Well Known Previous Owners

I found this dedication in a copy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Letters from a Traveller. I'm not sure about Mr. White, but I believe Dr. David Donald was David Herbert Donald a historian and former Harvard professor who died in 2009. I must have acquired it not long after from a bookstore called The Uncommon Book (I still had the bookmark).

I used to have a science fiction novel that was previously owned by a NASA employee when he was a teenager, and I've always wondered if science fiction helped inspire him.

I own James Whitcomb Riley’s personal copy of The Pocket Gem Pronouncing Dictionary not for definitions. My husband’s aunt or great aunt visited the homestead and was gifted it by Riley’s descendants. His signature is where owners general inscribe their name, and there is an insert from the family.

Well can’t get touchstones to work.

James Whitcomb Riley

Pocket Gem Pronouncing Dictionary

Interesting. I had a similar experience when I bought an autobiographical trilogy by Hans-Ulrich Rudel, a STUKA pilot who flew over 2500 sorties in WWII. I opened Volume 1, and there was a dedication from him to the original owner!