Biography of Leslie H. Kuehner & Description of the Napoleon Collection

Leslie H. Kuehner was a devoted bibliophile whose collecting energies were focused on work relating to the life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte. The period of his collecting career spanned eight decades and culminated with the gift of his collection of books, sculpture and other memorabilia to Christian Brothers University in 1978 shortly before his death.

Leslie Henri Kuehner was born on April 8, 1893 in Booneville, Missouri, the son of Louis C. Kuehner and Catherine Brauer Kuehner. He attended St. Peter's and Paul Elementary school there, and Booneville Business College for two years. Leslie married Agnes Cecilie Lyman on June 24, 1913 at Visitation Church in St. Louis, Missouri. The Kuehners had six children, Hortense, Natale (now Sr. Mary Immaculata SCN), Jacqueline, Robert, James and Jacques.

Employed by the Memphis and St. Louis Clearing House, Leslie and the family moved to Memphis in the late 1920s. He later worked for the Percy McDonald Law firm and for the next twenty years, until his retirement in 1958, he was Executive Secretary and Manager of the Memphis Catholic Club. As manager of the club for over twenty years he was a well known figure in Memphis. For twenty four years, he served as president of the Particular Council of Memphis of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a noted charity organization of the area.

Kuehner obtained his interest in Napoleon ancestrally. His imagination was sparked at age 14 when he discovered that his maternal great-grandfather was a member of the Napoleonic Old Guard and had fought alongside the French military monarch at Waterloo in 1815. Then too, he may have a natural affinity for Napoleonana. He named the first four of his six children for members of the Bonaparte family - Hortense Eugenie Rita, Robert Louis Napoleon, Natalie Marie Josephine and James Lucien Jerome. Then when Mrs. Kuehner was expecting their fifth child, she decreed that there would be no more Napoleonic Kuehners. Given his choice in names, Mr. Kuehner named the fifth and sixth (they were twins) Jacques and Jacqueline. It was not until later, Kuehner declared, that he found through his continuing research that Napoleon's brother Lucien was the father of twins, a boy and a girl, who names were Jacques and Jacqueline. In succeeding generations, however, Mrs. Kuehner, who was Irish, prevailed in the matter of names. Of the Kuehner's 15 grandchildren and five great grandchildren by the time of Mrs. Kuehner's death, none had Napoleonic names.

It should also be said that Mr. Kuehner bore no traces of the Napoleonic complex. His admiration for his hero was entirely objective. He even conceded that Napoleon was not without his faults. "He was overly ambitious, and in some things ruthless," Mr. Kuehner said, "and I don't think I am either of these."

Mr. Kuehner read and reread the hundreds of Napoleonic volumes which occupied his home at 827 North Manassas in Memphis. He was by his own cheerful admission, "some kind of a nut - a nut on the life and time of Napoleon Bonaparte." Mr. Kuehner would be more aptly called a Napoleonic scholar, but being a man of humor an intelligence had no objection to the use of the more informal term. And Napoleon Bonaparte, although dead over 175 years, did in truth live at the North Manassas address. He lived on there in more than 1,800 volumes of Napoleonic history collected over the years by Mr. Kuehner, and in the hundreds of pieces of statuary, memorabilia and mementoes that lined the walls and shelves of Leslie's home.

The collection, which Kuehner believed may well have comprised the most complete private collection of its kind in the world, cost him over $15,000 to assemble in his lifetime. He had paid as much as $100 for a single book. What the statuary and other memorabilia was worth he had no idea, but it would not have mattered since he had no thought of selling any of the collection. He collected the books and the other Napoleonic items because of his love for the man. While some volumes in his collection were quite rare, all of the books were well used. Leslie Kuehner did not just "collect" materials, he read and reread the books constantly and became a true student of Napoleon. Kuehner loved to talk about Napoleon and he did so most interestingly and knowledgeably whenever the occasion presented itself. He often lectured on the subject at schools or before social clubs. "America's Debt to Napoleon," and "Napoleon's Love Life," were among his favorite topics.

When the present collection arrived at Christian Brothers University it was a rich trove of approximately 1300 books and other Napoleonic memorabilia. While the collection is composed of books in twelve languages (English, Russian, Arabic, Flemish, Swedish, Japanese, Norwegian, German, Italian, French, Greek, Polish and Braille), only a handful of books are written entirely in French, Napoleon's native language. The real strength of this collection is its English materials which expose the British reaction to this French phenomena through books written during Victorian and Edwardian years about Napoleon and his campaigns. To put it in psychological terms, the British seem to have had a classic love-hate relationship for Napoleon which is captured in these materials. The British, especially after his death, loved Napoleon because he embodied the romantic ideal of the hero who brought down the ancient system of hereditary kings and princes. The British hated him, especially during his life, because he threatened their status quo, costing them the blood of their loved ones in the European theater, and set loose on their shores invasion hysteria.

The most expensive book, printed in 1817, is An Historic Account Of The Campaign in the Netherlands, in 1815, under His Grace, the Duke of Wellington, and Prince Marshall Blucher, comprising the Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo. Kuehner began his collection of "Old Nap" in 1904 and kept adding to it until 1978. Of the dozens of items of bric-a-brac, one of the most valuable is the marble bust of Napoleon by sculptor, Canova; it is now in the Christian Brothers University Plough Library. The original of this bust is in the Wellington Museum in London, a place visited by Kuehner. The marble bust was given to Kuehner by Edward F. Barry, a noted Memphis lawyer and friend, over thirty years ago. Barry had obtained it at an auction when the John Gaston Hotel in downtown Memphis closed. In 1943 and again in 1953, Kuehner traveled throughout England, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Corscia and St. Elba pursuing his dedication to Napoleon. Agnes Kuehner died on February 26, 1961 and Leslie on January 10, 1980.

In January of 1995 the entire collection of books was placed under the care of Brother I. Leo O'Donnell Archives and Special Collections section of the Christian Brothers University Plough Library. Some of the volumes listed in the bibliographical guide are in delicate condition and need continued care. The collection is open for research on a limited basis.

Christian Brothers University is fortunate to have this valuable collection. We are grateful to Leslie Kuehner and his family for this gift and their continued interest in the collection.

From September 1997 to March 1998 the entire collection was checked for standard on the FirstSearch - WorldCat by Margaret Atkinson, an archives assistant at Christian Brothers University. Each entry was searched and some double searched to represent the most accurate listing in this bibliography. We are grateful for her tenacity and hard work in bringing this work to a completion.