Kathie Coblentz, "a Renaissance woman who read or spoke 13 languages; collaborated on books about the directors Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood and Alfred Hitchcock; and, during her day job, cataloged rare books for more than 50 years at the New York Public Library," died April 3, the New York Times reported. She was 73. Coblentz was the library's third-longest serving employee, working most recently in the 42nd Street research library's special formats processing department of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.
Anthony W. Marx, NYPL's president and CEO, said Coblentz was recruited for a library job in 1969 before she graduated from the University of Michigan: "She thought she'd work at the New York Public Library until she figured out what to do next. Well, she never left."
Deirdre Donohue, her supervisor, described her as the "matriarch of our work family," who cataloged hundreds of items "that were the products of detective work, deep research and skepticism about facts."
Coblentz collaborated with her former teacher from the 1990s at the New School, Robert E. Kapsis, on researching (including translating avant-garde European criticism into English), editing and indexing books. She also edited anthologies of interviews with contemporary filmmakers.
Coblentz's 900-square-foot apartment housed 3,600 books, which had served as inspiration for her The New York Public Library Guide to Organizing a Home Library (2003). The Times noted that "her system of classifying her own collection of books at home defied library science and was ripe for parody. Ms. Coblentz had 16 bookcases holding more than 200 feet of shelf space in her one-bedroom apartment. The books were arranged by country of origin, size, sentimentality and personal obsession."
"Your system doesn't have to be logical," she told the Times in 2005. "It just has to work for you."