A most extraordinary autograph album, containing more than six hundred signatures collected over a span of 93 years, green leather with gilt edges, elaborate gilt tooling, and ivory moiré silk endpapers, 7 x 8.5, approximately 125 leaves. This one-of-a-kind item began its storied history in St. Louis in 1881, when the French stage legend Sarah Bernhardt, then on her first American tour, baptized its pages with an appropriately dramatic sentiment (in French): “Life is beautiful, but to me, death is still more so.” Over the next few decades, the earliest anonymous owner (or owners) sought out and obtained autographs from an impressive array of luminaries, from opera icon Adelina Patti to Mark Twain. A new chapter in the book’s history was written, so to speak, in 1928, when it was acquired by book dealer William V. Bottom. Bottom, clearly possessed of a true collector’s determination and resourcefulness, continued to seek out the biggest celebrities of his day, hundreds of whom added their signatures—and in many cases, appreciative comments on the uniqueness of Bottom’s ever-growing treasure. Bottom collected energetically over the next two decades, finally “retiring” from his task in 1949. At that time, he presented the book—some gift, indeed!—to a friend, actress Marie Wilson, with an elegantly simple inscription of his own: “I am not planning on taking my collection with me.” Wilson kept the book until her death in 1972, from which point it descended in her family. Together, the hundreds of signers represent a fascinatingly varied cross-section of important—and in many cases, legendary—figures in literature, music, theater, film, sports, aviation, and other endeavors. Most of the pages, which are signed on both sides, bear multiple signatures, all but a few in ink. Many of the signers have also added warm inscriptions, personal notes, quotations, or sketches. A mere sampling of the more notable signers: Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, John Philip Sousa, Mae West, W. C. Fields, D. W. Griffith, Will Rogers, Mei Lan Fang, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Barrymore, Boris Karloff, Tyrone Power, John Garfield, Katharine Hepburn, Marian Anderson, Vincent Price, Rochester, Jeanette MacDonald, Orson Welles, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Harold Lloyd, Leslie Howard, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Marie Dressler, Lupe Velez, Peter Lorre, Chico Marx, Groucho Marx, Al Jolson, Spencer Tracy, Paul Robeson, Ingrid Bergman, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, James Cagney, Mary Astor, Una O’Connor, William Frawley, Billie Burke, Ethel Merman, William Powell, Lillie Langtry, Marion Davies, George Arliss, Frances Farmer, Gertrude Lawrence, Edwin Booth, Jack Dempsey, Grantland Rice, Connie Mack, Joe Louis, Irving Berlin, Yehudi Menuhin, George Raft, Bing Crosby, Ida Lupino, Frank Morgan, Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Walter Huston, Nazimova, Leslie Howard, Frank Sinatra, Amelia Earhart, Guglielmo Marconi, James Montgomery Flagg, Samuel Clemens, Upton Sinclair, Ogden Nash, Thornton Wilder, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Leopold Stokowski, Sergi Rachmaninoff, Andres Segovia, Fritz Kreisler, and Jascha Heifetz. Knowledgable collectors and dealers are only too aware that most volumes of this type—and none that we know of boasts such a singular scope—were long ago broken up by those anxious to “share the wealth.” The present example, fully intact more than a century after it was begun, therefore represents a truly remarkable survival. Perhaps more fitting than a final chapter to this story in signatures are the few blank pages near the end of the album, which beckon the next owner to continue where Bill Bottom left off! In fine condition overall, with mild rubbing to extremities of covers, light toning and soiling to interior (mainly at edges, lightly touching a few signatures or inscriptions), occasional smudges, brushes, and offsetting, and a few creases and small edge tears. A complete list of the signers is available upon request. R&R COA.
