February 2018 - Sneak Peek

Hitler Youth – The
Generations of Lost
Innocence
St. Helena Postal
History, From
Napoleon to the UPU
Paul von Lettow-
Vorbeck
Montserrat:
Postal History of a
Caribbean Island
How the Post
Facilitated Distribution
of the Printed Word,
1775-1870
Aside from WSP awards, many of the exhibits
also garnered other honors. As an example, Andrews’
von Lettow-Vorbeck won an APS Congress
award for written text, and, among others,
awards from the Germany Philatelic Society,
Military Postal History Society, the American
Topical Association and several show awards.
Most of the books include an introduction
of sorts by the exhibitor that was not part of the
original exhibit. There, they can explain a bit
about the process and the material before the
viewer sees the exhibit pages as they appeared in
award-winning form.
“I started the Montserrat collection of postal
history at Pacific 97 in San Francisco where I
purchased six key items which still today are a
cornerstone of the exhibit,” writes McCann. “I
never saw any of the six items for purchase again.
It has taken 20 years to put together what is the
finest compilation of Montserrat postal history
that has ever existed.” My only complaint is that
since the book shows the exhibit as it was presented,
a novice such as myself can only guess at
what those six cornerstone items are and study
why they are so important to the exhibit.
Zwillinger notes that to accommodate an exhibit
into book format, a few adjustments must
occasionally be made. For example, in Cipolla’s
book we find the following note in the front:
“In order to make double pages appear as
close as possible to how they appeared in the
exhibit frames, they must appear on two facing
pages. One page of the exhibit had its placement
shifted in this book in order for all the double
pages to appear as facing pages. The shift has not
changed the sequence of thoughts.”
Not everything is perfect. Some of the reproduction
is soft, and in a couple of cases, a bit
blurry. For example, although most of it is quite
clear, text on a handful of “Paul von Lettow-
Vorbeck” and “Hitler Youth” pages is a bit hard
to read. But, overall, having these available at an
affordable price is a true gift to philately.
It would be silly for me to review or comment
on the material shown in these books.
They’re grand award winners! Now, instead of
just glimpsing them at a show, you can spend as
much time as you want with them thanks to this
series of books.
Here is a Q and A with Zwillinger about the
project:
You have created the Exhibitors Press for
this project. Is there a specific name for the series?
I started with an intent to publish a series
of exhibits that were awarded grand awards.
Things have gone so well I am now working on
three series: Grand Award Winners (which includes
Champion-of-Champion exhibits), Editor’s
Choice, which are good exhibits that I think warrant
increased exposure, have not won a grand
and are in some cases slightly esoteric; and a series
of U.S. single stamp exhibits tentatively titled
Library of U.S. Philately. Six books have been
published in the first series and I am working on
manuscripts in the other two series. My goal is to
have at least eight additional volumes this year
with volumes in all three series.
The concept is to publish current awardwinning
philatelic exhibits, is that correct?
What is the overriding goal?
The concept is to print great exhibits. Most are
current exhibits. Some older exhibits have great
material or reflect a great approach. The goal is to
print great exhibits so that readers, postal historians,
exhibitors or scholars have the opportunity
to study these exhibits in depth.
When and how did you come up with this
idea?
The idea of publishing these exhibits was a
result of events and conversations that occurred
between June and August 2016.
At World Stamp Show-New York 2016 I attended
the release ceremony for one of the volumes
in the Edition D’Or series. This series,
prepared by the Global Philatelic Network, reproduces
international gold medal exhibits. The
production values are high with hard covers, high
quality paper and excellent illustrations. They are
not inexpensive; I was able to afford one although
I would have liked to purchase several.
I have always liked looking at exhibits. These
volumes are a magnificent way to show exhibits. I
think they set the standard for what can be done.
Then I saw Edward Bergen’s book, The Pictorial
Story of Walt Disney’s First Superstar: Mickey
Mouse (Historical Philatelic and Printed Image
Collection), which included elements of his exhibit
in a book for sale at a very attractive price.
I talked to him about his production process and
he made me aware of the Amazon subsidiary CreateSpace,
which is a print-on-demand publisher
that makes book publication easier than I thought
was possible.
Two months later, I attended StampShow and
talked with a buddy about the still undefined idea
of publishing exhibits using CreateSpace. Through
a series of conversations, we were able to narrow
my focus to something concrete. The Global Philatelic
Network publishes exhibits of international
174 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / FEBRUARY 2018