COLLINS, Stanley (1881 ? 1966). Stanley Collins' Engagement Books, Account Books, and Wordplay Notebooks. 1900s ? 50s. A group of ten notebooks and scrapbooks kept by Collins, several outlining his professional engagements (noting who he worked for, and what he was paid), two scrapbooks of magic cartoons kept by Collins, and several books filled almost entirely in his neat hand with poems (including a handwritten index by subject), short paragraphs of verse, and two with ?perverted proverbs" or funny definitions such as: ?Slang: a short cut across the fields of expression," ?Tears: a woman's safety valve," ?Revenge: keeping open a wound that would otherwise heal," and hundreds and hundreds more. Scattered throughout the notebooks are countless allusions to magic tricks, many attempts by Collins to work out the methods of tricks, lines of patter, and other content related to his long career as a public entertainer and the effects he performed and invented. Sold together with two pocket publications owned by Collins, one being a list of antiquarian booksellers he frequented.