A.S.W. Rosenbach is considered one of if not the finest dealer in books, and a noted collector as well. When he entered an auction room other dealers knew they would be left with only what was of no interest to him on that day. He believed that the price of a given book was meaningless if the volume was inherently important, and his decades of success proved that he was correct.

This autobiographical work documents a career that is essentially unique and one that cannot be duplicated. To give a few examples, there are 46 Gutenberg Bibles in existence and some of those are fragments or incomplete. In this book he shares 4 separate purchases he made of this holy grail of collecting. In 1926 he paid 106,000 dollars for a Gutenberg, and depending on your viewpoint he was viewed as either the most daring man or he was mad. He discusses in the book that he believed that such a volume would one day command 1 million dollars. I saw a single leaf from this book at an antiquarian bookfair, and the one page was 30,000 dollars. Another amazing bit of history was a telegram that was bought by Mr. Rosenbach. This was the original of the telegram sent by General Grant announcing the surrender of General Lee's Army at Appomattox.

As a final example of the reading this book offers Mr. Rosenbach once paid 260,000 in 1911 for the following. The certified copy of The Declaration Of Independence that was sent to Frederick The Great King Of Prussia, together with The Articles Of Confederation Of The United States. The latter was signed by both Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane to make what was an unprecedented acquisition even more remarkable.

Mr. Rosenbach also helped to build some of the finest libraries in the world, including The Morgan Library amongst others. His private collection again is an assemblage that could not be repeated today. This is a great book whether you enjoy books, or even history, for this man collected so many written documents that were the written records of this country. The few acquisitions that I mention are a very small fragment of what the book offers.