August 2018 - Sneak Peek

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BOOKS AND CATALOGS ...................................................................................... BY JEFF STAGE editorial associate jstage@stamps.org A Million Dollars an Ounce, by M. John Lubetkin What if the Nazis had stolen and hid stamps just like they did with art, gold, jewels and other valuables? The author, M. John Lubetkin, here imagines they did, prompted by a real uncle who returned from WWII and gave his nephew a pile of stamps. result is this well-paced novel in which valuable stamps are strong-armed from their rightful owners during World War II. As the war winds down and with a foregone conclusion of defeat, one of the Nazi leaders of the stamp-theft scheme grabs a bit less than two pounds of stamps – worth millions of dollars – and runs. That is, until he is captured by U.S. Army Capt. Harry Strong, of the 82nd Airborne Division. Strong is a complex character. The former Heinrich Strölin was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he spent his early years. But by the 1930s, as the Great Depression and rise of Hitler has sent the country into further turmoil, young Heinrich’s world also is turned upside down. His Jewish mother is denied treatment for pneumonia at the local hospital and dies. An uncle who has embraced Hitler’s rise to power, turns his back on young Heinrich and ica, embrace their new world and it isn’t long before Heinrich, now Harry after D-Day. German, easily smells a Nazi rat when he and his team capture Hermann Seis, who’s trying to escape the collapsing regime. The arrogant, murderous Seis proves no match for Strong and deservedly meets his unpleasant demise. Strong, who was a stamp collector in his youth, takes possession of the stamps. Thereafter, most of the book is set in early post-WWII New York City, with a solid cast of characters that move the story along. The chief bad guy here is Hermann’s brother, Franz, who, after serving some time in prison for war crimes (he should have been hanged), is released to serve the new “good guys” in the Cold War. But Seis has other plans. He wants to recover “his” stamps and to wreak revenge for the death of his brother and a sister, a doctor who was mysteriously poisoned shortly after war’s end. On the other side, as a civilian, Strong elevates himself into the highlevel construction industry through hard work and connections, especially with a true-life gangster, a man who (with a wink from other characters) claims lineage to Russian royalty and a couple of important lovers. There are several as family, soldiers, thugs, bar owners, stamp experts and construction workers among them. The author keeps the chapters short and the writing simple, as it should be in an action-packed book. Though there are several complex relationships, they are generally easy to follow, though therein lays the rub. We do learn some interesting back story about Strong, Seis and their lovers and colleagues, so we have a good idea what motivates them. But there is so much plot and setting that the characterizations seem too contrived and wooden. I never connected. Sure, I hated Seis and the author helped make Strong realistic by showing that he could be driven to nastiness. But I never warmed up to this main character and he wasn’t crafted as an anti-hero. He wasn’t that interesting. tional character. Most of the main char- were real. It was strange to me, though, that a real-life gangster, Meyer Lansky, was a prime character, kind of holding that anti-hero role, though he was painted more good than bad. I was distracted every time I read his name knowing that he was a close colleague of Lucky Luciano and the guy who likely ordered the real-life hit on his old pal, Bugsy Siegel. Col. Ned Green – the wealthy collector who purchased the full sheet of Inverted ized with the family name of “Brown.” Why? familiar to those who may have been in NYC during the early 1950s and, of course, many of those survive today. Even those who weren’t there at the time can imagine an era when the Automat served up constant lunches to busy New Yorkers, skyscrapers were rising or seeing familiar landmarks like the Episcopalian Little Church Around the Corner or Augustus Saint Gaudens’ equestrian statue of General Sherman in Central Park. The writing probably needed more editing and guidance. There was a lot of tell – as in a narrative form that feels like dictation as opposed to “show,” which generates a much more realistic feel. Sex scenes were mechanical, scenes such as relationship break-ups horrible violence was rampant, particu- was a war on.) 786 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / AUGUST 2018
The plot, though, was well thought out, including a smart technological twist that was meant to help the evil Nazi stamp thief recover the stolen stamps. (Oh, yes, the stamps – they’re out there somewhere!) Also, a showdown between hired guns and a badly beaten Harry Strong atop a skyrise under construction has a near-genius conclusion that I wished had lasted several more pages. Self-published by the author in 2018. Softcover, 6¾ inches by 9½ inches, 363 pages. $16.95, plus shipping on Amazon; $4.99 for Kindle. Canal Zone Airmail Rates, by Tom Brougham and Bradley White Don’t be fooled by the minimalist cover of this slick, book. The insides are packed with vital information – fullcolor examples of Canal Zone covers carried via different rates, plus text and tables – that try to present the “definitive” work of airmail to and from this tiny sliver of land (20 miles wide across the Isthmus of Panama) that the U.S. controlled from 1903 to 1979. Airmail service ran from 1924 to 1979. “This handbook covers all postal rates used on Canal Zone mail receiving any airmail service to all destinations worldwide,” the Introduction states. “In addition to classic airmail-all-the-way service for letters and postcards, this work explains and lists all possible combination rates providing for partial air service and the rates for parcel airmail.” OK, that’s a lot to cover, but this is a tiny little place. Really, how complex can this be? Stick some stamps on a package and off it goes, right? A quick glance through this handbook heavily crammed with numbers, denominations, weights, rates and places gives you a glimpse of just how complex an area of study this is. Come to find out, sending a letter or parcel back to the U.S. mainland might be relatively simple. But what about the rest of the world? Mail could acquire different costs – therefore different rates – depending not only by weight, but by country, continent and hemisphere, not to mention by what year or carrier, zeppelin vs. airplane, for example. The result is a massive amount of work that was undertaken and accomplished by the authors, who were helped by members of the study unit. “The backbone of this work is 39 rate tables detailing several hundred distinguishable Canal Zone airmail rates,” states the Introduction. “In addition to well-known and frequently seen airmail rates, the tables, narratives and illustrations methodically delve into obscure corners of the topic, and even occasionally into areas where information is sparse and consensus is lacking. … This handbook stretches to be comprehensive.” The only thing not presented are special event flights. The Introduction includes an overview and terminology and a guide to determining the rates of airmail covers and is followed by six more chapters: To the United States and Other Domestic Destinations; To Foreign Western Hemisphere Destinations; Partial Airmail Service to Transoceanic Destinations; Full Airmail Service via Transatlantic Routes to or Beyond Europe and Mediterranean Africa; Full Airmail Service via Transpacific Routes to Pacific Islands, Australasia, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa; plus Sources and Resources. The handbook was created via documents from the Canal Zone Postal Service and the U.S. Postal Service; contemporary press reports; two volumes by Anthony Wawrukiewicz and Henry Beecher on domestic and international U.S. postal rates; and thousands of Canal Zone covers. This is clearly a must for anyone delving into this area. Not a member of the study group? Maybe it’s time to join. Published by the Canal Zone Study Group, 2018. Softcover, 8½ inches by 11 inches, 86 pages; included in study group membership; $25 plus shipping otherwise from czgsecretary@gmail.com. 2019 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Volume 3 in two books; G countries in Vol. 3A and countries H through I in Volume 3B Volume 3 of the 2019 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue – the 175th edition – was released June 1 and continues with images of stamps showing trains and locomotives on the covers. Each book duplicates the basics, starting with an Introduction that includes contact info for societies, study groups and expertizing services, plus an illustrated guide to grading, catalog listing policy, a guide to the listings and color and general abbreviations. A section covers basic stamp information, from paper and watermarks to printing processing, inks, luminescence, gum, fakes and forgeries, terminology, common design types (illustrated) and currency conversion. For the British Commonwealth collector there is a listing of British Commonwealth nations and guides to dies and watermarks of British colonial stamps. Here is a look at Volume 3, which weighs 6 pounds, 13.6 ounces altogether, just about equally divided: Vol. 3A: G Countries The 2019 Volume 3A has 904 pages, plus 56 pages of introductory material. First, a couple of short notes about two of this volume’s most popular collecting countries, Germany and Great Britain, both of which are extensively covered by popular catalogs published in their own countries, Michel and Stanley Gibbons, respectively. For the basic collector, Scott offers a pretty extensive look at both countries. AUGUST 2018 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 787
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THE AUGUST 2018 $4.95 AMERICAN PHIL
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Alfred H. Caspary Alfred F. Lichten
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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN ..............
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THE PHILATELIC EXPERIENCEE Around t
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .............
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postal history material since I hav
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As many readers well know, the Post
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August 2018 - Sneak Peek

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