[Gutenberg 52112] • Chats on Autographs

Excerpt from Chats on Autographs: With One Hundred and Thirty-Five Illustrations

Material profit, inherent in this particular form of literary treasure-trove. For the benefit Of the-nu initiated (and in this case the uninitiated are In a vast majority) it is necessary at the onset to differentiate between the Autograph Fiend (the phrase is, I believe, American in its origin), who pesters, Often with unpardonable persistence, well known personages for their signatures in albums or on photographs, and the discriminating collector who accumulates for the benefit of posterity either important documents or the letters Of famous men. Nothing, writes Horace Walpole, gives us so just an idea of an age as genuine letters, nay history waits for its last sea] from them.

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