Leo L. Tauritz was born in Vilna (now Lithuania) and emigrated to the United States when he was four months old. At age four Tauritz was taken to a shul, which he attended until age 12. In 1921, Tauritz graduated from Commercial High School in Brooklyn. In 1918, while attending high school, he worked on the night staff of the Bar Association Library as a call boy. Tauritz's parents were caretakers of a five-story apartment building in New York City. One of the Tauritzes' tenants had a son attending New York University, and she advised Mrs. Tauritz that Leo would receive a better education there than at the Business School of City College (currently Baruch College).
Tauritz entered NYU's School of Commerce in 1921 and enrolled in day courses, affording him the ability to work nights at the Bar Association. Tauritz graduated from NYU in 1924 and found work at the accounting firm H. J. and M. H. Behrman. At this firm, Tauritz served the accounts of Barnet J. Beyer, of the Barnet J. Beyer Rare Book Company on East 50th Street, from 1925 until Beyer's death in 1947. Under Beyer's guidance, Tauritz learned much about rare books and developed a great love for them.
Tauritz obtained his C.P.A. license in 1930 and left the Behrman firm in 1933 to form his own accounting firm. In 1933 Tauritz became interested in the library at NYU's University Heights Campus. Under the guidance of Professor Theodore F. Jones, a member of the Society for the Libraries of New York University, Tauritz began to give rare and valuable books to the library. He had a particular interest in Lord Byron and built up a substantial collection of this poet, including the very rare Don Juan in original parts. Tauritz also possessed a fondness for Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and over time, Tauritz presented several hundred titles of or relating to these three poets to the University Heights Library.
Tauritz joined the Society for the Libraries of New York University in 1934 and served on the Society's Executive Committee from 1951 into the 1980s. He also served as president of the Society from 1953-1954. Tauritz made numerous gifts of rare books to the library at NYU's University Heights Campus, the Elmer E. Brown House for English Studies (on the Heights Campus), the library at Washington Square College, and the library at the School of Commerce. He presented his collection to Professor Bayrd Still, former Director of the University Archives, on May 8, 1981. These materials document the unique contributions of one NYU alumnus to the growth of the NYU library system.
From the guide to the Leo Tauritz Papers, 1934-1980, (New York University Archives)
