Monday, December 20, 2010

Morris Cohen, librarian, bibliographer, and friend of legal history, has died

Via Dan Filler:
Morris L. Cohen, a major force in American law libraries in the twentieth century, died this weekend. He was 83. Since 1991, Cohen has been Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. He served as Professor of Law and Director of Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library from 1981 to 1991, after having served from 1971 to 1981 as the Librarian of the Harvard Law School Library. He was also the director of both the Penn and SUNY - Buffalo law libraries. He served as president of the American Association of Law Libraries from 1970 to 1971. He published a number of significant research and bibliographic works, including Bibliography of Early American Law.

Links to info about Cohen's multi-volume Bibliography of Early American Law are here and here. Harvard Law School offers the Morris L. Cohen Fellowship in American Legal Bibliography and History.

Update: The Yale Law Library's obituary is here. The New York Times's obituary--hat tip to Shag--is here, and appears with the terrific portrait at left.