Table of Contents:
  • Section I: Fundamentals. The development of writing / Diana J. Rendell
  • Writing instruments and materials / Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
  • The historyof autograph collecting / Joseph E. Fields
  • Section II: Rudiments of autograph collecting. The language of autograph collecting / Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
  • Who collects autographs and manuscripts, and why: the philosophy of collecting / Kenneth W. Rendell
  • Acquiring autographs and manuscripts / Herbert E. Klingelhofer
  • The detection of forgeries / Kenneth W. Rendell
  • Famous forgers: their successes and downfalls / Kenneth W. Rendell
  • The autopen and the signa-signer / H. Keith Thompson
  • Hidden signatures / Herbert E. Klingelhofer
  • Confused identities / Joseph E. Fields
  • Changing handwriting / Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
  • John Adams
  • his handwriting / Gordon T. Banks
  • Fair copies and working copies / Robert L. Volz
  • Organizing and displaying your collection / David Herr Coblentz
  • Nothing is forever: preservation, repairs, and your responsibility / Robert C. Wiest
  • Your manuscripts and the scholarly world / Carolyn Hoover Sung
  • Legal ramifications of manuscript collecting / Leslie J. Schreyer
  • Values / Mary A. Benjamin
  • The market for autographs: the European scene / Michel Castaing
  • Ethics / John F. Reed
  • Section III: Some areas in which to collect. Specialized collecting / Richard Maass
  • Autographs of American Presidents / Christopher C. Jaeckel
  • American literary autographs / Michael Papantonio
  • English literary autographs / Roy L. Davids
  • French literary autographs / Walter G. Langlois
  • European and world literatures / Henry Strutz
  • American colonial and revolutionary autographs / John C. Dann
  • Autographs of the American Civil War / Charles F. Cooney
  • British historical autographs / John Wilson
  • European historical autographs / Members of the editorial board
  • Musical autographs and manuscripts / Irving Lowens
  • Collecting scientific and medical autographs / Rudolf F. Kallir
  • Collecting the documents of art / Thomas B. Brumbaugh
  • Religious manuscripts / James Kritzeck
  • Autographs and manuscripts of radicals and reformers / Walter Goldwater
  • British theater and dance / C.A. Kyrle Fletcher
  • American theater / Franklyn Lenthall
  • Justices of the Supreme Court in the United States / Gerhard A. Gesell.