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PRINCE OF FORGERS.
Rosenblum, Joseph.

   

- New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press 1998
- 8vo.
- cloth, dust jacket.
- 200 pages
- ISBN 9781884718519 ; 1884718515 / Order Nr. 50317
- Price: $ 39.95

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First English translation of the 1870 edition. On a cold, damp day in February 1870, the Correctional Tribunal of Paris sentenced Vrain-Denis Lucas to prison for forging and selling over 27,000 historical letters to many of France's leading collectors. The sensational trial exposed the most colossal literary fraud ever perpetrated. The trial revealed that for 19 years Lucas created fake literary masterpieces, mostly letters to and from famous or historical figures, and profited greatly from it.
At first, Lucas used quills, inks, papers, and styles of writing used by historical French authors. As the years passed and his forgeries were accepted into the foremost collections in the nation, his ego got the best of him. The versatility, industry, and knowledge displayed earlier by Lucas was beginning to enter the realm of incongruity. When he produced a host of letters written by Mary Magdelene to Lazarus, Cleopatra to Caesar, Pompey to Cato, in French no less, and boldly sold them to one of France's leading collectors, Lucas's shameless audacity reached new heights.
This edition is the first English translation of the rare French title, UNE FABRIQUE DE FAUX AUTOGRAPHES, OU RECIT DE L'AFFAIRE VRAN LUCAS (Paris 1870) by Henri Bordier and Emile Mabille. With a new introduction by Joseph Rosenblum, this fascinating book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of literary forgeries, manuscripts, autographs, and the drama of fools and scoundrels. This is truly an incredible story of the "Prince of Forgers." Illustrated.

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PARKMAN DEXTER HOWE LIBRARY PART I (TO PART X)
by Ives, Sidney

Limited to 650 copies, of which this is one of the 500 copies bound in paper covers. An important part of the arrangements made during the fall of 1980 for the acquisition of the Parkman Dexter Howe Library of New England authors was the commitment to produce a printed catalogue. From 1983 to its completion in 1994, the catalogue grew to ten parts with descriptions of the works of 22 authors and a section on early New England by nearly as many editors. Printed in a limited edition by the Stinehour Press and the Meriden Gravure Company.




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