Autograph Hound Saturday once more, and that notable maniacal Autograph Hound Brian Leno brings the John Hancock of the famous pulpster Abraham Merritt back to These Mean Streets.
Plus the artist Roy Hunt also makes a return, after showing up a few years ago with his drawing of detective Solar Pons.
Let’s allow Brian to expound on the subject:
Usually when it comes to collecting autographs, for me it’s one and done — with some exceptions, of course.
It can be a tough business just getting one signature of any of the old pulp greats, but I’m always willing to buy more if the opportunity comes along.
I got my first A. Merritt autograph years ago. A bit lackluster, consisting simply of a signed piece of paper.
Still, it’s an A. Merritt and I was fairly happy with it, until this one crossed my radar.
Beautiful “Abe Merritt” signature on a letter bearing The American Weekly letterhead.
An added bonus is it’s addressed to Roy V. Hunt, one of the earlier fan artists — and a good one.
Hunt is worthy enough to recently get his own book, with an illustration from an A. Merritt story, “The Rhythm of the Spheres,” on the cover.
It’s a good book with lots of information on the early years of fandom.
My only complaint with the volume is that it states Andrew Wyeth did the illustrations for the 1918 edition of The Mysterious Island. Of course that would be N. C. Wyeth, not Andrew.
It would be pretty cool to see how Andrew Wyeth would have portrayed Verne’s adventure classic.
I’ve seen a few Merritt letters to Hunt and his wife on the block, but this one didn’t hit the pocketbook too hard.
I guess it’s like donuts, two is always better than one.
