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<\/a>By Seth H. Bramson<\/strong><\/p>\nAs was noted in the previous column, the Plant System book was another great success, my third in a row, co-authored with Professor Gregg Turner. However, shortly after the book came out in 2004, Myrna opined to me that the collection really should be shared with the public and that the way to do that would be to write about local history. Once again, the publishing gods were looking over my shoulder!<\/p>\n
Just a couple of weeks later, I answered the phone and the caller told me that his name was (long time, can\u2019t remember!) and that he was the acquisitions editor for Florida for Arcadia Publishing, the largest publishers of local history books in the country. They wanted, he told me, to add Miami Beach to their \u201cImages of America\u201d series and a number of people had suggested that I, with the massive collection of Miami Beach memorabilia that we had and have, would be the ideal person to write it. They were right, and I was!<\/p>\n
That book was the beginning, and it, along with the next three which followed, \u201cMiami The Magic City;\u201d \u201cCoral Gables\u201d (those two also in the \u201cImages of America\u201d series) and \u201cFlorida East Coast Railway\u201d in the \u201cImages of Rail\u201d series took off like a rocket, as did the other three.
\nArcadia, for those two well-titled series, has a set format: sepia-toned covers, 128 pages in each book, and between 180 and 220 photos to be used in each of them. Not a problem! As the senior collector in America in my four fields (FEC Railway; Florida transportation memorabilia; Miami memorabilia and Floridiana) I can do what no other Florida history writer can do as far as providing the images for his or her book or books goes: With only a very few exceptions, and generally, at least 80% of the photos in any of my books are from The Bramson Archive.<\/p>\n
Because I have been collecting so voluminously, so fanatically, so maniacally and so hysterically for so long I do not need to go to the usual suspects (libraries, museums and historical societies) and pick out the same old tired, hackneyed images which have been used time after time by others, particularly a couple of local faux historians (no names, please: we\u2019re British!) who can\u2019t seem to help doing just that.<\/p>\n
Having developed an extensive network of real and true and genuine and caring contacts, both locally and nationally, who, unlike the local jealous-ites, are more than happy to be included and to assist me and to participate, the books carry an extensive range of never before seen images. Best of all, unlike said others, my books are loaded not just with photographs but with the images of booklets, brochures, pamphlets, menus and other never-before published items.<\/p>\n
Before we get into what occurred following the writing of the four Arcadia books noted above, though, a bit of levity is apropos at this moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiami The Magic City\u201d was just about to come out when I was invited, along with several other local authors, by the Hysterical Association to present a talk on my books at \u201cThe Harvest,\u201d then held at what used to be called the Youth Fair Grounds on SW 107th Avenue and Coral Way.<\/p>\n
Shortly before my presentation, I greeted one of them and in return was told, \u201cI hear you have a book coming out called \u201cMiami The Magic City\u201d and that is the name of one of my books (actually, her book was titled \u201cMagic City\/Miami\u201d)\u201d to which I replied, \u201cno, not exactly; the title is \u201cImages of America: Miami The Magic City,\u201d at which point she was turning beet red and said to me, \u201chow would you like it if I came out with a book called \u201cSpeedway to Sunshine?\u201d And I replied, \u201cI would love it (name removed to protect the guilty) so and so! Imagine the publicity we would both get!\u201d<\/p>\n
She sputtered almost unintelligibly and was almost spitting blood when she next told me that I was going to hear from her attorney, to which I then said that I would be happy to have the pleasure of so doing, she then turning and storming off.<\/p>\n
When I got home that night I called Arcadia and incredibly, who answered but the publisher herself. \u201cKate, I want to tell you what happened today because I don\u2019t want anything to ever hurt our relationship,\u201d followed by my repeating the not exactly a conversation. She started to laugh and then, to my surprise, said \u201cSeth, don\u2019t worry about it!\u201d \u201cOK,\u201d I thought, \u201cthat sounds good.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the next day, a Monday, I went out to FIU to teach my history class and approached my then-department chair, telling him that I didn\u2019t want anything to jump up and bite us on the fanny. When I finished, he guffawed, also, and I said \u201cDoc, does that mean I shouldn\u2019t worry,\u201d and his answer made me nothing short of joyful, as I learned the realities of copyright law.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeth,\u201d he smilingly responded, \u201cof course you shouldn\u2019t worry\u2014you can\u2019t copyright a title.\u201d I was somewhat relieved and, of course, totally pleased to learn more about that fact as he went on. \u201cIf you could copyright a title,\u201d he continued, \u201cthen you could copyright words such as \u201cto,\u201d \u201cfrom,\u201d \u201cbut,\u201d \u201cthe,\u201d \u201cif\u201dand others. Don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d And that dear friends and readers was a great lesson learned, so as we continue with the story of the late in life burst of creativity next column I will also share with you what happened just a few months ago when another non-genius, this one with a PhD, tried to pull the same nonsense. It didn\u2019t go well for her, either. Back with you shortness, and, as always, with warmest good wishes.<\/p>\n
Stay safe\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n [si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [AdSense-A] By Seth H. Bramson As was noted in the previous column, the Plant System book was another great success, my third in a row, co-authored with Professor Gregg Turner. However, shortly after the book came out in 2004, Myrna opined to me that the collection really should be shared with the public and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18981],"class_list":["post-75514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-a-late-in-life-burst-of-creativity-part-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75514"}],"version-history":[{"count":-1,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}