Jerome David Kern, one of the leading American popular-song writers of the twentieth century, wrote more than 1,000 songs for 104 shows and movies. Most of these songs have been forgotten, but millions of people have heard and enjoyed such melodies as "Ol' Man River" (from Show Boat), "The Last Time I Saw Paris," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," and "They Didn't Believe Me." He was also a serious and knowledgeable collector of books and manuscripts, and the auctioning off of his collection was the most spectacular sale of books in this country before World War II.

Kern was born on 27 January 1885 in New York City. His father, Henry Kern, had been born in Germany in 1842. His mother, Fannie Kakeles Kern, had been born in New York in 1852. Both parents were from well-to-do Jewish families, but after their marriage in a synagogue they had nothing more to do with their...