Finding rare books among Vahe Setian’s collection

Vaհe H Apelian

 

Vahe Setian's collection of rare books donated to the prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church - Courtesy Horizon Weekly

 I read today in “Horizon” Weekly that Vahe Setian’s daughter Ms. Mayda Setian and Mrs. Lena Setian-Der Kaloustian, have donated their father’s large private collection of rare books to the prelacy of Canada. 

The announcement invoked memories in me. Hamazkayin Publishing House is named after Vahe Setian. His business office was found in down town Beirut. If my recollection serves me well it was on the Allenby Street where my father ran his inn “Hotel Lux”. In any event it was a rather short walking distance from my father’s place. I have been there at the Setian’s office with my uncle Antranig Chalabian.  It happened when Antranig Chalabian was collaborating with Dr. Stanely Kerr.

My uncle Antranig Chalabian assisted Dr. Stanley Kerr for writing his book “The Lions of Marash” by providing to the professor primary sources and eye witness accounts for the professor's research. I accompanied my uncle a few times searching for a book or interviewing. I visited with him Vahe Setian’s office where he apparently kept his collection of rare books. 

A few months after the publication of the book “The Lions of Marash”, Antranig Chalabian wrote his recollection as how the book came about in Antranig Zarougian’s “Nairi” Weekly in Beirut, on December 2, 1973. He titled his article “A Big Book’s Little Story”.

I translated Antranig Chalabian’s article and had it published in Keghart.com on September 1, 2012. 

This is what Antranig Chalabian wrote about Vahe Setian’s collection of rare books.  “I continued to search for the book through Librarie Du Liban. I wrote to friends in Paris, but to no avail. Then someone told me to check Vahe Setian’s private collection. Giving the benefit of the doubt that a personal collector would have a book the libraries did not, I visited Vahe Setian to inquire. Not only I found the book I was looking for in his collection, I also found additional seven historical books in French about the Cilician tragedy.”

Antranig Chalabian’s wrote how Dr. Stanley Kerr’s book came about. Their association led to friendship. The Stanleys hosted my uncle and his wife in Princeton where they lived, when my uncle and his wife visited America. 

I linked my translation of my uncle Antranig Chalabian’ s “A Big Book’s Little Story” below for those who are interested to learn the fascinaitng story of the serendipitous events that led Dr. Stanley Kerr write and publish "The Lions of Marash": A Big Book's Little Story: https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/07/antranig-chalabian-big-books-little.html