MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: Twenty Remarkable Collectors in Pursuit of Their Dreams

by Mitch Tuchman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

Meet Norma Hazelton, connoisseur and collector of swizzle sticks. If you're not impressed by a plastic Jackie Gleason long since separated from its maraschino cherry, take a look at Robert Cade, inventor of Gatorade and a collector of Studebakers (re the carmaker's Dictator line of the 1930s, he says: ""Dictator was a good name until Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin. They dropped the Dictator line in 1937 because of them""). Among the 20 collections that Tuchman and photographer Brenner cast their eyes on are caches of Civil War memorabilia (a banjo, a musket, a toothbrush); aquarium furniture (a lot of mermaids); and representations of the Last Supper (a clock, a saltshaker, a funeral-home fan). Tuchman's text, mostly a pastiche of comments from the collectors themselves, is informative -- and just glib enough to keep the whole book from feeling like a spooky visit to your mad Aunt Mabel's attic.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Chronicle

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994

Categories: NONFICTION