Marc Selvaggio is In Search of Ephemera

Here is an item that must be exceedingly rare, not just because of itself, but because of the event it celebrated: Souvenir, Raising of the first American League Pennant won by the St. Louis Browns... The Browns were the epitome of mediocrity, and that was in their good years. They competed in the American league from 1902 through 1953, when the baseball club moved to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Orioles. In all of those years, the Browns captured the pennant but once – 1944 – which is celebrated by this once-in-a-lifetime souvenir. Of course, 1944 was a war year, with many major league ballplayers off to war. Teams were forced to put together ragtag rosters from those left behind. This enabled the Browns to sneak by for the one and only pennant in their history. Naturally, they lost the World Series to their crosstown rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. Item 365. $125.

Item 42 was a promotional for a new car and stock solicitation for its manufacturer, but really it was much more – a solicitation for a new form of energy. It is headed Liquid Air, Power & Automobile Co. of Boston. They claimed to have a way of producing liquid air for half the cost of others, and a car that would run on this new energy source, the Peerless Automobile (not to be confused with the Peerless that was manufactured from 1900-1931). The Liquid Air Company had no shyness in proclaiming the superiority of its energy source, claiming it would soon replace steam and electricity as the preferred source of power. What's more they had all the patents necessary to maintain a monopoly in the field. Who would not want to invest in this company? The answer turned out to be anyone who wanted to hold onto their money. This pamphlet would have come from 1899-1900, and by 1901, the company was in receivership. Exactly how this car operated on liquid air is not clear, but it is safe to say it was not very well. $450.

Item 18 is a promotional piece for agents to sell the book Before the Footlights and Behind the Scenes by Olive Logan. The promotional is from 1869. It is claimed “No book since 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' has created such an interest,” which can only mean there was a great dearth of interesting books published between 1852 and 1869. Ms. Logan had a fairly short career before the footlights, and a much longer one writing articles for newspapers and public speaking. Mark Twain had an interesting take on Ms. Logan's talents: “Olive Logan's notoriety grew out of -- only the initiated knew what. Apparently it was a manufactured notoriety, not an earned one. She did write and publish little things in newspapers and obscure periodicals, but there was no talent in them, and nothing resembling it.” Sort of a 19^th century Kardashian. $75.

Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera, may be reached at 510-548-8009 or dsbooks@comcast.net.