[Drop-head title] Shell Notes.

Frank LYMAN (1895-1981).

[Drop-head title] Shell Notes. [Lantana, Florida: The Lyman Family, no date-] September 1942-June 1947, November 1947, March 1949. Vol.I, nos.1-20 (complete, in one volume) and Vol.II, nos.1 and 6 (only, of 15). 12mo (6 x 4in; 152 x 102mm). Vol.1: pp. [i-vi] 9-60, folding map, 61-112, [1-page insert printed in blue], 113-126, [4-page insert printed on pink paper; 1-page large format folding insert], [127-]128-134, [‘133’]-‘134’, 135-140, [1-page insert on grey; 1-page insert in blue/grey; 2-page insert; 1-page on green paper], [141-]142-195[-196 final blank]. Vol.2: pp.[1-]2-6, folding plate, 7-20; [83-]84-92, [93-93 are on a folding leaf], 95-98, [1-page insert on green paper]. Plates, maps and illustrations. (Vol.I, nos.1-10 with hole-punched inner margins). Stapled into two cream paper wrappers.

This charming, informative and characterful journal was edited throughout by Florida conchologist and shell dealer, Frank Lyman. His biographical entry in ‘Shellers from the Past and Present’ notes that it was ‘Published occasionally from 1942 through 1951 (Vol. 1, nos. 1-20; Vol. 2, nos. 1-15; plus at least 1 "Special Service" issue in 1950).’: surely, rare, and includes the stories, characters, humor, in fact, all the information needed to construct a ‘bio-pic’?

“Frank was born in Lantana, Florida in 1895 under a coconut palm (it leaned against the house, its crest above his parent's roof) and cut his teeth on a Crown Conch. He had (in 1980) the first shell he ever picked up and twenty thousand more. There are shells everywhere: cases on tables and sideboards and walls, glass-topped displays of gorgeous color and exquisite form; shells in cigar boxes stacked six feet high, shells spilling loose into baskets and trays; miniatures almost too small to see, and giant tritons two feet long. Tall, white-haired, a Southern Christian gentleman of the old school, Frank smiles at our bedazzled "ohs" and "ahs" and pours goblets of homemade mulberry wine for weary travelers. He is our "Sunshine Man". Like hundreds of shell nuts around the world, we belong to what he calls the Sunshine Plan. He mails the "Sheller's Sunshine News", a letter telling what people have sent him, every once in a while; the shells are top quality with extensive data. The collection we viewed is vast and of museum quality. … countless species I had never seen before in any museum, private collection or book.” (https://www.conchology.be/?t=9001&id=23888). (2)

RIJ 4131a 4131b