Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
March 14, 2008
Petra F. ("Pete") Netzorg died of old age on January 1, 2008, at the age of
84.
Petra F. Netzorg was one of the foremost dealers in Antiquarian books on the
Philippines and surrounding areas; her bookstore, The Cellar Book Shop, was
located in Detroit, Michigan for most of her adult life.
Petra F Netzorg's life was anything but average. She was born in Berlin,
Germany in 1923, into an upper-middle-class German Jewish family. The family
members were separated in the late 1930's, due to the Nazi oppression of the
Jews. In 1938, at age 15, Petra escaped to the U.S.A. After arriving in the U.S.,
she worked her way through high school in New Jersey, and then went to The
University of Nebraska on a scholarship. (She went to Nebraska because she was
intent on becoming a fully assimilated American, and she knew she would have
to get away from the influence of the crush of European Jews on the East
coast in order to do this).
After her marriage to Morton J. ("Jock") Netzorg in Michigan, together they
set up an Antiquarian bookstore in Michigan. The bookstore was named The
Cellar Book Shop and Petra was the primary active partner. Petra worked full
time running the bookstore in addition to looking after her husband (a noted
Philippine Studies scholar, as well as an Operations Research expert and
innovator) and the two children who soon came along.
When asked her profession, Petra always listed herself as an Antiquarian
Book Dealer.Over the years, The Cellar Book Shop in Detroit, Michigan became one
of the major Antiquarian bookstores in the world, and one of the very few
dealing primarily in books and maps concerning the Philippines, the rest of
Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Rim. The majority of the clientele consisted of
university libraries (including Special Collections), university scholars,
and book dealers, in all parts of world.
Over the years, Pete and Jock Netzorg accumulated one of the largest private
collections of Filipiniana in the world. Philippine Studies scholars from
many countries came to Detroit to use the research resources provided by the
Netzorg collection. After Jock's death in 1995, the Netzorg Filipiniana
collection was sold to a Foundation in the Philippines, in order to assure that the
collection would be preserved in its entirety in one place.
A few years ago, Petra semi-retired: She sold the books of The Cellar book
Shop to The Book Bin, a bookstore in Corvallis, Oregon, and then she set up an
Internet bookstore to sell some of her personal collection of books.
The Philippines was always the biggest focus of The Cellar Book Shop, and
Petra was connected with many of the important people in Philippine academia,
public life and the arts, on both sides of the Pacific. She carried on a
regular correspondence with a number of those people, as well as exchanging
visits. In addition, through her bookshop, Petra had close contacts with other
individuals in all parts of the world. So, in her many travels (to the
Philippines, other parts of Southeast Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world), she
always received a friendly welcome and a place to stay in the home of a
librarian, a scholar, a book dealer, an artist, a government official, or some
other person whom she might previously have known only through an extended
exchange of friendly correspondence. Thus, she exemplified the saying: "Selling
books may not make you rich, but it will make you rich in friends."
Sincerely,
David M. Netzorg (Son)
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Phone (248) 943-3292
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