News Release

San Francisco – The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center of the San Francisco Public Library is pleased to present French Kiss: Our Enduring Love Affair with France. Drawn from the Library’s Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, the exhibition explores two hundred years of lively and humorous views of France by American writers and artists.

Americans have been passionate about France since the days of Benjamin Franklin. To further the cause of the American Revolution, Franklin sailed to France, residing there for several years and forming close personal friendships with French citizens. His homely manners, great reason and wit appealed to the French and won Franklin great popularity. Of them he wrote: “This is the civilest nation upon earth. Your first acquaintances endeavor to find out what you like, and they tell others…Somebody it seems, gave it out that I lov’d the ladies…By their various attentions and civilities, and their sensible conversation, ‘tis a delightful people to live with.”

Benjamin Franklin wasn’t the only visitor to write affectionately of France. Since the eighteenth century, France has been the object of great interest by American writers, humorists, and artists who have crossed the Atlantic to write about their experiences, influences, and tender attachments; to give tribute to French culture (sometimes grudgingly so) or to write about the quirky confounded nature of the people, known for their liberté, egalité, and fraternité.

In the continuing spirit of fraternité, the San Francisco Public Library invites the public in celebrating French Kiss: Our Enduring Love Affair with France. Over fifty books will be on display: from the writings of Benjamin Franklin to Mark Twain to Art Buchwald and beyond, complemented by materials from Nat Schmulowitz's personal archive. All materials are drawn from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor (SCOWAH).

Located in the Book Arts & Special Collections Center, SCOWAH is a unique resource on all aspects of humor. Presented to the Library in 1947 by Nat Schmulowitz — attorney, bibliophile, humanitarian — the collection has grown to include over 20,000 volumes in 35 languages, covering more than 400 years of wit and humor. The annual SCOWAH exhibition, which opens every April Fool’s Day, is a tribute to Mr. Schmulowitz’s generosity and highlights some of the extraordinary materials that may be found in the collection.

French Kiss opens April 1, 2004, in the Skylight Gallery and continues through July 31. “Thursdays at Noon,” ; the film program sponsored by the Audio-Visual Center at the Main Library, will screen a month of French comedies in May. All programs at the Library are free and open to the public.

Skylight Gallery hours are: Sunday 12-5; Monday 10-6; Tuesday through Thursday 9-6; and Saturday 10-6. For more information, please visit www.sfpl.org or call 415.557.4400.

The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center is home to the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor as well as the Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book, and the Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & lettering. For more information about these collections, please contact Book Arts & Special Collections at 415.557.4560.