collecting books

Magnificent Obsessions

Magnificent Obsessions: Twenty Remarkable Collectors in Pursuit of Their Dreams by Mitch Tuchman (photographs by Peter Brenner) was published in 1994, however that doesn’t diminish the book in the least because this isn’t a price guide or even a true collectors guide; this book is a celebration of collecting.

Each of the 20 collectors covered in this over-size softcover is given a few pages for some Q & A about — and beautiful photos of — their one obsession. While many of the collectors admit to collecting more than the one “thing,” they are limited primarily (otherwise how would I know they collect more things?) to just the one collecting category. However, what they say isn’t only of interest to those with similar collecting obsessions; the joy, pride, humor, collection rearranging, haggling, discovery, etc. are universal.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t learn anything. Well, maybe I can’t promise that; I don’t know the depth and breadth of the knowledge you retain in your noggin. But I learned a few things. Or at least was reminded of things.

Like the pre-internet days of collecting.

Not only because what this book is, really, is a paper bound version of excellent blog posts with gorgeous photographs, but because it’s a time capsule of collecting before the days of search engines, online shopping carts, e-newsletters, and digital communities of pixel sharing comrades. Each of these 20 collectors was, at the time at least, a pretty big-time known collector in their category. (I Googled a handful of them; some have since passed away, others only exist in their daytime gigs, others I found no online mentions other than this book. But like I said, I didn’t Google everyone.) And every single one of them became a Big Time Collector without the internet.

(Sure, we all know about the joys of hunting at flea markets, many of us belong to real world collecting clubs, and most of us know that not everyone is “on” the internet; but still, are we making the most of forays into real places, meeting real people, as much as we are saved searches and bookmarked pages? Just something to think about.)

The book also holds another pre-internet reminder… In these days of complaining that eBay and other online selling avenues have “ruined” both the prices and spirit of the antiques and collectibles marketplace, don’t you remember that collectors have always complained about, feared, or been annoyed by other (real or perceived) influences in the world of collecting? This reality bonked me in the nose when I read swizzle stick collector Norma Hazelton’s lament:

Kovel wants to put a book out on swizzle sticks. Of course, that’ll kill the business. It’ll make the prices sky high like antiques and everything else went.

I haven’t studied the swizzle stick collecting market and I’m too lazy to even check to see if Kovel’s put out that book; but I bet that swizzle stick collecting has been affected by a great number of things outside of the collector’s control — and that’s rather the point, isn’t it? We can’t control the collectibles market any more than we can anything else we care about.

What else did I learn or remember? Along with some very specific things about very specific categories of collectibles, these general points stuck out:

• The differences between collectors and accumulators may be sound, even agreed upon; but here there were Big Time Collectors, known in their category, who identified themselves as accumulators. (Score one for my fellow accumulators!)
• I was reminded yet again *heavy sigh* that ephemera and books are of seemingly little value; there’s not a single collection dedicated to either. (Boo-hiss!)
• For nearly every bit of good general collecting advice, there was someone to corroborate otherwise; the anecdotal evidence continues to support the fact that each collection is as unique as the collector/curator’s individual philosophy, process, and, yes, I’ll say it, dreams.

Magnificent Obsessions: Twenty Remarkable Collectors in Pursuit of Their Dreams is available for very cheap at Amazon — and that’s something that any collector, in any category or however self-identified, can be happy about. (Makes a great gift for the collector in your life too — hint-hint nugde-nudge.)

Thirteen paperbacks from my various collections.

#1 From my science fiction collection, a classic Scholastic: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet.

#2 I’ll admit I’ve been remiss and have not read Junior Miss.

#3 Lad of Sunnybank, from my collie collection (which is growing into a general dog collection, but then collections are like packs, so the more the merrier).

#4 Fury and the White Mare, a throw-back to my childhood television days and part of my horse collection.

#5-6 Dating, ever confusing, requires books: Boy Dates Girl, and Betty Cornell’s All About Boys. Funny that I feel no further understanding from having read them… or any of the others in this collection. But then lack of understanding didn’t stop me from marrying one either.

#7-9 Three books which explore and exploit career perks your guidance counselor never told you about: Super-Jet Girls, Semi-Tough, and If It Moves, Kiss It.

#10 If the dating rules confuse, or if you’ve previously had a career in air travel or medicine, just say “Good Is For Angels,” and remember that motto, “a little sin – a lot of love.”

#11 And if you follow that motto, you’re likely headed for the Valley of the Dolls. (I preferred Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, myself.)

#12 Ode to Billy Joe — yes, the Billy Joe McAllister who jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. Not read yet because I fear nothing can live up to the song.

#13 And based on all this, it’s no wonder that I need Zolar’s Occult Dream Book.

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A few weeks ago I was the lucky bidder on a vintage cook book. I must admit, my interest in the book was not so much ‘culinary’ as it was the historical proof that there is nothing ‘new’ in the latest Hollywood glamour cook books, like The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets by Kym Douglas & Cindy Pearlman; but this is not the main tale of this collecting adventure.

Like most collectors, I was lured to this particular copy for its conditions (clean pages, sound binding, etc. & it included a most rare dust jacket) as well as some particularly unique pieces of ephemera.

Included with the copy of the Hollywood Glamour Cook Book by Mariposa was a copy of a newspaper clipping of the author, several copies of the sender’s postal money orders, a postcard in the author’s handwriting (with her signature), and a postal envelope, also in the author’s handwriting.

It was my hope, not simply as a collector but as a researcher, that the ephemera would prove useful (as well as valuable) in searching for information on the author as there is little information on her.

I knew there was little information on Mariposa before I bid. I had accidentally discovered knowledge of her and this book in doing other research and was intrigued by the title and the one-name author that I stopped the first search to work on Mariposa.

I kept watching for affordable copies (in many online stores it is listed over $50, plus shipping; this was $30 with shipping, plus the extras mentioned) until I found, and won, this one.

While waiting for the book to arrive, I continued to research but found little and, frustrated by hitting ‘a wall’, I waited for the book to arrive, hoping it & the ephemera would provide additional, helpful, clues.

The book itself offered little information. The “I Am” was a beguiling bit, but with little information:

Your “Mystic Pot,” with Herbs and Spice,
I charm your meals and make them nice.
I make your cake and pastry good
With secret hints from Hollywood.

First I learned Mariposa’s name from the return address and signature: Mariposa Hayes. Putting that into search engines, I learned that Mariposa was a pseudonym, and that Mariposa Hayes had renewed the copyright to this book in 1967. And I discovered that a Mariposa Hayes was a performer in Spring 3100 in 1928. This made sense with the jacket’s front flap information regarding, “Who is Mariposa?” which mentioned her “living part of the modern theatre.” And 1928 would make sense with the 1940 copyright date too.

Plus, there is the book’s lovely black and white photo of Mariposa, credited to Murray Korman, a rather popular New York commercial photographer who took portraits of a number of theatre and silent film actors. Korman was even well-known enough to be quoted in Time (March 22, 1937) — for something darn near unforgivable in my book:

“Look at Katharine Hepburn,” said Photographer Korman, “there was a girl with no looks but a college education and hasn’t she made a success of herself?”

See how easy it is to get derailed in research? Everything is so fascinating!

But back to Mariposa.

There was also scant, teasing information of a Mariposa Hayes in the 1930 New York Social Blue Book, living with, it appears, a Mrs. C. Coleman and a Mr. Nelson Taylor Hayes. Further research on those names yielded nothing on Mariposa; however, Mr. Nelson Taylor Hayes may have been the 1941 author of the novel Bahama Passage, which went on to become a film with Dorothy Dandridge, among others.

I turned next to the copy of the newspaper clipping. There was no date, no publication, but the photo’s caption reads:

Mariposa, author of “Hollywood Glamor Cook Book,” points out a few choice recipes in her book to John H. Hayes. She tells him that glamor is not confined to the feminine contingent but young men can take a page from her book and improve their complexions and looks.

John H. Hayes? Was that a relative? (And if so, how tacky to pass-off him off as other than a relative!) It is difficult to tell from the poor photocopy of what I gather was a black and white newspaper clipping how old Mariposa was, but Mr. Hayes is sort of lumped into the category of “young men” here… So the still beautiful, but possibly of the ‘well preserved’ variety, Mariposa was photographed with her son?

A quick search shows John Hayes to be a rather common name, and, if you can trust Wikipedia, there are a number of relatively famous ones… Including in film, a B-Movie maker born in 1930.

If John was her son, that could account for Mariposa’s short lived theatre career. But so can a million things, including lack of talent.

So far, there was little to go on — lots of fascinating detour possibilities, but not much on Mariposa.

Who was Mariposa?

I looked at the title page. Normally researching book publishers offers little, but I was desperate here… Published by Glamour Publications, 1265 S. W. 11th St., Miami, Florida. That sounded familiar — too familiar. I looked back at the addresses on the ephemera; yup, that was Mariposa’s home address. So it looks like the book was self published by the entrepreneurial Mariposa.

But searches for the publisher name only returned other copies of the book, each with less information than I had already forced from the Internet. M. Barrows & Company, Inc, the “trade distributors” offered nothing either.

I stopped to recap: She was an actress in 1928, she lived in Miami and had written and published a book in 1940. That’s it. No information on marriage or family.

Most folks I know would have quit by now; even the obsessive ones. But not me. I thumbed through the book again. The contents were recipes, more clever, cutesy poetry, and the foreward was just a general sales pitch for the contents.

I looked at the dust jacket again. Ah, another book for sale on the back inside flap… Eat to Grow Young, by H. A. Hayes, N.D. Another Hayes! And wasn’t that familiar sounding too? I flipped to the front of the book, to the dedication:

To Dr. Henri A. Hayes

To “Doc” who is a connoisseur
Of Crepes Suzette and Petit Beurre,
Who helped inspire many treats
Found in this book of health recipes.

Along with the corny (and ill-rhyming) poem was more than probably the H.A. Hayes from the other book. (N.D, is, after all, a naturopathic doctor — but a “Doc” nevertheless!)

A quick search later and I found a Dr. H. A. Hayes, but it just didn’t seem to fit. While I didn’t know the age of this 1940 Dr. Hayes, the tiny bit of information suggested nothing of naturopathic medicine, let alone Mariposa. But I continued to search…

And then, in searching for H. A. Hayes and Eat to Grow Young, I discovered another clue — a clue that had me ‘hoot’ at the monitor and forced hubby to turn away from his computer and ask me if I was OK.

In the copyright renewals for 1961, I saw that Eat to Grow Young’s copyright was renewed by Mariposa, whose Glamour Publications had published it (as seen on the jacket flap). But the exciting part was that Dr. Henri Hayes was also a pseudonym — “SEE Hayes, Henrietta A.” And right below that, the listing for Hayes, Henrietta A. was the fact that Mariposa Hayes had renewed the copyright.

Another relative? Her mother?

I don’t know. I found no additional information on Henrietta. You’d think a female naturopathic doctorate who authored a book in 1934 would be easy to find; but sadly, no.

Then again, you’d think a glamorous woman known only by her first name, who peddled self-published beauty books would also have some sort of legacy.

I may have hit a wall for now, but I have not given up. Mariposa’s words on the postcard, checking on the safety of the book mailed in 1983, ring true for me:

The book is so precious, it should have been insured. I was very reluctant to part with it because as a collectors item too it is very valuable, but you wrote so nicely, so let me know!!!! I’ll be worrying, Mariposa Hayes

Mr. M Kopal, the recipient of this rare book, lovingly kept the book safe with all the ephemera for 25 years, only to have his family/estate rid themselves of it. Now I have it, and like most things I collect, the hunt for more information continues. Like a dog with a bone. Not that beautiful Mariposa should be compared thus; only my obsessive dedication to research.

If you have any information, please, share it!