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Finding Aid for the Alberto Muller Schaertlin's The yellow count, 1935-1939
170/454
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Title: Alberto Muller Schaertlin
The yellow count
Date (inclusive): 1935-1939
Collection number: 170/454
Creator:
Schaertlin, Alberto Muller
Extent:
335 leaves : paper, ill. ; 274 x 215 mm. bound to 281 x 227 mm.
Abstract: Typescript of an unpublished account of a international swindle,
The Yellow Count, with extensive appendices of material relating to the fictional events.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Purchased from J. G. Stanoff, Booksellers, 1970.
Cataloged by Jonathan Naito with assistance from Jain Fletcher and Laurel McPhee, September 2004, in the Center For Primary
Research and Training (CFPRT).
[Identification of item], Alberto Muller Schaertlin The yellow count (Collection 170/454). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4230403
Little is known about Alberto Muller Schaertlin, other than that he seems to have been a man with unfulfilled literary aspirations.
Notes inside the front cover indicate he lived in New York City during the 1930s before moving to Los Angeles in the second
half of the decade. The second page of material tipped in between the front endpapers claims that the author spent two years
in Europe doing research after the manuscript was completed. He registered
The Yellow Count with the Author's League of America in 1934, and the Screen Writers Guild in 1940. He may have been of Swiss origin or heritage
(Schaertlin enclosed a copy of a letter by Max Graf, the chancellor of the Consulate of Switzerland in Los Angeles, in which
the chancellor praises the manuscript, suggesting that it will be popular as a novel and a film in both the United States
and Europe.) The materials in the appendix also suggest that Schaertlin was very interested in Japanese imperialism.
The typescript is the fictional account (with supporting documentation) for the story of Igor de Tilinsky, a Russian who had
served in the army during the Russo-Japanese War. Tilinsky claimed to possess a contract drawn up by the Japanese during the
war promising 138 million yen in exchange for Russian military secrets. However, the contract stipulated that the sum was
to be paid on March 22, 1915; in the years leading up to 1915, Tilinsky and two associates traveled from Odessa to Zurich
to London, attempting to make lavish purchases in exchange for future payments from this windfall. Approximately one quarter
of the manuscript is devoted to appendices with background material gathered by Schaertlin, apparently during a two-year stay
in Europe. The appendices include material on the historical background of Japanese imperialism, typed transcriptions of newspaper
articles and legal documents, and photostats of documents from the British Museum. The articles emphasize that the Japanese
contract was a hoax, though it is clear that the story also had its believers, especially among those who doubted that the
Japanese could have defeated the Russians at Port Arthur without inside information.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Manuscripts.
Bound Manuscripts Collection (Collection 170)
. Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.