More 1232 Madison

The Poe scholar Thomas Ollive Mabbott was not the only academic to have resided at 1232 Madison Avenue, the building whose WPA tax photograph starred in an OCA post this past Sunday. In 1926, Lawrence Buermeyer, who taught philosophy at New York University, resided in a 1232 apartment, where he was soundly beaten by his friend Joseph Carson, who taught philosophy at Columbia University.

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1926. Click any image for a larger view.]

[Brooklyn Citizen, October 24, 1926.]

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 22, 1926.]

The story attracted considerable attention, with a lengthy article in the The New York Times — “Teachers’ Fight Is Laid to Drink” — and another in Time, with the terse title “Jag.” The Time report, partly available in front of the paywall, suggests that something more than philosophical questions was at issue between the two men. At any rate, this incident makes the perhaps apocryphal story of Wittgenstein’s poker seem positively mild.

I don’t know what became of these fellows. Buermeyer (1889–1970) had at least two books to his name. Carson had at least two book reviews — one, another — to his.

One never knows what might go with a particular address. Thanks, Brian, for finding this strange story.