The Grolier Club Collects by Abby Tallmer

I know I would have found the romance, challenge, and excitement of history anyhow but that was the first moment the spark ignited in me, and at a second hand I bought a set of Paine’s works that I still have. The idea of touching, let alone owning, such an artifact that changed history,that brought enlightenment to an entire country, was beyond any thrill I could imagine. Decades ago, when I first afford it, I bought this pamphlet for my collection.

My collection (distinct from that of my wife, Shirley McNerney) is concentrated in several areas. I maintain the World War II Museum, described on the Imperial War Museum’s web site as simply the best World War II museum in the world. I have also collected the American West extensively, a collection with its diversity of letters, signed manuscripts, books, artifacts, clothing, guns, coins, stagecoaches, etc. is the most diverse collection in the field. It will be the subject of a book I am currently writing, The Western Pursuit of the American Dream. Other collections in music contain a complex Mozart work in his hand as well as manuscripts of most other composers, and an eclectic collection on philosophy which includes this Thomas Paine pamphlet.

William S. Reese on Isaac Mendes Belisario’s Sketches of Character, In Illustration of the Habits, Occupation, and Costume of the Negro Population, on the Island of Jamaica:

The first half of the nineteenth century was the golden age of illustrated travel books in Europe. The technology and craftsmanship which produced these works disseminated widely, and publications centered around lithographs were produced in some very exotic locales. This is one of the few such actually printed on a Caribbean island.

For a decade I have pursued books with color plates printed in the Americas before 1900. Few are rarer or more intriguing than this one. The work of an otherwise unknown artist and lithographer, its charming plates illustrate the Mardi Gras costumes of recently freed former slaves. It is to me exactly the kind of unheard of “black tulip” which gives spice to a collection as much as the great classics of the genre. I have collected books and prints most of my life, beginning with an interest in the works of John James Audubon, an enthusiasm I shared with my father. I have since formed numerous literary author collections, especially Robert Graves (since given to Yale) and Herman Melville. But my chief love has always been illustrated books about or produced in the Americas. Besides color plate books in the Western Hemisphere, I have pursued illustrated travel narratives, American view books and such genres as architecture books with plates.

Jay I. Kislak on George Washington’s Manuscript Diary, January – December 1762: