Description:

Berg Moe

Two pieces relating to professional baseball player, spy, and polymath Morris "Moe" Berg (1902-1972), including c. 1960 autograph spiral bound pocket note pad signed "M.B." twice, and a 1953 check signed "Morris Berg". Check comes with a signed JSA Letter of Authenticity dated August 24, 2015.


Circa 1960 96 pp Ready Wire-Glo spiral bound pocket note pad with red soft cover measuring 3.25" x 5.25". 39 pages are inscribed in Berg's hand. In near fine condition, the inner pages with a few folds and isolated toning. This small notebook contains Berg’s brief notes on language and communication, including how the form can affect meaning. It also includes quotations from various authors regarding the issues of language and translation.


Excerpts can be found below:


“8 people- meet under clock @ Biltmore @ 8 P.M.”

“ORAL

ENUNCIATION

PRONUNCIATION

-names—taboo

-no last names

royalty—HIROHITO=TENNO HEIKA

-matsumoto (Hiroshima)”

 “written-Japanese can’t read their own lingo=read it different ways”

 “-semantics ‘democracy’ to Hitler Stalin & Roosevelt”

 “-Hungarian studied English 2 years to accept an honor (in English) before the Royal Society àhe wrote in English & Hung  Dole (Sir) on complimenting him said: ‘It’s unusual & satisfying how many Hungarian words as given in your talk approximate [?]”

 “@ U.N during Korean debate M.B. ‘we’d understand him (Korean delegate) better if he spoke Korean”

 “*M B. during war let Europeans speak their own lingo (rather than English) even @ expense of losing something.”

 “lawyers are students of language by profession”

 “Othello of Iago: ‘This honest creature doubtless sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.’”

“*p 19- ‘…identify one’s self with his hearers (or with ball players) etc.”

 “YAHWEH – don’t pronounce of Y H W = JEHOVAH (Yahweh)”

 “* controversies over abstract words: democracy, beauty, freedom, justice, law, right (#cp. suit from a tailor & the ‘reasonable’ rule)”

 “* dictionaries follow usage they do not decide or lead it”

 “*Courts have to decide how legislatures wld have intended the law if they had been acquainted with the situation.”

 “*scientific laws are valid @ all times & places – moral laws are different in every environment”

 “-euphemisms

-cf. ‘spies’ (enemy)

      ‘intelligence officers (one’s own)

-‘partisans’, ‘resistance,’ ‘underground’ vs. ‘rebels’ ‘terrorists’ ‘gangsters’”


Also including an unnumbered check from the National Newark & Essex Banking Co. signed by Berg in the lower right corner. The February 28, 1953 check was issued in the amount of $100 to cash. Bearing multiple stamps verso, and with validation punch out holes. Check comes with a JSA Letter of Authenticity.


 Morris “Moe” Berg was born in the Harlem section of New York City into a Jewish family, but he grew up in Newark, New Jersey. He began playing baseball at age seven and enrolled in New York University, where he played baseball and basketball. In 1919, he transferred to Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1923, with a degree in modern languages. In June 1923, Berg signed with the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers), his first major league contract. He played on several teams in the following seasons as shortstop and catcher. He also worked on a law degree from Columbia University, which he finished in 1930, after passing the New York state bar exam. He played his last five seasons with the Boston Red Sox from 1935 to 1939. He was a Red Sox coach in 1940 and 1941.


 During World War II, Berg served in the office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, monitoring the health of troops in the Caribbean and South America. In 1943, Berg accepted a position with the Office of Strategic Services. As part of the Secret Intelligence branch, he parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate resistance groups operating against the Nazis. He found Tito’s forces stronger and better supported. In 1944, he interviewed European physicists and tried to convince several to leave Europe and work in America. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom in October 1945, but rejected the award in December. In 1951, Berg begged the Central Intelligence Agency to send him to Israel, but the CIA rejected his request. He was a lifelong bachelor and lived with his brother, and then sister, for the last two decades of his life.


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