Jens Christian Bay was a Danish American writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

.

Born in Rudkøbing

Rudkøbing

Rudkøbing is a town on the island of Langeland in Denmark with a population of 4,697 belonging to Langeland municipality .-References:...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Bay came to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1892 and took a position with the Missouri Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden

The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder Henry Shaw, a botanist and philanthropist.-History:...

 in St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. He later worked for the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 and, in 1905, became a librarian at the John Crerar Library

John Crerar Library

The John Crerar Library is a library, which after a long history of independent operations, is currently operated by the University of Chicago. It is recognized as one of the best libraries in the country for research and teaching in the sciences, medicine, and technology...

 at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

. From 1928 to 1947 he was chief librarian of the Crerar Library.

Bay was recognized as an authority on many subjects, including rare books

Book collecting

Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given individual collector. The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and collect...

, but was particularly interested in botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

, English literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 and the history of the American Midwest

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

. He was a long-time friend of Young E. Allison

Young E. Allison

Young Ewing Allison was an American writer and newspaper editor.Born in Henderson, Kentucky, Allison was partially deaf from an early age and became a voracious reader. By the age of fifteen he was working as an editor for the Henderson News; in 1873, he moved to Evansville, Indiana, where he...

, an author and newspaper editor of Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

. Bay and Allison shared a variety of interests, including the history of Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster

Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...

, James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the Hoosier Poet and Children's Poet for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively...

, Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....

 and Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

. Bay was also interested in the literature of his native Denmark and was knighted by the King Frederick IX

Frederick IX of Denmark

Frederick IX was King of Denmark from 20 April 1947 until his death on 14 January 1972....

in 1947.
He died in Chicago in 1962.

Selected works

• Danish Fairy & Folktales, 1899
• Bibliographies of Botany, 1909
• Denmark in English and American Literature: A Bibliography, 1915
• Conrad Gesner (1516-1565), the Father of Bibliography, 1916
• Echoes of Robert Louis Stevenson, 1920
• Rare and Beautiful Imprints of Chicago, 1922
• The Chalice of the Chipped Ruby, 1922
• The Manuscripts of Robert Louis Stevenson's Records of a Family of Engineers, 1929
• Om Danskhedens Vaesen, 1933
• A Handful of Western Books, 1935
• A Second Handful of Western Books, 1936
• A Third Handful of Western Books, 1937
• The Dummy Library of Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, 1937
• The Pickwick Papers: Some Bibliographical Remarks, 1938
• The Fortune of Books, 1941
• A Heroine of the Frontier: Miriam Davis Colt in Kansas, 1856, 1941
• The Mystery of the Irish Crown Jewels, 1944
• In the House of Memories, 1946
• Journeys and Voyages to Nature: A Survey of One Hundred Books, 1950
• The Bookman is a Hummingbird: Book Collecting in the Middle West and the House of Walter M. Hill, 1952
• Mississippi: Pennestrog om Amerikas Kinge-AA, 1952
• God Speede the Plough, 1953
• George Washington: Citizen and Farmer, 1956
• Bog-Ormen Vejer Videnskab og Visdom: En Laegmands Betragtninger, 1958
• Tvende Verdener Modes: En Udvandrerlaeges Minder, 1960
• Livet Laerte Mig, 1950 (Contributor)

Sources

• "Dr. Jens C. Bay Dies; Famed in Library Field," Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1962, pg. B14.
• Lawrence Sydney Thompson, Jens Christian Bay, Bibliologist, 1963.
• Selected Works of Young E. Allison, Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton, 1935.