Welcome to my very own Autograph magazine page! I want to thank all of you for reading my “Book Collector” column and articles during the last decade plus, and many thanks for all of your kind mail and comments over the years. I greatly appreciate all of it.

It’s been one of the greatest thrills for me to share my signed book collection with you as we all strive to build our autographed book libraries of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the amazing time in which we are living. Each and every one of our collections is a time capsule of the history being made around us, and sometimes by us – whether in literature, politics, entertainment, religion, sports, science, or any other field we find ourselves and our Sharpies exploring.

As you know, my interest in books doesn’t stop with my autograph and book collection of more than 4,000 signatures. Over the past several years, I have written many books. Most fittingly, my very first book, Corresponding With History: The Art & Benefits of Collecting Autographs, was published in the mid-90s just before I started writing for the magazine, and has now become somewhat of a cult classic within the autograph industry.

Corresponding With History is part how-to and part memoir, but my favorite section is at the end where I outline fun school projects teachers can use to incorporate autographs into the classroom to really make learning fun. Although the stories and some information in the book are now a bit outdated as they belong to another time and place – another century really, the general tenets of building a collection remain the same. I am happy to frequently hear from many of you, who have sought out Corresponding With History online at used bookstores and via the publisher, ETC Publications, and are now adding it to your collections as a historical artifact of our hobby.

Just as my autograph and signed book collection spans different genres, as an author, I went from a book about autographs to an award-winning cookbook about BEER, or as I call it, “The Golden Rock Star.” A member of one of the oldest brewing families in the United States, the Straub Brewery (straubbeer.com) family of Pennsylvania, my most recent book is The Ultimate Beer Lover’s Cookbook.

With more than 400 food and drink recipes that all use the Golden Rock Star as an ingredient, it is the largest beer cookbook ever published. And, it was recently awarded “Best Beer Book in the United States” and “Best Beer Book in the World” by the international Gourmand Awards, which made the 10 years it took to write it very much worth it!

The Ultimate Beer Lover’s Cookbook has also placed me on the other side of the Sharpie as it were from time to time as I did a nationwide book tour with Harrah’s Entertainment in support of the book, as well as ongoing national media and even QVC. I even get to meet some of you, my autograph collecting friends, while I’m out on the road at various events, which is always a great thrill. After all, we autograph collectors (and beer & food lovers) have to stick together!

Using the links here and on my photos, I hope you will all check out The Ultimate Beer Lover’s Cookbook and its new paperback adaptation, The Beer Lover’s Cookbook. I am currently hard at work on a new cookbook, which will highlight the best recipes from the top chefs across the country at Harrah’s Entertainment’s casinos. That book is due out from Chronicle Books in Fall 2010.

Finally, if you are on Twitter, please come follow me @JohnSchlimm.

I look forward to continuing to share my collection and books with you, and most of all, I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Happy Collecting…& Eating!

John