Professor emeritus Juridiska fakulteten

I first met him about 20 years ago when he was the rare book librarian at the Tarlton Law Library of the University of Texas. At the time I was still practicing as a barrister in London at the Chancery Bar but had been devoting increasing energy for some years to collecting first early English printed law books and then MSS relating to English law. I was invited by him to speak about my collecting activities at a legal conference at the Tarlton Law Library.

This was a unique and fascinating experience for me.

In England I had known a considerable number of law librarians but most had little time for early printed books- or indeed legal manuscripts. Their primary interest was keeping practicing lawyers happy with modern printed law books and periodicals. By contrast Mike seemed (like me) interested in the history of law, in the form that early law books took (including their illustrations) and in legal manuscripts of any date.

When a few years later he moved from Texas to Yale I believe he brought with him (and developed greatly) his wide knowledge of and enthusiasm for the historical literature of the law (whether printed or manuscript) and applied that knowledge and skill to Yale's law collections and to assist students and practitioners at Yale and elsewhere. best wishes Anthony Taussig

My acquaintance of Mike goes back to his time in the Tarleton Law Library at the University of Texas. We have shared interests in rare law books, book history, and the allied technologies of printing, paper making, binding, and such. He has always been willing, and able, to assist me in my research and writing about such things. Most recently he helped locate original copies of Louisiana’s first law journal for a forthcoming article I wrote about the journal and its editor/publisher.. (Those items happen to be in the Goldman Law Library, and Mike graciously arranged for me to obtain digital reproductions.)

I have nothing but great regard for Mike as colleague and fellow scholar. He has my best wishes for a long, prosperous retirement.

Warren M. Billings, PhD Distinguished Professor, Emeritus University of New Orleans

Dear Mike, You have been a truly wonderful Rare Book Librarian and it has been a joy to have been able to work with you. Your sense of taste is unerring. I remember with delight any number of exhibitions you put on which were not only terrific in themselves, but exactly right for the particular moment. And you always went a step further than was required. Recently, in your letter accepting some books I had given to the Rare Book Library, you traced the original owner and found his connection with, no less than, John Brown. I had not known of this and it delighted me and made me confident that the books were now, indeed, in the right place.

I will miss you greatly and will always be grateful for all you have done in creating and lovingly caring for this great library.

Affectionately, Guido Calabresi Sterling Professor Emeritus, Former Dean and Professorial Lecturer Yale University Law School Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals (2nd Cir.)

I met Mike at a rare books workshop in Australia, which he ran (with Professor Wilf Prest) in 2017. It was one of the best workshops I have ever attended and Mike’s knowledge and passion for the subject were inspirational. It was also clear that he was a person of great integrity and I have always remembered how he explained the many ethical issues to consider when working with rare book dealers. I was later able to visit Mike at Yale and he treated me to a personal tour of the library and a detailed look at the rare books collection, and then introduced me to many of his colleagues - one of the most delightful days of my career. I am now working on a project involving manuscript law reports, some of which Mike showed me when I visited, and Mike has been unfailingly generous with his time and knowledge. He once said to me ‘I like to see people succeed’ and I think this expresses Mike perfectly.

Larissa Reid Reader Services Manager Law Courts Library, Sydney, Australia

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts about the best rare book librarian in the world, Mike Widener. He is a singular leader in his field and in law librarianship as well.

Although our paths did not cross at Tarlton Law Library, I remember Roy Mersky was excited to have Mike join the staff as it was Roy’s long-time goal to develop the rare book collection at Tarlton. I met Mike for the first time in 2001 when I attended the Language and the Law celebration at Tarlton to mark the addition of John Rastell’s dictionary The Exposicions of (the) Termys of (the) Law of England to the library’s amazing collection. Mike was the “star of the show” at the celebration, offering his insight into the book that put Tarlton over the top with one million books. It also became the oldest book in Tarlton’s collection.

His move from Texas to Yale provided Mike with a unique opportunity to continue to develop his already substantial knowledge of rare books, printing and publishing. Over the years I would see Mike at AALL, catch up a bit and have the opportunity to compliment him on his many online exhibits and all that he shared about the collection at Yale. One perpetual item of interest to me was where the Yale law librarians were staying at during AALL. It was never the usual conference hotel. If I recall correctly, they typically stayed at the same hotel as the late Tom Reynolds, (Foreign and Comparative Law Librarian, University of California, Berkeley).

Mike has authored or edited a wide variety of notable publications. While at the University of Texas, Mike was the Series Editor of the Catalogues of Early American Law Libraries series. The Bookman took note of the Catalog of Gustavus Adolphus Schimdt’s Library 1877, which was published by the Jamail Center for Legal Research in 2005. It was no surprise that Mike and his co-author Mark S. Weiner received the AALL Joseph L. Andrews Award for their work Law’s Picture Books in 2018. My favorite article by Mike is “The Civil Law Collection of the Texas Supreme Court” most recently published in the Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society in Summer 2019. I love the thought of Chief Justice Hemphill buying books from the bookshops in New Orleans.

Mike helped me out tremendously when one of the justices on the Louisiana Supreme Court asked the Law Library of Louisiana staff to help him with visuals to accompany his presentation about the history of Louisiana’s mixed jurisdiction law. We scanned a number of title pages with illustrations from French and Spanish books in our collection to add to the judge’s presentation. Then the judge asked us to find a “picture of civil law.” Mike was the only person I could think of who might be able to help. I called him and a few hours later we had three beautiful pages scanned from Yale’s collection along with how to credit them in the presentation. The judge was impressed! Especially with Mike!

Before retiring in early 2016, I wrote a memo to our Chief Justice seeking her permission to send a law librarian on our staff to attend Mike’s course “Law Books: History and Connoisseurship.” The Chief Justice agreed that it would be useful to have someone on our staff who would bring a new focus to our rare book collection. In times of tight budgets, I was

pleased that we could send the librarian, who subsequently brought back an enthusiasm for shedding light on our collection.

Mike Widener will be missed by many around the country and around the world. I wish Mike and Emma the best as they decide what they will do next.

Sincerely,

Georgia Chadwick Georgia Chadwick Retired, Director of the Law Library of Louisiana