My signed copy of Living the American Dream

Before we delve into the contents of the book, here are scans of the front cover of the Henry Kimelman memoir and of the author's autographed inscription. The bookseller’s listing had noted that the book had been autographed for a former ambassador, yet the script mentions only Hannah and Phil, so I wondered how they knew it was to a former ambassador.

A quick search on Hannah Phil ambassador immediately answered the question. From Wikipedia:

Philip Mayer Kaiser (July 12, 1913 – May 24, 2007) was a United States diplomat. On June 16, 1939, Philip Kaiser married Hannah Greeley. Kaiser served in the United States Department of Labor as Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Affairs, during the administration of President Harry S. Truman. He was a special assistant to Governor Averill Harriman of New York from 1955 to 1959. Later during the administration of President John Kennedy, Kaiser was ambassador to Senegal and Mauritania. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he persuaded the President of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor, to deny the Soviet Union landing rights to refuel its planes. Finally, during the administration of Jimmy Carter, Philip Kaiser served as ambassador to Hungary. While ambassador to Hungary, Philip Kaiser was instrumental in the return of the Crown of St. Stephen to the Hungarian government from the United States in 1978. [4] After serving as ambassador to Austria, Philip Kaiser retired from government service in 1981.

It is not hard to imagine that when Philip Kaiser passes away in 2007, eight years after receiving a copy of his friend Henry Kimelman’s memoir, that his book collection would return to circulation and this volume would end up at a Maryland bookseller who is listed at Amazon.com.

Finally, here's the dedication page of Henry's book, honoring his wife, three children and six grandchildren. The John and Susan mentioned here were two of the family members who contacted me.

Contact with members of the Kessler family

Last month, I was contacted by several members of the Kimelman and Fishman families, grandchildren of the Sidney Kessler I have written about in this blog. They had discovered my posts about Kessler and wondered about the reasons for my interest in their grandfather. After explaining Walter Ruby’s connection to Kessler at the American Spirits company in the 1930s, I think that their concerns were mostly alleviated.

Grandson Bob Fishman helped me correct several errors in my narrative, taking time during his busiest month of the year as the executive director of NCAA March Madness coverage for CBS Sports. As a result, I have corrected Kessler’s birth and death dates in place in the previous posts.

Another correction deserves specific mention. Fishman questioned my information that baseball star Jackie Robinson was present at the opening of the Virgin Isle Hotel in December 1950. He noted that as a lifelong Dodgers fan, it was not possible that his grandfather would not have told him that if it were true.

When I went back to my source document, this December 10, 1950 article in the New York Times business pages (click to enlarge), I see where I made the mistake. Note that the last two paragraphs of the long article about the hotel opening are unrelated and concern other Virgin Islands tourism news, including an separate item about Jackie Robinson playing the first round at a new golf course.

So Bob is absolutely right and the family’s Dodger bonafides are intact. He noted in his email that though Robinson was not part of the opening, several years later, another baseball great, Hank Aaron, visited St. Thomas as guests of the Kesslers.

The other family members I was in touch with are John Kimelman and Susan Edwards, both children of Henry and Charlotte Kimelman. Charlotte, still living, is Sidney Kessler’s daughter. (Her sister Louise, also still living, is Bob Fishman’s mother. A third sister, Audrey, born after 1930, was previously unknown to me but now fills out the family tree.

One thing I learned from John Kimelman was that his father Henry had in 1999 published a memoir of his life in business and public service. In fact, Henry’s was the second autobiography in the family, as his grandfather Berl Kimelman had in the 1920s set down the details of his life in the old country (eastern Galicia). Henry later had that manuscript translated and published in a limited run.

Checking Amazon, I found that used copies of Living the American Dream: The Life and Times of Henry L. Kimelman were available. I ordered a copy, autographed by the author, from a bookshop in Maryland. It arrived in pristine condition with a plastic cover over the dust jacket. I have now had the time to carefully read Henry’s amazing book. While it provides little new information about Sidney’s activities before Henry marries into the family in 1943, it has much to tell us about Sidney’s later life that helps to illuminate our quest.

I will present what I learned from the book in the next several posts.

Illustrated Wohlgemuth history

You may remember Eli Wohlgemuth, one of the fellow travelers we have met during our genealogical journey into our parents' roots. Eli checked in by email the other day to update us on his progress with his labor of love, an exhaustive history of the family of Yeshayah Wohlgemuth, the famous rabbi of Memel.

"I will soon be ready to publish my book, 'And that you shall relate into your son's ears and your son's son's......' This unique timeline, history on the Wohlgemuth family and much more will be a three volume book, 2400 pages, with color illustrations," he writes.

Eli wonders if some of the readers of this blog might be interested in purchasing a copy. I warned him that our overall readership is low, but there are a few Wohlgemuth researchers among them. Rather than publish Eli's email address, you can contact me and I will pass along your information to Eli.

I have not seen Eli's manuscript as yet, but I am not expecting it to yield a breakthrough, because I believe it is focused on the children of Rabbi Wohlgemuth and their descendants, while my mother's family's Wohlgemuth branch may come through a sibling or cousin relationship. I will be especially interested in any biographical details about Yeshaya's boyhood and family relationships from the time before he settled in Memel.

Other Wohlgemuth researchers who are directly descended from the rabbi can expect a treasure trove of information.