Description

Book Synopsis
Acclaimed historian and novelist Robert Irwin begins his book with a caveat: '[it] will be of little or no practical use or interest to stamp collectors. It does not deal with the subject's practicalities'. Instead, Irwin takes us on a fascinating, wayward journey through a wealth of literary texts that cast a surprising light on stamps and the curious activity of collecting them. Drawing on writers from Sigmund Freud to Ellery Queen, Irwin charts an erudite path that encompasses the psychology and psychopathology of collecting, classification, nostalgia, anal retentiveness, secrecy and subversion, boredom and death. As his sources take him from the colonial history of stamp imagery to the bizarre trade in stamp forgeries, Irwin builds a unique and compelling portrait of the art of collecting, and of himself as collector.

The Madmans Guide to Stamp Collecting

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    A Hardback by Robert Irwin

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      Publisher: Pushkin Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 1/10/2025
      ISBN13: 9781805337744, 978-1805337744
      ISBN10: 1805337742
      Also in:
      Biography Memoirs

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Acclaimed historian and novelist Robert Irwin begins his book with a caveat: '[it] will be of little or no practical use or interest to stamp collectors. It does not deal with the subject's practicalities'. Instead, Irwin takes us on a fascinating, wayward journey through a wealth of literary texts that cast a surprising light on stamps and the curious activity of collecting them. Drawing on writers from Sigmund Freud to Ellery Queen, Irwin charts an erudite path that encompasses the psychology and psychopathology of collecting, classification, nostalgia, anal retentiveness, secrecy and subversion, boredom and death. As his sources take him from the colonial history of stamp imagery to the bizarre trade in stamp forgeries, Irwin builds a unique and compelling portrait of the art of collecting, and of himself as collector.

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