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37 matches in All Departments
When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. In 2014, this tiny
square of faded red paper sold at Sotheby's for nearly $9.5
million, the largest amount ever paid fora postage stamp at
auction. Through the stories of the eccentric characters who have
bought, owned, and sold the one-cent magenta in the years in
between, James Barron delivers a fascinating tale of global history
and immense wealth, and of the human desire to collect. One-cent
magentas were provisional stamps, printed quickly in what was then
British Guiana when a shipment of official stamps from London did
not arrive. They were intended for periodicals, and most were
thrown out with the newspapers. But one stamp survived. The
singular one-cent magenta has had only nine owners since a
twelve-year-old boy discovered it in 1873 as he sorted through
papers in his uncle's house. He soon sold it for what would be $17
today. (That's been called the worst stamp deal in history.) Among
later owners was a fabulously wealthy Frenchman who hid the stamp
from almost everyone (even King George V of England couldn't get a
peek); a businessman who traveled with the stamp in a briefcase he
handcuffed to his wrist; and John E. du Pont, an heir to the
chemical fortune, who died while serving a thirty-year sentence for
the murder of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz. Recommended for fans
of Nicholas A. Basbanes, Susan Orlean, and Simon Winchester, The
One-Cent Magenta explores the intersection of obsessive pursuits
and great affluence and asks why we want most what is most rare.
Title: An elegiac ode.Author: J. B. H. (James Barron
Hope)Publisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph
Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana,
1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and
other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to
the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of
discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the
U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans,
slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana
offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere,
encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North
America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th
century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and
South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights
the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary
opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to
documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts,
newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and
more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of
original works are available via print-on-demand, making them
readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars,
and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from
various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this
title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to
insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington
LibraryDocumentID: SABCP04874800CollectionID:
CTRG04-B688PublicationDate: 18660101SourceBibCitation: Selected
Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to
AmericaNotes: Printed for the benefit of the Hollywood Memorial
Association of Richmond, Virginia.Collation: 29 p.; 17 cm
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