Lost rights : the misadventures of a stolen American relic / David Howard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Howard, David, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Manuscripts--Collectors and collecting.

Manuscripts.

Theft of relics.

History.

Lost articles.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Confiscations and contributions.

United States.

North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Confiscations and contributions.

North Carolina.

Lost articles--North Carolina--History.

Theft of relics--North Carolina--History.

Manuscripts--Collectors and collecting--United States.

United States. Constitution--1st-10th Amendments.

Physical Description:

344 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.

Summary:

"This remarkable American story follows the long, shadowy trail of a single document, North Carolina's wayward copy of the Bill of Rights. With ratification of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution in 1789, 14 elegantly handwritten copies were drafted, one for each of the original states and one for the federal government. Seventy-six years later, at the end of the Civil War, it is believed a soldier with Sherman's army pilfered North Carolina's copy and carried it home to Ohio. The following year it ended up in the possession of Indiana businessman Charles Shotwell, who bought it for only five dollars. After 134 years in the Shotwell family's possession, the document in 2000 was purchased for two hundred thousand dollars by a boastful Connecticut antique collector and an ethically dubious business partner, both hoping to sell it for millions. How the parchment ended up back in North Carolina state archives is an intricate tale involving high-powered antique dealers, businessmen, historians, manuscript experts, auction houses, elite attorneys, governors of three states, the FBI, a U.S. Attorney's office, and Philadelphia's National Constitution Center. The tale pulsates with dynamic personalities greatly affected by their connection to one of the rarest, most influential and valuable documents in American history."--Amazon.

Contents:

A break-in

The natural

The $4 treasure

The grain man

Best friends

The document hunter

The leaves of the sybil

Strangers

The art dealer

The bookseller

The buyer

A revelation

Time runneth not against the king

The joy of illegitimate possession

Nowhere fast

The sky's the limit

Just a regular guy

Deception

Special delivery

The thump on the door

Blow-back

The great divide

Another way

Postscript.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780618826070

0618826076

OCLC:

290431730