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ANOTHER REASON WHY USED BOOKSTORES ARE AWESOME

I bought this book -- The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst by Kenneth Whyte -- a few years ago at the wonderful Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood. However, I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, so it's just been sitting on one of my bookshelves pretty much ever since I bought it.

Today, I just happened to pick it up and start thumbing through it, and this fell out:

Now, I don't know what it is exactly, but it sure looks like a thank you note that would be sent in response to someone who had expressed condolences after someone's illness or death. Was it sent to someone from William Randolph Hearst's estranged wife after he died? That in itself is interesting because Hearst and his wife were estranged for the last 25+ years of his life because he had a very public affair with actress Marion Davies. Here's the thing, though: Hearst died in 1951, but the used book that the thank you card fell out of was published in 2009. The card definitely looks much older than the book, but that just brings up more questions. Did someone have the card from 1951 and just decide to use it as a bookmark since it's a biography of Hearst? Was the card a collectible item about Hearst and they figured that the book was as good a place as any for safekeeping? Is it even a card pertaining to the famous William Randolph Hearst who is the subject of the book, or maybe for his son, William Randolph Hearst Jr., who died in 1993?

I have no idea, but I bought a used copy of a book about William Randolph Hearst for like $7 in North Hollywood a few years ago and on top of the fascinating story of Hearst's crazy life printed within the book's pages, it's created a whole new set of stories and questions for me just because somebody left a unique memento tucked in those pages. All I can say for sure is that you don't get these types of experiences when you're reading e-books on a Kindle or an iPad.

#Books #William Randolph Hearst #Reading #The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst #Hearst #Kenneth Whyte #The Iliad Bookshop #Los Angeles #Bookstores #Used Books #Book Stores #Bookshops #Book Lovers #Books and Reading #Used Bookstores

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