BookScouter fans, you know to use the ISBN to find the value of your books. If you haven’t used BookScouter before, we’re glad to enlighten you! ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. To learn more about the ISBN, check out our resource post here. Why do books in the U.S. have these numbers? Read on.
The Early Life of Emery Koltay
Emery Koltay, a brilliant boy born in Transylvania in 1921, faced obstacles throughout his life. During WWII, he escaped not one, but several Hungarian labor camps, then lived in Budapest under an assumed name for the remainder of the war. After the trials of WWII under German occupation, he returned to his homeland, now part of Romania, and tried to resume a normal life by completing his schooling and starting a family.
Unfortunately, the Communist secret police arrested Koltay in 1958, and he was once again looking at the world through prison bars. Found guilty of helping Jews escape the regime, he served a four-year sentence. Shortly after his release, Koltay waved good-bye to his European home and emigrated with his family to the U.S. No one can blame him after the years he had spent imprisoned and in forced labor camps.
The Establishment of ISBN
Koltay established himself as an editor and publisher of reference books in the United States. His abilities and intelligence landed him a job to work with the Library of Congress to develop and launch the ISBN code system with David Whitaker. The company that Koltay directed, R.R. Bowker, became the official ISBN agency for the U.S. and Australia and is still to this day. R.R. Bowker assists clients in selling and promoting their books and also provides a book identification service. It is also responsible for the barcode to easily scan the ISBN. Koltay died in August 2012 in New York after battling ill health for several years.
Emery Koltay’s story reminds us of the importance of looking past numbers to see the story. I find it amazing that a man who lived in the midst of such chaos brought order to an entire industry. Thanks, Emery Koltay.
Interesting to learn about, huh? Next time you enter your book’s ISBN code on BookScouter.com or scan the bar code on the BookScouter app, remember the story of one of the men who made it happen. For more information about finding the ISBN on your book, check out our video here.
