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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from housetof

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Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sarah Dowdy and I'm to bling a Chuck Reboarding. And

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Speaker 1: this spring we did an episode on George Aarons, who

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Speaker 1: was a famous biller file who donated two very extensive

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Speaker 1: collections to the New York Public Library. And if you

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Speaker 1: remember from that episode, Errants, who was in the tobacco business,

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Speaker 1: received some critical advice early on that he really took

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Speaker 1: to heart. It was choose lots of hobbies when you're young,

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Speaker 1: and then as you get older and have to give

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Speaker 1: some of those hobbies up, you're still donna have plenty

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Speaker 1: to do. And Aran's did end up quitting some of

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Speaker 1: his youthful hobbies like race car driving, but he stuck

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Speaker 1: with book collecting and found it so fulfilling he spent

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Speaker 1: much of his time lecturing about it and recommending collecting

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Speaker 1: to others. His main point, though, something he himself learned

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Speaker 1: early on from bookseller William Ever, It was to focus

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Speaker 1: your collection. Essentially, don't just buy a bunch of first

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Speaker 1: editions of books you enjoy. Pick something, become an expert

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Speaker 1: in it, and this way, even if you don't have

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Speaker 1: the budget for big purchases, or if your collection is

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Speaker 1: very small, it's still a collection. It's a collection right

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Speaker 1: from the start. So we suspected that our listeners might

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Speaker 1: be just the kind of folks with obscure focus book collections.

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Speaker 1: And after that episode, in our sort of well I

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Speaker 1: guess our listener mail sort of segment, we asked y'all

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Speaker 1: to send in some stories to us. We thought that

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Speaker 1: we might get maybe a few examples of collections enough

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Speaker 1: for a little listener mail segment at the end of

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Speaker 1: a podcast, but we ended up getting tons of stories

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Speaker 1: from people, and so many of these suggestions were interesting.

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Speaker 1: Some were such focused, incredible sounding collections that we decided

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Speaker 1: to dedicate a whole podcast to talking about it. So

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Speaker 1: consider this a collector's edition podcast in more ways than one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and we had a couple of different categories, several different

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Speaker 1: categories of types of emails that we got from people,

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Speaker 1: so we want to kind of try to break it

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Speaker 1: down that way. A lot of folks, for example, wrote

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Speaker 1: in telling us about collections that kicked off with one

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Speaker 1: book one particular interest that grew over time. For example,

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Speaker 1: listeners Cindy and Nashville said that after reading Antonia Frasier's

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Speaker 1: book on Mary, Queen of Scott's in the eighth grade,

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Speaker 1: she started collecting other books about women in history that

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Speaker 1: were written by female historians, and she said, quote, I'm

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Speaker 1: fifty seven now and I've read a wonderful history as

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Speaker 1: of famous women by Nancy Goldstone, Alison Weir, Rebecca Fraser,

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Speaker 1: Harriet O'Brien, Sarah Bradford, Maria Perry, Caroley, Ericsson, Hannah Pecoola,

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Speaker 1: Nancy Mitford, and many others. Now that I'm retired as

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Speaker 1: an editor of thirty three years, and because of your

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Speaker 1: Arrand's podcast, I'm going to reread all of these books

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Speaker 1: in my focus collection, beginning of course with Antonia Fraser

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Speaker 1: on Mary, Queen of Scott's. So I loved this note,

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Speaker 1: especially since mer Queen of Scots is one of my favorites,

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Speaker 1: and it was an interest that also came about from

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Speaker 1: reading a biography. But I also we mentioned Alison were

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Speaker 1: on a lot of episodes. Rebecca Fraser, she wrote the

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Speaker 1: Charlotte Bronze biography we talked about. So yes, Cindy, we

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Speaker 1: kind of covet your collection. Apparently another listener and that

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Speaker 1: from San Francisco, how a collection start in a similar

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Speaker 1: sort of way, having that one book that you really

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Speaker 1: like and that kicks everything off. And she said that

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Speaker 1: as a teenager during the Olympics, she got Olympic fever

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Speaker 1: really bad, and after the games ended, she started reading

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Speaker 1: all about their history, so starting small and expanding her

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Speaker 1: collection over time. And she wrote, quote, I don't have

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Speaker 1: the time or the money to seek out and hunt

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Speaker 1: for books as George did. But when I go to

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Speaker 1: a place with Olympic significance, either a person or a

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Speaker 1: place or a use bookstore, I make it a point

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Speaker 1: to swing by the souvenir store or sports and biography

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Speaker 1: sections to see if there are any books of interest.

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Speaker 1: And she even has collected some autographs, you know, some

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Speaker 1: some Olympic memorabilia sort of stuff over the years. And

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Speaker 1: I thought this was a good tip too for um

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Speaker 1: collectors who aren't trying to get the perfect rare editions

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing, but have a general interest. You

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Speaker 1: know that she just makes it a point, It's a habit,

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Speaker 1: something she always looks for. That is a great point

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Speaker 1: you can make something out of and can make you

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Speaker 1: can make a collection out of something that you like

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Speaker 1: to do too, or something that you enjoy. Just a

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Speaker 1: side note to this event also collects cocktail books focusing

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Speaker 1: specifically on historical recipes or is she put it quote

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Speaker 1: everything before the time when Red Bull made it into

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Speaker 1: the drinks. So some of our other listeners found their

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Speaker 1: book collections not so much from this one book that

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Speaker 1: kicked everything off, but a collection that sprang naturally from

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Speaker 1: other interests. So one example was George, who is also

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Speaker 1: a public librarian. So he said that he especially loves

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Speaker 1: literary topics, and he wrote to tell us that he

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Speaker 1: has eight six hundred volume library devoted to Disney that

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Speaker 1: he started back in nine and he said, quote, I

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Speaker 1: began with books about Walt Disney World and slowly began

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Speaker 1: purchasing books about Disneyland, biographies on key people, animation, and

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Speaker 1: cultural sociological titles. There's only one other person that rivals

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Speaker 1: my collection, and he works in a Disney corporate library

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Speaker 1: at Walt Disney World. So there you go. I think

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Speaker 1: I know a few people in our office who would

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Speaker 1: covet that collection. I do too. We'll have to let

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Speaker 1: her know because George has also sort of transferred this

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Speaker 1: interest in all Things Disney and his interest in Disney

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Speaker 1: books to a blog. Yes, it does, a blog on

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Speaker 1: his library, and he hosts a video podcast listeners. Scott

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Speaker 1: from Virginia also had an interest or a hobby that

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Speaker 1: naturally resulted in a book collection for him. He wrote quote,

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Speaker 1: I found that I agree with Aaron's uncle on the

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Speaker 1: point of starting life with many interests and then honing

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Speaker 1: in on one or two later that you really enjoy.

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Speaker 1: One of my interests is birds and nature. My bird

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Speaker 1: book collection is very meaningful to me, as I have

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Speaker 1: picked up many foreign country bird guides when traveling and

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Speaker 1: others from use bookstores. I also often refer to them

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Speaker 1: for affirmation of a sighting, or if I read of

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Speaker 1: a sighting overseas. It's also neat to look back on

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Speaker 1: older editions to see how the common names for birds

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Speaker 1: have changed over time. Some Asian guides are not in English,

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Speaker 1: but the Latin or scientific names there so I can

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Speaker 1: still reference it against the North American species that I

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Speaker 1: know better. My collection includes many books beyond guides, mostly

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Speaker 1: nonfiction that discussed birds and birding experiences. I have not

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Speaker 1: yet collected classic pieces of fiction. Shakespeare Royal letters for

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Speaker 1: instance that in include birds or birds names alas, I've

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Speaker 1: already downloaded some bird guide apps for myself and wonder

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Speaker 1: what the future of book collecting will be. There are

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Speaker 1: feelings brought out in holding a hundred year old bird

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Speaker 1: guide and imagining a previous owner using it to make

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Speaker 1: discoveries of their own that computer applications just don't master,

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Speaker 1: and that that feeling of thinking about what the previous

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Speaker 1: owner felt is something we're going to run into. And

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Speaker 1: some of these later listener meals, but this one reminded

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Speaker 1: me a lot of Audubon since we recently did on

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Speaker 1: him and Birds of America, And I wonder if Scott

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Speaker 1: has listened to that episode. Yeah, I know, probably, I

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Speaker 1: hope though, um, but yeah, that was something where clearly

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Speaker 1: the book, the physical book, was so important and I

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Speaker 1: can understand I'm not a birdwatcher myself, but I can

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Speaker 1: understand how an app would be pretty useful. But it

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Speaker 1: seems like there does still need to be a place

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Speaker 1: for a hard copy book, something that's beautiful in and

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Speaker 1: of itself. And as he said, when it comes to

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Speaker 1: like the cross checking between them, that was different. It

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Speaker 1: was interesting and the history to the ornithological history almost

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Speaker 1: how things change every time. Of course, some listeners had

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Speaker 1: a pretty different take on the digital situation, and one

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Speaker 1: was listener Luna, who doesn't collect books per se, but

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Speaker 1: certainly she collects the kind of information that could someday

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Speaker 1: end up in books. I mean, I have been wondered

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Speaker 1: if maybe that was her land, she wrote in to

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Speaker 1: say quote, my collection is a digital collection by necessity

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Speaker 1: because I cannot take home the object of my hobby, gravestones.

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Speaker 1: I began by photographing all of the tombstones in my

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Speaker 1: county before learning the lesson. Errants was taught from the

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Speaker 1: beginning to have a focus. So now I traveled to

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Speaker 1: cemetery's photographing gravestone art statues and animal portraits, carving, etcetera,

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Speaker 1: attempting to chronicle the changing trends. And I thought this

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Speaker 1: was just cool too, because it shows that the focuses

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Speaker 1: is applicable to all sorts of hobbies, um including ones

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Speaker 1: that don't have much to do with book collecting. Yet

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Speaker 1: so Errant's advice can mean something even if you're not

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Speaker 1: a bookie person. Necessarily, other collectors don't necessarily take the

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Speaker 1: same approach as Errants in this way, though, listener Valerie

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Speaker 1: from Austin, for example, has a penchant for children's and

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Speaker 1: young adults literature, and she wrote in suggesting that we

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Speaker 1: cover ghost writers of famous serials like Nancy Drew and

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Speaker 1: like The Hardy Boys, but also told us quote, I

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Speaker 1: am collecting all the Doctor Seuss books, but I'm only

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Speaker 1: getting them from garage sales, thrift stores, and other used copies.

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Speaker 1: It's fun to get the books knowing that they have

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Speaker 1: a kind of history of readers, especially knowing how much

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Speaker 1: I loved reading them as a kid, and other kids

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Speaker 1: learned to read with these books. So in that case,

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Speaker 1: the point is really having a used book, because you

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Speaker 1: know that this book has has seen some action over

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Speaker 1: over its days. And I think it's a pretty great

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Speaker 1: argument for adding non pristine books to a collection, especially

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Speaker 1: when children's books are involved in The stakes are are

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Speaker 1: as high as somebody learning how to read on this book.

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Speaker 1: And I personally love really finding books that somebody has inscribed,

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Speaker 1: whether as a gift or just signed their own name. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's a really great example of a book here at work.

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Speaker 1: I tried to find it before this episode had vanished

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Speaker 1: off the shelf. It was then old. How it works

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Speaker 1: type book. There are there are real housetuff works books here,

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Speaker 1: but also ones that I don't know if somebody you

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Speaker 1: must have brought in at some point for for comparison.

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Speaker 1: But this one was from the nineteen twenties or so,

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Speaker 1: and it was inscribed to a kid graduating prep school,

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Speaker 1: like here's everything you need to know. And I think

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Speaker 1: it really tells you a lot about what's in the

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Speaker 1: book and suggests to you that somebody thought that this

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Speaker 1: was important enough to give as a gift, so it's

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Speaker 1: worth keeping, it's worth looking at and for somebody it's

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Speaker 1: going to be interesting. Still. Yeah, would you inscribe those

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Speaker 1: books yourself too? I mean, then you do you then

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Speaker 1: add to the history. Oh I don't know. I think

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Speaker 1: maybe once it's inscribed, you can't really do it again, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: just save it? Yeah? Maybe? Well. Listener Leah wrote in

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Speaker 1: with a focus kind of similar to Valerie. She said

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Speaker 1: that she's been collecting old books for several years, in

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Speaker 1: particular educational works published between eighteen seventy and nineteen forty,

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Speaker 1: and she said, quote, my collection includes textbooks, children's books, encyclopedias,

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Speaker 1: and popular volumes on science, geography, art, and history. As

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Speaker 1: well as dictionaries and several languages. I find most of

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Speaker 1: them at our local flea market, often for a dollar

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Speaker 1: or two, though I've been known to seek out volumes

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Speaker 1: I especially crave on eBay. I don't have the usual

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Speaker 1: collector standards of prime condition. Many of my books have

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Speaker 1: loose covers, torn pages, foxing, interior writing, and other flaws.

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Speaker 1: But I love them anyway. I find the writing style

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Speaker 1: and the sometimes startlingly outdated information fascinating and often amusing.

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Speaker 1: And I always admire the beautifully engraved illustrations. And she

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Speaker 1: went on to say that those striking illustrations, and I

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Speaker 1: really I knew what she was talking that here. I

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Speaker 1: used to have an old, kind of fifties era set

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Speaker 1: of children's encyclopedias, but I'd look at when I was

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Speaker 1: a kid, and they did have pretty crazy illustrations. But

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Speaker 1: she said that a lot of that colorful, sometimes out

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Speaker 1: of date illustrative style would inspire her in her own art,

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Speaker 1: and that's why she got into it in the first place.

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Speaker 1: She often scans the illustration. She doesn't want to rip

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Speaker 1: up the book through anything, so she's and them, prints

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Speaker 1: them out archival at and then incorporates those prints into

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Speaker 1: her own pieces of art, and she said, quote, I

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Speaker 1: love the layers of meaning, texture and history that these

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Speaker 1: pages add to my work. She attached a few examples

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Speaker 1: of them to show us. They're really lavish illustrations, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of them had faint text in the background.

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Speaker 1: They did look kind of like they were out of

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Speaker 1: a children's encyclopedia, but in a very modern sort of way.

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Speaker 1: So this was definitely a group of people who appreciated

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Speaker 1: Errant's advice to be very focused while they were working

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Speaker 1: on their collections. But listener Wynn wrote in to tell

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Speaker 1: us that while errants be specific advice might be wise,

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Speaker 1: there could also be such a thing as being a

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Speaker 1: little too specific. He said that while working at Harvard's

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Speaker 1: Rare Books Library, quote, my responsibilities included creating provisional computer

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Speaker 1: records for new collections of books the library had acquired.

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Speaker 1: A collector had donated to the library his prize collection

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Speaker 1: that took years and years to put together, a collection

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Speaker 1: every English language edition of Samuel Johnson's Rasseless. He had

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Speaker 1: collected something like five editions of just that book. No

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Speaker 1: other writer nor book sullied his fine collection. Of course,

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Speaker 1: three different editions of Rasseles have worked their way into

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Speaker 1: my library. How could they not? So that was a

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Speaker 1: that was a funny example of somebody really taking that

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Speaker 1: advice seriously getting into something specific. We did, of course,

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Speaker 1: received some notes to from listeners who collected other things

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Speaker 1: besides books, and my favorite of those, I think, came

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Speaker 1: from listener Erica, who, well, she doesn't keep a book collection,

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Speaker 1: she really could still relate to the Arrant's episode, so

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Speaker 1: she wrote in to say quote, I was listening to

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Speaker 1: the George Arrants episode today when a familiar name jumped

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Speaker 1: out at me. Roger Bacon. You mentioned him as a

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Speaker 1: rumored author of William Shakespeare's works, but I know him

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Speaker 1: as someone who helped start a very special collection in

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Speaker 1: my life. When I was two months old, my uncle

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Speaker 1: gave me a stuffed pig for my first Christmas. My

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Speaker 1: mom thought it would be funny call him Roger Bacon,

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Speaker 1: partly after the real person, but mostly because she thought

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Speaker 1: Bacon would be a funny last name for a pig.

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Speaker 1: Roger quickly became my favorite toy, and throughout my childhood

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Speaker 1: I messed quite an impressive collection of pig items, including

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Speaker 1: several other stuff pigs that my mother, true to form,

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Speaker 1: named Hambone, Hamlet and the like. Roger, however, was always

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Speaker 1: my favorite, and I carried him everywhere I went. More

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Speaker 1: than three decades later, I long ago outgrew my pig collection,

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Speaker 1: most of which has been donated or is bagged up

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Speaker 1: in my parents basement, but Roger continues to have a

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Speaker 1: special place in my home, and he's still well remembered

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Speaker 1: in my family. He's so special, in fact, that my

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Speaker 1: mother recently found a brand new stuffed pig just like

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Speaker 1: him and gave it to me as an Easter present.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps this will begin a whole new collection for me.

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Speaker 1: So that was a fun one. I can appreciate a

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Speaker 1: stuff pig collection, Yeah, definitely, it's it's unusual. Finally, though,

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Speaker 1: listener Katrina, who works at a university special books collection,

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Speaker 1: wrote in to tell us more about the accessibility of

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Speaker 1: special works to the public, something that Michael Edman touched

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Speaker 1: a little bit on during the Arrand's episode. But she

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Speaker 1: also shared a tip with us. In addition to visiting

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Speaker 1: amazing works for free at a library, you can win

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Speaker 1: antique book collections online. She started her own set, a

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Speaker 1: collection of biographies by Harriet Beecher Stowe from eighteen sixty

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Speaker 1: eight when she want to give away through the collector

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Speaker 1: Forgotten Bookmarks. And as soon as I got this email,

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Speaker 1: I visited that site and they had one of these

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Speaker 1: collections collection giveaways going on that happened to include some

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Speaker 1: of my favorite British novels, and I was like, I've

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Speaker 1: got to win this thing. I did not, but I

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Speaker 1: mean it is a great tip in a really fun way.

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Speaker 1: I think to start a collection too. There's an element

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Speaker 1: of chance involved. There is what your specialty is going

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Speaker 1: to end up being. I think it sounds like a

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Speaker 1: good idea. So I guess you have to check that

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Speaker 1: site frequently to see if it's something that you want. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think they have giveaways regularly. And um yeah, everybody

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Speaker 1: I guess now listening to this podcast is probably going

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Speaker 1: to go my odds will look at work. Why did

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Speaker 1: we include that on here? Thank you Katrina for telling

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Speaker 1: us about that, and um, thank you to all of

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Speaker 1: you guys for sharing such amazing stories that there were

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Speaker 1: many that we could not include in this in this segment,

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Speaker 1: but I was impressed by how focus people's collections were,

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Speaker 1: how open minded folks were about books that were beat

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Speaker 1: up and how that added an element of Um, I

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Speaker 1: don't know, it added something for for the collection to

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Speaker 1: think of all those people who had owned it before you. Um,

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Speaker 1: it was a neat, neat thing to to learn about.

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Speaker 1: I was just impressed by the number of people who

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Speaker 1: had collections. I mean to me, it's almost kind of throwback.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so many people spend their time doing other

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Speaker 1: things nowadays, playing on the internet, watching cable or whatever.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's almost this throwback as like writing letters

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Speaker 1: still rather than emails, collecting something. Yeah, there's still folks

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Speaker 1: out there who have, for sumably these shelves or in

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Speaker 1: the Disney Guy's case, I'm sure, like a room filled

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Speaker 1: with these books and or pigs yea, or or or

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Speaker 1: different kinds of pig memorabilia. Um. And I like to

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Speaker 1: imagine folks pulling them down and reading them and using

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Speaker 1: the collections too. I think that's the coolest part about it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of inspiring in that way. And I have actually, Sarah,

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Speaker 1: as you know, had a little collection started or a

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Speaker 1: collection started for me recently when all the editors and

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Speaker 1: writers here gave me children's books for my new baby. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: getting a little library going. It's a really fun shower

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Speaker 1: and especially a fun office shower kind of thing for

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Speaker 1: people who love books already. Right, yeah, it is, and

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Speaker 1: I think that I'm probably enjoying them right now more

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Speaker 1: than the baby will for many years. The previewing them,

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Speaker 1: you know, looking back at some of those children's books

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Speaker 1: that you read before but you haven't seen in years,

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Speaker 1: or new ones that I've never read before. Just looking

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Speaker 1: through some of the really great illustrations that children's books contain. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's been really fun and having fun with the tactile books.

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Speaker 1: We got a few of them, I did. I got

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Speaker 1: some furry books, so little bonus. Yeah, that was that

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Speaker 1: was pretty fun. And I'm glad that you've got a

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Speaker 1: collection going. I've got to think of one now. I

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Speaker 1: know what are we gonna get you? Maybe books will

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Speaker 1: have some suggestions out there if you want to email

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Speaker 1: us about your collection. Um, yeah, I did miss the

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Speaker 1: boat on this one, but we're still interested. You can

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Speaker 1: write us at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. We're

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Speaker 1: also on Twitter at Misston History and we are on Facebook.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you should collect textadermy cats. Oh dear, I'll pass

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Speaker 1: on that one to put all right, And if you

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Speaker 1: want to get some ideas of maybe books that you

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Speaker 1: can collect. See what rare books are out there. We

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Speaker 1: have a title called top ten rare Books and you

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Speaker 1: can look that at by visiting our homepage at www

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Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com for more on this

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Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com? M hm hm m m m