A Life of Rare Finds
By Caitlyn Dittmeier
This week, I had the opportunity to connect with Michael DiRuggiero, a Villanova English alumnus and owner of The Manhattan Rare Book Company. Michael attended Villanova from 1990-94, graduating summa cum laude with a B.Ch.E and B.A. in English. As a former Villanova English and Biology undergraduate, I enjoyed hearing how Michael has been able to embrace the sciences and humanities throughout his academic and professional careers.
I asked Michael if he would share a few memories from his time at Villanova. He immediately remembered Dr. L.W. Irwin, whose teaching of English Renaissance drama was transformative to his studies. Michael initially thought he would not be able to pair writing courses with intensive engineering requirements. Thanks to AP credits, however, he was able to carve out enough room in his schedule to pursue his high-school passion for literature. Looking back on his freshmen English class, Michael expressed, “Dr. Irwin made everything seem so interesting. His passion was so contagious that I knew I had to take his Shakespeare course next.” The summer before graduation, Michael decided to pursue graduate school; in 1995, he completed his Masters in English at the University of Chicago with a thesis on Shakespeare’s Henry IV.
Through the invitation of Villanova Graduate Studies Director, Dr. Punzi, Michael worked on his second masters for the next two years, this time in Chemical Engineering. Unexpectedly, he found himself in an interview for a position at a rare book company. “It was as if my whole life had been preparing me for this moment,” Michael shared, after recalling how he and high school friends would quiz each other on author bios, book titles, and publication dates. To his disbelief, Michael really was perfect for the job, as the interviewer tested him in the exact same way. Michael then co-founded Manhattan Rare Book Company in 2000 and has been building expansive collections with clients ever since.
I learned during our discussion that there are fascinating aspects of the rare book industry. What has stayed with me most is the fact that Michael can be a student every day of his career. In a way, his job seems like a seamless continuation of graduate work that often calls us to set up shop in the archives for a while. Being a rare book company owner is research oriented, highly collaborative, and satisfyingly creative. Before working with a new client, Michael learns everything he can about the particular subject, which can be as broad as civil war history and as specific as C.S. Lewis’s personal letters. The process kickstarts new ideas for Michael to grow and diversify his inventory. He is passionate about his clients’ interests and finds the work liberating, because he can always change the boundaries of his company’s collections. Still one thing never changes: Michael remains committed to the rare and hard to find.
Over the years, Michael’s background in engineering has helped him expand his network to reach new terrains of subject matters. He’s become a specialist in scientific works. One project in this area stands out as his most rewarding experience. Michael worked with an Albert Einstein collector to located over a hundred pages of the theoretical physicist’s handwritten manuscripts for Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein had bequeathed his papers to the university. When the deal was completed and the documents were on their way to Israel, Michael knew he’d never forget the archivist’s words, “Einstein is coming home.”
Michael is currently writing a book of Einstein’s life and pictures. The book features the Einstein’s earliest signed photograph as a teenager and many precious images up until the scientist’s last signed picture before his death. Michael looks forward to way this big project will invite a wide audience to peer into Einstein’s universe.
From
one Irish literature enthusiast to another, Michael and I concluded
our conversation by discussing his love for W.B. Yeats and his hopes
to visit Ireland one day. I, of course, was ecstatic to hear that
Manhattan Rare Books holds a first edition of James Joyce’s
Ulysses.
To
check out this featured book and other rare finds in literature,
history, science, art, and more, visit
https://www.manhattanrarebooks.com/.
A special thanks to Michael DiRuggiero for sharing his story with all us fellow students, researchers, theorists, archivists, and used bookshop aisle-goers.
