As noted in the previous column, the Plant System book was another great success, my third in a row, co-authored with Professor Gregg Turner. However, shortly after the book came out in 2004, Myrna opined to me that the collection really should be shared with the public and that the way to do that would be to write about local history. Once again, the publishing gods were looking over my shoulder!
Just a couple of weeks later, I answered the phone and the caller told me he was the acquisitions editor for Florida for Arcadia Publishing, the largest publisher of local history books in the country. They wanted, he told me, to add Miami Beach to their “Images of America” series and a number of people had suggested that I, with the massive collection of Miami Beach memorabilia that we had and have, would be the ideal person to write it.
That book was the beginning, and it, along with the next three which followed, “Miami The Magic City;” “Coral Gables” (those two also in the “Images of America” series) and “Florida East Coast Railway” in the “Images of Rail” series took off like a rocket, as did the other three.
Arcadia, for those two well-titled series, has a set format: sepia-toned covers, 128 pages in each book, and between 180 and 220 photos to be used in each of them. Not a problem! As the senior collector in America in my four fields (FEC Railway; Florida transportation memorabilia; Miami memorabilia and Floridiana) I can do what no other Florida history writer can do as far as providing the images for his or her book or books goes: With only a very few exceptions, and generally, at least 80% of the photos in any of my books are from The Bramson Archive. Because I have been collecting so voluminously, so fanatically, so maniacally and so hysterically for so long I do not need to go to the usual suspects (libraries, museums and historical societies) and pick out the same old tired, hackneyed images which have been used time after time by others, particularly a couple of local faux historians (no names, please: we’re British!) who can’t seem to help doing just that.
Having developed an extensive network of real and true and genuine and caring contacts, both locally and nationally, who, unlike the local jealous-ites, are more than happy to be included and to assist me and to participate, the books carry an extensive range of never before seen images. Best of all, unlike said others, my books are loaded not just with photographs but with the images of booklets, brochures, pamphlets, menus and other never-before published items.
Before we get into what occurred following the writing of the four Arcadia books noted above, though, a bit of levity is apropos at this moment.
“Miami The Magic City” was just about to come out when I was invited, along with several other local authors, by the Hysterical Association (now HystericalMiami) to present a talk on my books at “The Harvest,” then held at what used to be called the Youth Fair Grounds on SW 107th Avenue and Coral Way during the weekend before Thanksgiving. Shortly before my presentation, I greeted one of them (another author) and in return was told, “I hear you have a book coming out called “Miami The Magic City” and that is the name of one of my books (actually, her book was titled “Magic City/Miami”)” to which I replied, “no, not exactly; the title is “Images of America: Miami The Magic City,” at which point she was turning beet red and said to me, barely able to spit the words out, much less enunciate them correctly, “how would you like it if I came out with a book called “Speedway to Sunshine?” And I replied, “I would love it (name removed to protect the guilty) so and so! Imagine the publicity we would both get!”
She sputtered almost unintelligibly and was almost spitting blood when she next told me that I was going to hear from her attorney, to which I then said that I would be happy to have the pleasure of so doing, she then turning and storming off, muttering legalistic threats.
When I got home that night I called Arcadia and incredibly, who answered but the publisher herself. “Kate, I want to tell you what happened today because I don’t want anything to ever hurt our relationship,” followed by my repeating the not exactly a conversation. She started to laugh and then, to my surprise, said “Seth, don’t worry about it!” “OK,” I thought, “that sounds good.”
However, the next day, a Monday, I went out to FIU to teach my history class and approached my then-department chair, telling him that I didn’t want anything to jump up and bite us on the fanny. When I finished telling him the story, he guffawed, also, and I said “Doc, does that mean I shouldn’t worry,” and his answer made me nothing short of joyful, as I learned the realities of copyright law.
“Seth,” he smilingly responded, “of course you shouldn’t worry—you can’t copyright a title.” I was not only relieved to learn that fact, but, and of course, totally pleased to learn more about that fact as he went on. “If you could copyright a title,” he continued, “then you could copyright words such as “to,” “from,” “but,” “the,” “if” and others. Don’t worry about it.” And that dear friends and readers was a great lesson learned.
