Dealer/Collector Memoirs?

ChopmarkedTrades

While numismatics is certainly rich in reference material, it seems to me that other areas of collectibles (especially antiquities, art, or general antiques) have far more published personal stories of famous dealers/collectors. The Boards here offer plenty of outlets for industry vets to reminisce with short stories, but beyond these posts, article snippets or catalog descriptions, it seems that there are relatively few examples of lifetime recollections from some of our professionals or more distinguished hobbysits. The content certainly exists; stories on the Stack family, the collections they helped to assemble and the sales they took part in, have recorded several dozen entries in the E-Sylum. Anybody have any recommendations on existing titles?

Sonorandesertrat

Kosoff, Abe/Abe Kosoff Remembers… [a collection of his Coin World articles]. He was a major dealer for decades.
There is also a book of Bowers' recollections, that may appear this fall, authored by Dave Bowers and Joel Orosz(?).
Moulton, Karl/John J. Ford, Jr. and the “Franklin Hoard”. This offers a glimpse of one aspect of Ford, and is by no means a balanced view of his life.

I think it is important to recognize that recollections are likely to be sanitized. Dealing in coins can be tough. Rough bits tend to be swept under a rug.

For books about collectors (Garrett, Eliasberg, Norweb, Brand), see works authored by Dave Bowers. There is another book by Bowers, 'Coins and Collectors,' that has interesting snippets too. There is a nice biography of Eric Newman, by Leonard Augsburger, Roger Burdette, and Joel Orosz.

Zoins

Laura's Hot Topics and Market Reports should be collected into a book. They provide good insight into our hobby these days.

Sonorandesertrat

I have been begging Colonel Jessup to write a 'tell-all,' and offered to help pay for witness protection, to no avail. Yet he still lurks....

ChopmarkedTrades

@Sonorandesertrat said:
Kosoff, Abe/Abe Kosoff Remembers… [a collection of his Coin World articles]. He was a major dealer for decades.
There is also a book of Bowers' recollections, that may appear this fall, authored by Dave Bowers and Joel Orosz(?).
Moulton, Karl/John J. Ford, Jr. and the “Franklin Hoard”. This offers a glimpse of one aspect of Ford, and is by no means a balanced view of his life.

I think it is important to recognize that recollections are likely to be sanitized. Dealing in coins can be tough. Rough bits tend to be swept under a rug.

For books about collectors (Garrett, Eliasberg, Norweb, Brand), see works authored by Dave Bowers. There is another book by Bowers, 'Coins and Collectors,' that has interesting snippets too. There is a nice biography of Eric Newman, by Leonard Augsburger, Roger Burdette, and Joel Orosz.

Thanks very much! I have read a couple of the Bowers biographies, but wasn't aware of the books by Kosoff or Ford.

ChopmarkedTrades

Looks like there have been a couple of books published by Bowers already in this vein: 'Adventures with Rare Coins' (1979), and the predictably titled 'More Adventures with Rare Coins' (2002).

Sonorandesertrat

Bowers also put out something like 8 paperbacks too---his 'Companion' series. Most of them are out of print, but they should all be fairly cheap. They consist of various articles from the Rare Coin Review.

Zoins

I'm a big fan of Alan Weinberg's recollection of the 1960s here:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1034380/collecting-in-the-1960s-by-alan-v-weinberg#latest