I’d never heard of William Henry Ireland until I started reading the autobiography of ASW Rosenbach, who a century ago was a colossus in the rare book world. He regarded Ireland as the greatest forger ever. At the age of 17, Ireland fooled almost the entire literary world with his “discovery” of many Shakespearean manuscripts. He expertly created all sorts of Elizabethan letters and poems and had a believable back story explaining how he had acquired them. He even wrote a pretended play of Shakespeare’s. That proved to be his undoing, but not the end of him. He became such a folk hero that “there suddenly sprang up a great demand to behold the handiwork of this delectable young villain.” People in England and curio collectors everywhere wanted to own specimens of his fraudulent papers, creating such a demand that he was kept busy from dawn to dark making forgeries of his forgeries. Another forger got tripped up when he did a forged account of the Battle of Hastings carelessly dated before the battle took place. This timing stuff throws forgers off. I had a photograph of Humphrey Bogart in Printed Page signed in a felt tipped pen. Bogart died before the invention of felt-tipped pens. Although it wasn’t for sale, a guy offered me so much for it that I had to let it go even though it was a great conversation I piece. also had a woman offer me a copy of the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President Kennedy” signed by President Kennedy. I should have commissioned her to make some more.