The Signature of America by Charles Hamilton Look at Famous Handwriting HBDJ

Charles Hamilton is the world´s most famous autograph dealer and auctioneer; this book - and he has turned out one fascinating book after another on the subject of philography. But this latest book - his most controversial yet - goes far beyond collecting.

Embellished with about 1500 illustrations -signatures, letters, documents and original drawings- most of them never before published, this fiery passage through America´s past will give you a dramatic, new insight into our national history and culture. 

Open this volume to any chapter and you will tap a mind overflowing with endless variety of delectable anecdotes and stories. Every page will inject you with the same enthusiasm that Hamilton lends to a conversation about history, literature, science, music or art. And as you return to the book time after time you´ll be hooked.

The 35 chapters include not only popular subjects, like movie stars, sports heroes and black leaders, but unusual topics, such as witch hunters, crazy currency, human monsters, musket-and saber historians, people who courted the angels, heroes of the Lone-Star State, sea hawks, fatal encounters and even a chapter on tall Presidents that contains several of Abe Lincoln´s bawdy stories, one in Lincoln´s own handwriting. The eight chapters on authors, artists and composers are lavishly illustrated.

Hamilton believes that truth is not only stranger than fiction but infinitely more exciting. At the drop of a high-buckled hat, he launches unbidden into a heated diatribe on the religious intolerance and slavery introduced into America by the Pilgrims. He delights in revealing that Buffalo Bill´s adventures were only the figmet of a dime novelist´s imagination. He recounts strange tales that have eluded even the most dogged historians - such as the story of how a hostile Shawnee chieftain saved George Washington´s life.

Over a million letters and documents of noted Americans have passed through Charles Hamilton´s hands during his decades in the autograph field. You can now go with him behind the scenes and discover intimate secrets, many drawn from the illustrations in the book.