Notable : Book Collection : Culture Collection

Émilien Amaury (French pronunciation: [emiljɛ̃ amoʁi]; 5 March 1909, in Étampes, France – 2 January 1977, in Chantilly) was a French publishing magnate whose company now organises the Tour de France. He worked with Philippe Pétain, head of the French government in the southern half of France during the second world war but used his position to find paper and other materials for the French Resistance. His links with Jacques Goddet, the organiser of the Tour de France, led to a publishing empire that included the daily sports paper, L'Équipe. Amaury died after falling from his horse; his will led to six years of legal debate.

René Daumal (French: [domal]; 16 March 1908 – 21 May 1944) was a French spiritual para-surrealist writer, critic and poet, best known for his posthumously published novel Mount Analogue (1952) as well as for being an early, outspoken practitioner of pataphysics.

Gino Bonichi (February 25, 1904 – November 9, 1933), known as Scipione, was an Italian painter and writer.
He was born in Macerata. In 1909 he moved to Rome, where he later enrolled at the Scuola Libera di Nudo of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma. He founded with Mario Mafai and Antonietta Raphael the Scuola romana, a group of artists active in Rome who were influenced by Expressionism, and opposed the officially approved art of the Fascist period. He exhibited his work for the first time in 1927. At about this time, he also began publishing his poetry and essays.
Scipione's interest in art history led him to study the Italian old masters, as well as El Greco and Goya. Expressionists such as Chaïm Soutine, James Ensor and George Grosz influenced the development of his style, which was characterized by mysticism and a personal symbolism. His period of greatest activity was between 1927 and the autumn of 1930; during these years he produced his most important works, such as Still-life with a Bowler Hat (1929) and Still-life with a Feather (1929).His unique style combined elements of symbolism, surrealism, and expressionism, evoking an intense emotional impact through his vivid color palette and distorted figuration.He exhibited in the Venice Biennale in 1930, and at the first Rome Quadriennale in 1931. In the last two years of his life, the tuberculosis from which he had suffered for years forced him to abandon painting in favor of drawing. He died in Arco on November 9, 1933.
The Italian painter Claudio Bonichi (born in 1943) is Scipione's nephew.

René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti (9 August 1902 – 17 September 1991) was a French virtuoso violinist, renowned for his lyrical playing style.

Fernand Berckelaers (10 March 1901, in Borgerhout – 12 February 1999, in Paris), pseudonym Michel Seuphor (anagram of Orpheus), was a Belgian painter.Seuphor established a literary magazine, Het Overzicht, in Antwerp in 1921. He moved in Dutch, Belgian, and French avant-garde circles. He associated at various points with Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, and was influenced by their iconic Neo-plasticist works. Along with Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Pierre Daura, Seuphor founded the abstract artists' group Cercle et Carré which included Wassily Kandinsky and Le Corbusier.In 1934, Seuphor moved to Anduze in the South of France following his marriage.Seuphor wrote and edited three books; A Dictionary of Abstract Painting (Tudor Publishing Co., 1958), Abstract Painting: 50 Years of Accomplishment (Dell Laurel Edition, 1964), and "The Sculpture of this Century" (George Braziller, Inc. NY, 1960). These volumes, now out of print, remain among the most valuable documents of abstract painting & sculpture in the 20th century. The painting books have numerous color illustrations which document the various paths that abstract painting took, especially after World War II. The sculpture book has black & white photos that track both figurative as well as abstract sculpture from early 20th century through 1959. Also contains a short bio in the back of the book on each sculptor mentioned.
Seuphor also assisted with the Tudor companion volume of his Dictionary of Abstract Painting, the Dictionary of Modern Painting, which documents all the various schools of painting in the 20th century, including both abstract and realist painting.
He had also an own contemporary art collection with works of Marcelle Cahn, Adam Jankowski, Jean Piaubert, Jean Gorin, Jean Miotte, Aurélie Nemours and Victor Vasarely.

Franz Völker (31 March 1899, Neu-Isenburg, Grand Duchy of Hesse – 4 December 1965, Darmstadt, Hesse) was a dramatic tenor who enjoyed a major European career. He excelled specifically as a performer of the operas of Richard Wagner.
He was discovered by the conductor Clemens Krauss and he studied singing at Frankfurt, where he made his début as Florestan in Beethoven's only operatic work, Fidelio, in 1926. Engagements followed in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and London, where he appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1934 and 1937. He also performed often at the Salzburg Festival and the Bayreuth Festival, earning considerable public and critical acclaim.
Roles that he sang during this period, in addition to Fidelio, included Parsifal, Lohengrin, Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre and Max in Weber's Der Freischütz. Later in his career, he sang the lead role in Verdi's Otello. He taught singing in Stuttgart, Germany, after retiring from the stage during the 1950s.
He appears in the title role of a fine complete live recording of Lohengrin, conducted by Robert Heger, made in Berlin in 1942. He made many recordings of operatic arias, duets and scenes. These recordings are now available on CD. They capture the warmth, strength and sensitivity of his singing during its prime and confirm his reputation as one of the finest Germanic tenors of the 20th century.
He also made recordings of popular songs, some of which can be found on YouTube, including "Heute Nacht Oder Nie".

Elizabeth MacKintosh (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. Her novel The Daughter of Time, a detective work investigating the death of the Princes in the Tower, was chosen by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run.