I am so happy you each got a copy and how nice of the reporter guy to send you his copy.My best story about getting a rare book is a little different.
My mom's brother decided to research the family ancestry. The family records have been destroyed by fire twice....once by accident and once on purpose (to protect people). So, my uncle was researching by talking to people. Since my grandfather was a much loved and well respected man, a lot of the people he talked to asked for a copy of the family tree when he completed it. He ended up writing a book about his father and his ancestors and descendants. (I'm in the book ) someone had loaned the book to my dad, who let me borrow it. Nobody told me.....in the middle of the book were the dedication pictures. The youngest child, my mom, and the oldest child, my aunt that I was named after. Both died while he was researching the book so he dedicated it to both of them.
So, I hunted for a copy of the book, which was out of print. I found it in a museum which has books for genealogy research, but not for sale.
Pre-Internet days, so I sent a "letter-to-the-editor" of the newspaper of the city my grandfather had lived near. I got a package in the mail. It was from a guy working at the newspaper as a reporter. When the book was originally published, he had been working at the French newspaper and my uncle had sent him a copy of the book to write a review. He still had the book, so he sent it to me.
I actually ended up with two copies of the book, so I gave one to my sister.
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