Speaking of rare book collecting

Look at this story from the Albuquerque Journal:

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/11110151134newsmetro10-11-08.htm

snip

Saturday, October 11, 2008
Century-Old Book Found; Man Charged

Albuquerque
Journal-->By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer

Police have found Sheryl Hill's century-old book. It was in the 1999 Buick LeSabre she was trying to sell when, on Aug. 24, Joseph Gabaldon allegedly took the car for a test drive and never came back.

In the trunk was an original copy of the collected works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first black poet to win national acclaim around the turn of the last century. It had belonged to Hill's grandmother, who for years had been reading poems from it at churches all over the country.

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I can imagine that Hill's grandmother treasured that book!

I like Paul Laurence Dunbar and have at least one copy of his works.

Read about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lawrence_Dunbar

snip

Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life, one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia.

Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who had escaped from slavery; his father was a veteran of the American Civil War, having served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment. His parents instilled in him a love of learning and history. He was the only black student at Dayton Central High School and he participated actively as a student. During college, he was both the editor of the school newspaper and class president, as well as the president of the school literary society. Dunbar had also started the first African-American newsletter in Dayton.

He wrote his first poem at age 6 and gave his first public recital at age 9. Dunbar's first published work came in a newspaper put out by his high school friends Wilbur and Orville Wright, who owned a printing plant. The Wright Brothers later invested in the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper aimed at the black community, edited and published by Dunbar.