Generally Speaking

Generally Speaking

In the summer of 2009, award-winning novelist Lawrence Block began contributing a monthly column to Linnâ€™s Stamp News, Americaâ€™s leading philatelic publication. A collector as a boy and young man, Block had returned to the hobby in the 1990s. Before long he had begun writing about stamps when one of his characters, an assassin-for-hire named Keller, took up philately so heâ€™d have something to do in his impending retirement.

Collectors can probably imagine what became of Kellerâ€™s retirement fund; it dwindled even as his collection thrived, and heâ€™s gone on to star in four novelsâ€”Hit Man, Hit List, Hit Parade, and Hit & Runâ€”with a fifth, Hit Me, coming from Mulholland Books in 2013.

Blockâ€™s column, â€œGenerally Speaking,â€ quickly became one of Linnâ€™s most popular features. It consists of the reflections and observations of a general worldwide collectorâ€”the author, like Keller, collects the whole world during philatelyâ€™s first century, 1840 to 1940, plus British Empire through the reign of George VI.

The column ranges widely in theme, sometimes dealing with the choices a collector has to make (â€œMint or Used?â€, â€œCondition, condition, conditionâ€), sometimes with the day to day tasks one confronts (â€œAlbum Bulge and Other Afflictionsâ€, â€œBuying the Same Stamp Twiceâ€), and often shining the light of philately upon some intriguing social or cultural topic. (â€œThe Philatelic Upside of Warâ€ examines the profusion of collectible stamps resulting from the First World War; the philatelic impact of Germanyâ€™s hyperinflation of 1923 is assessed in â€œHow Much is That Dachshund in the Fenster?â€)

Generally Speaking gathers together the first twenty-five of Blockâ€™s columns. If youâ€™ve been reading them in Linnâ€™s, now you can have all the columns at hand in one place. If youâ€™re a collector but havenâ€™t read Lawrence Block before, youâ€™re in for a treat.

And if youâ€™re a fan of the bestselling authorâ€™s fiction, but have always regarded a stamp as something to stick on an envelope, hereâ€™s your chance to get a little more insight into what keeps Keller hard at work. Even if you donâ€™t rush out to equip yourself with a pair of tongs and a packet of hinges, youâ€™ll have a good time reading about it, and will very likely emerge with a little more respect for what has long been called the King of Hobbies and the Hobby of Kings.

Country	USA
Author	Lawrence Block
Binding	Kindle Edition
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Lawrence Block
Manufacturer	Lawrence Block
NumberOfPages	152
PublicationDate	2011-12-23
Publisher	Lawrence Block
ReleaseDate	2011-12-23
Studio	Lawrence Block

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