The coolest thing I’ve ever found, and kept, is the first edition (and only) printing of a called FOB Detroit. This was not a particularly good book. However it was set in Detroit, and about the way that working in a factory was particularly soul-crushing in the early part of the 20th century.
The story was very much a slam on Henry Ford and the automobile industry the same way that Citizen Kane was a slam on Hearst and his brand of “yellow journalism”. Henry Ford went out of his way to have this book destroyed and lost to history. I suppose a modern day equivalent to this situation would be if Mark Zuckerberg had tried to have the book The Accidental Billionaires or the movie The Social Network destroyed. Despite his enormous wealth, I don’t think he could pull that off today. 100 years ago, it was more feasible.
I actually came across this book in a literature class I had early on in college. My professor only owned one copy of it himself, so he actually made a photo copy of the entire novel and included it as part of a “Course pack” he had printed for his students. I supposed today’s professors would post this stuff online. Just thinking about that makes me feel old.
Several years later, when X1’s parents were downsizing their home, I came across a copy of the book on one of their bookcases. When they realized that I was legitimately excited about seeing the book, they let me keep it. Evidently they didn’t really care for the novel themselves,
When X1 and I divorced, I wondered whether or not she was going to remember this book and keep it for herself, or ask for it back out of resentment.I was pleasantly surprised when it never came up. Not to say that the book is some kind of valuable collectors item; I’m pretty sure it’s not. But wits it’s ties to Detroit, the book is “valuable to me”. Below, I am embedding my response to this prompt from last year in which I talked about FOB Detroit initially. Check it out…
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- Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
- The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie
The article “The Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Found and Kept – 2024” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob.
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