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**Mabel Zahn** (1890-1975). Philadelphia bookseller and from 1955 the president of the firm of [[Charles Sessler]]. From [[https://discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-3205/Description|a description of the Charles Sessler records]] at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 

"When owner [[Charles Sessler]] died in 1935, responsibility for its operations was divided between [[J. Leonard Sessler]] and Mabel Zahn. Zahn was in charge of rare books, manuscripts, and prints, servicing many important collectors and institutions, such as [[Charles J. Rosenbloom,]] [[Richard Dietrich,]] the American Philosophical Society, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Delaware County Historical Society. After [[J. Leonard Sessler]]'s death in the 1950s, Zahn directed the shop until she passed away in 1975."

See also mention of Zahn under [[https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/bookselling/|the essay entry on "Bookselling"]] in the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. An anecdotal mention of her at the time of her final illness appears in the [[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97229708/dere-mabel-philadelphia-inquirer-10jan/|Philadelphia Inquirer of 10 January 1975]]. (She would at this time have been about 85 years old; she is described in this column as "[k]nown throughout the book collecting world" and as having "appropriately enough, skin of an opaque parchment color.") Newton's allusion to "Dere Mabel" refers presumably to [[https://books.google.com/books?id=QWoYAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=streeter%20dere%20mabel&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false|the once-popular 1918 humorous book by Edward Streeter]], //Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie//. 

Zahn's [[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97229865/mable-a-zahn-obituary-philadelphia-inq/|death announcement]] in the 11 January 1975 number of the //Inquirer// notes that in lieu of flowers, the family instead asks for donations to the [[https://libwww.freelibrary.org/locations/departments/rare-book-department|Rare Book Department]] of the [[https://www.freelibrary.org/|Free Library of Philadelphia]]. 

Sales of her books at [[Freeman's]] Auctions in Philadelphia seem to have brought good prices; [[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102393624/mabel-zahns-books-at-auction/|a note in the Antiques column]] of the Inquirer of 19 December 1975 notes that [[Clarence Wolf]] of the [[George S. MacManus Co.]] had bought all but one of the proof sheets and presentation copies of books by [[A. Edward Newton]], many evidently inscribed to Zahn.
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