Brian Leno keeps getting new autograph material all the time, every week, sometimes every day — he even has stuff crawling out of his immeasurable horde, practically attacking him.
Here he is with another episode pulled straight from the life of an Autograph Hound:
Thinking about tossing some books on the eBay block, I pulled down a couple of hardcovers by Algernon Blackwood, Episodes Before Thirty and John Silence. Good shape, no dustjackets.
Bought them many years ago and they had slipped my mind. Read them too, years ago, both great.
Anyway I opened the Episodes book up and see it’s stamped “House of Bogart” — with an inscription to a Lucy for being his Valentine — and in honor of their patron saint the gracious Algernon Blackwood.
Signed Guy and dated Feb 8 1924. The stamp also reads 545 Euclid Avenue Beaumont California.
Doing research I found the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1924 by Guy and Lucy Bogart. Guy was a cousin to Humphrey. Very cool.
Humphrey apparently gave silent movies to the family but this treasure trove and many other things, books included I suppose, were looted by thieves when Guy’s daughter-in-law, who inherited the place, became too sick to do anything about it. Probably some of the looting was done by people posing as her friends.
I think all this is very cool. The John Silence book is signed by Guy Bogart. Too bad Humphrey didn’t add his scrawl.
After the research I won’t be selling these — probably wouldn’t have anyway. Maybe when I kick off I could donate them back to the house.
One other kind of cool thing is the Episodes book has a little picture of Douglas Fairbanks Senior tucked inside. Kind of goes along with the silent movie Bogie bit, huh?
