Mr. FD had a birthday recently, and since he is a wit and hot stuff, FD bought him a “new” book: Hot Stuff by Famous Funny Men. This compendium, bound in red and black cloth, was published in Chicago by the Geo. M. Hill Co. around 1901 (A few copies are available on ABE which we recommend as the first search for most books!). It may not be a book that Mr FD reads cover to cover — and in fact the spine is a bit weak to consider this a reading copy, but it is a nice addition to our collection of humor anthologies. We did not see any copies on the Americana Exchange sale pages, but that site is one that we often visit. The on-line magazine usually has one or more articles of interest, and if FolioDeux ever gets really serious about selling our small press collection, we would probably opt to become a selling member of the site.
The book topics FD and Mr. FD collect seem to endlessly expand. Mr. FD has started reading about, and thus collecting, books about the first and second world wars — an offshoot of an earlier focus on the Civil War, and his collection includes a few books on ancient warfare as well. FD has started collecting books about choosing pleasure over work — including The Hedonism Handbook and similar titles. Books about writing and the mail are also of interest; FD is hoping to acquire a copy of Catherine J. Golden’s Posting It: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing. Her publisher has a page for the book, and an on-line search turns up a talk on You Tube by Golden at the National Postal Museum.
FD has a postcard sent from the NPM, which, in the opinion of FD should give postcard collecting a bit more space — at least as much as stamp collecting! As with the topics represented in the FD book collection, the topics in FD’s postcard albums have increased over time, even though FD has been trying to streamline and organize the boxes of postcards accumulated over the years. But, instead of mailing or trading away more cards, FD seems to be adding cards to the collection. Recently, FD decided to start actively collecting “Corn Palace” postcards. So, as of today, FD is collecting not only poetry on postcards (especially small press poetry cards) and cards related to books and writing, but also cards featuring Knitting and other kinds of fabric arts, Sheep, Squirrels, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, older cards with flowers, older cards of birds, anything having to do with Lincoln and the Civil War, and Marshall Fields department store.
And who knows, perhaps tomorrow some other new topic will be added to the book or the postcard lists!
For me I am a fan of online shopping for the reason that we need not to go anywhere.