steve wrote:louis van deven ?
BINGO !!!!
Greetings Steve,
Congratulations 
Yes, indeed, that short bio (
auto -bio, no less !) is of the one and only
Louis Van Deven, from a letter sent to Liam Stephens many years ago.
And, as a winner,I have a prize for you......
It is called
A MEMORY LANE !!!!!
As I have written many times here on the forum boards, I have a major portion of Earl Hangen's Library of Checker books.
I have also mentined several times that Earl's Library included a great portion of the late Paul Ottey's Library.....
While taking inventory, I came across a dusty old 3 ring binder that had a label on it,
"
6/14/70 CALDWELLS CHECKER PUBLICATION LISTING".
The first pages in this binder are a list of all checker publications , as compiled by John Caldwell....and a letter from Caldwell to Ottey explaining that he (Caldwell) had been contacted by Van Deven, who in turn had been contacted by Ottey himself, wondering if such a list had ever been produced.....
So, the way I figure, Ottey had been searching for such a list for some time, as, also included in this three ring binder is correspondence, and lists, from several other people......
Here is one of them
I figure this correspondence ( which is not dated) would have to be prior to 6/14/1970, as this was the date that Ottey had finally secured the list he was looking for from Caldwell, and he certainly would have had no need to search further, as the Caldwell list is as comprehensive and up to date (per 1970) as could have been possible
So, I would think this letter (scanned above) is at least 37 years old. (BTW, this letter did indeed accompany the list mentioned in the letter, which is a most impressive library !!)
Does this look familiar ...?
It should.....
Because this letter was sent to Paul Ottey, some 37 years ago, ( by my estimation) by none other than.....
With all of that being stated, I have to ask you, is your Library still intact...? Veerryy Impressive !!!
If it ever goes on the market, let me know, as there are several items on there that I would be interested in for my own Library......
I
hope you enjoy this little stroll down "Memory Lane"....
Regards
Jay H
