Rare Bibles and Johnny Appleseed
Edwin Alfred Robert Rumball-Petre (1881-1954), a dealer in rare Bibles, who also wrote about collecting Bibles, during the first half of the twentieth century issued this bulletin because he wasn't selling enough rare Bibles to warrant producing a new catalogue. That and the itch to write something prodded Mr. Rumball-Petre (let's go with R-P for the remainder of this post) to conceive and write the little bulletin below. This is No. 1 of how many I don't know. Maybe sales picked up and the bulletin run ended with No. 1. And with this bulletin, R-P dropped what he called the impersonal "we"* of the catalogue writing and commenced with an informal, conversational, and humorous style complete with asterisk to explain the pronunciation of his name along with a description of himself in bookselling terms: *Why not take this opportunity of saying that clients who address "Rumball-Petre" with "Dear Sirs," make a 2-vol. edition of what is on...