Heroes Of The Philatelic World
Does the philatelic world have any heroes?
Maybe the stamp hobby isn't really the place for heroes, but to a young, impressionable kid back in the 1960's, a hero did exist for me: Herman Herst, Jr.
I bought an autographed copy of Nassau Street in 1964 through Van Dahl press, then publishers of the biweekly Western Stamp Collector. I read it cover to cover and liked it a lot. Only 17 at the time, and running a stamp exchange to help build my collection, he made a life in stamps look entertaining and alive even though he was writing about things that transpired 25-30 years earlier.
Pat, as he was called, was a prolific writer. He had a degree in journalism and began writing for Western Stamp Collector in the mid 1930's as their New York correspondent. In addition to his books and columns, he also published a newsletter called Herst's Outbursts, and kept at both stamps and writing for a very long time. I recently came across an issue of The Stamp Wholesaler from 1986 and found he still had a column running there at that late date. Since he was born in 1909, he had to have been 77 at the time.
By the time I did any business with him, he was a stamp auctioneer in Shrub Oak, New York. In about 1966, I won two very nice copies of U.S. #1 from him through one of his auctions, then sold them back to him a few years later.
Since it seemed unlikely that he was still among us, I did a Google search and found he'd left this and the philatelic world in 1999. That saddened me.
Thinking back to one of his stories in Stories To Collect Stamps By, I wonder which of the 25 doors in Heaven's "Mansion of Philately" he chose. At the time he described it, the 26th -- the "Dealer" Door -- had been closed.
I like to think they reopened that door for him.
He was a straight shooter, a dealer's dealer, the antithesis of why he believed heaven had closed the stamp dealer's door. He not only appreciated the hobby but enjoyed many of the "characters" who populated it, and put them within the reach of his readers.
There may be bigger heroes in philately, Minkus, Harris, and Scott, who all dealt in stamps and are responsible for most of the stamp albums still in use today, but Pat Herst was special to me because I dealt with him -- he was very personal in his dealings -- enjoyed his books and Herst's Outbursts, and because he was just downright inspiring to a kid who wanted to deal in stamps during the 1960's.