The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 66
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
session of the court. Trouble with Lou is, he knows too much
and is invariably right. You can learn history from him, but it
is like trying to drink from a fireplug.
Houston has the money, but its industrial progress has out-
stripped its cultural resources. Oil is at once its life, its philoso-
phy, and its hobby. For every man like the late great George A.
Hill, Jr., who literally gave his life for the good of his state and its
heritage, there are a thousand who boast that they never read
a book. Twenty fabulously wealthy men in Houston could die
tomorrow without leaving a desirable collection of books to
perpetuate their names. I know of a book dealer, though, who
sold a lady two green sets of Tolstoy to match the drapes.
No one has ever stressed the fact that, among book collectors,
the collector of Texiana is unique in that he actually reads the
books. Some collectors, like William A. Philpott, Jr., of Dallas,
whose collecting mania is complicated by an obsession for mint
condition, buy an extra copy just to read and handle. Another
collector pays the booksellers extra to send him pre-publication
proofs of their catalogs so that he can beat other collectors to
the choice items. You will see that these collectors are really
avocationally in the book business and that there are hundreds
and thousands of them.
I have bought and sold in Texas approximately two million
books. More than half of these were sold at ten cents each. I
want to tell you that the ten cent customers are very choosey
too. I have bought and sold some treasures, but some big fish
got away. I will tell you about one that slipped the hook.
Some fifteen years ago a visiting attorney offered me some
original documents that he found in the attic of a Tennessee
home belonging to the Eaton estate. I was in the office that day
in defiance of Doctor's orders, was about to start on a cruise
and had no time to spare. Among the letters was a six-page
foolscap-size letter in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, ad-
dressed to Aaron Burr. It gave Burr detailed instructions about
his trip to Mexico and left no room for doubt that Jefferson
planned and instigated this enterprise. I remember that in clos-
ing Jefferson said that this was one of five copies and that the
other four should be retrieved at once, each having been sent
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/88/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.