Word: dormann
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...five-year-old project is a monument to what hucksterism and tax-deductible fund raising can create in the way of illusions. It was conceived, promoted and almost executed by Henry O. Dormann, 38, who has said that he is a millionaire and whose closest association with scholarship is a book, A Millionaire's Guide to Europe (sample advice: "Hire yourself a private railway train"). The editor-owner of Servicio de Information Pan Americana, an obscure public relations service, and an operator in real estate and advertising, Dormann set up the library in 1965 for the grand purpose...
With no apparent basis, Dormann claimed the support of President Johnson. He also tossed the first names of Government officials around so freely that he persuaded prominent figures to lend their endorsements. More significantly, he managed to raise $800,000 by 1967, partly by leading some donors to believe that they would receive invitations to dine at the White House. Most of the money was spent on the mansion. Dormann even coaxed Manhattan's celebrity restaurant, "21," into helping to equip a lavish kitchen, ostensibly for sating presidential appetites...
...small point that Dormann and his sponsors seemed to miss was the fact that the Government, through the Library of Congress and the National Archives, already does an excellent job of attending to presidential papers. Moreover, microfilm of many such papers exists in more than 100 U.S. libraries, and copies of specific documents are available cheaply to scholars...
...Dormann also began bumping into bona fide collectors, who were alarmed at his lack of expertise. A leading Lincoln scholar, Ralph Newman, who is a consultant to the Library of Congress, intervened at a time when the Johnson Administration was considering cooperating with Dormann. Newman warned the White House that Dormann "knew nothing whatsoever about the nature of the project he was attempting," and seemed to be using "our greatest office and name as a public relations device." As word of Newman's advice spread, Dormann discovered that neither Government officials nor university scholars would help him collect papers...
MICHELANGELO THE PAINTER by Valeria Mariani. 151 pages, 86 color plates. Kimberly Dormann. For properly patriotic Italians, 1964 is the 400th anniversary not of the birth of Shakespeare but of the death of Michelangelo. The resulting commemorative volume, casually displayed on anyone's espresso table, is guaranteed to take the prize this summer-though perhaps only for price ($125) and awkwardness (14 in. by 11 in. by 3 in., weighing 11 Ibs.). The text is learned, dull and clumsily translated. What almost justifies the outrageous price is the color plates, which display every surviving work that Michelangelo painted, including...