8/5: susan's book

I'm not a book collector. Undeniably, I have a lot of books, but I don't buy them with an eye to building something coherent like "a collection." Today, though, I acquired a book that is the kind of thing collectors buy. I've been doing research on Hawthorne's Wonder Book for a number of years now, and I recently found a first edition for sale for an unbelievably low price. (Copies can be more than $5,000--and this copy was nowhere near that, not in the same ball-park nor a neighboring ball-park nor even a ball-park in a neighboring state.) So I ordered it, not knowing when I might find a similarly priced copy in the future and really feeling such affection for the Wonder Book that I wanted to have it in the form in which it first appeared to the world in 1851. It arrived today. The copy is in good shape, and it has a handwritten inscription: "Susan M. Dana. from her father. November 12th, 1851." Chris immediately went online to find out who this Susan M. Dana was, and he thinks he's found her family tree!