The War of the Worlds Book Cover Aggregator Harold Poskanzer

Harold Poskanzer (a.k.a., Dr. Zeus) is an engineer/artist living in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Zeus collects H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds book jackets/covers. Obviously, I was compelled to ask him for an interview.

ephemera: When did you become interested in collecting The War of the Worlds book covers?

Zeus: New Year's Eve, 1991.

ephemera: 'nuf said, huh? What challenges or obstacles do you encounter in collecting? How do you overcome these challenges?

Zeus: Finding covers I don't already have is the biggest challenge. But the Web has made that a lot easier. In fact, I don't really consider myself a collector so much as an aggregator of other collectors' covers.

ephemera: Yeah, the Web has created a new category of collectors--aggregators. I've interviewed other aggregators, and it seems like a cheap and easy way to assemble a collection--especially in the category of ephemera. What are your favorite covers?

Zeus: I tend to like bold and/or campy graphics, especially those that bear little resemblance to the Victorian novel inside. The story has been through so many visual interpretations that the variety of covers is astounding.

ephemera: What's your advice for achieving success as a collector, or should I say aggregator?

Zeus: Well, I'm not sure I've achieved success, but patience has been my biggest asset in moving towards that goal.

ephemera: What resources and tools do you recommend?

Zeus: When I first started out, I scoured used bookstores in any city I visited. That quickly exhausted all of the common editions, though.

Fortunately, the Web came along and provided me with a wealth of new  sources, primarily eBay and ABE, not to  mention already-scanned covers on Amazon, etc.

These days, I don't do much hunting myself since anything I don't already  have will most likely be pretty obscure. Instead, I sit back and wait  for avid collectors to find me and submit scans of their collections.

As for tools, I don't need much since I'm just collecting the scans, not the actual books in most cases. I have written my own software to enter  and categorize new scans, however, and produce the web pages automatically.

ephemera: Thanks, Harold. You're on the cutting edge of an unforeseen trend in collecting--aggregating--brought about by the Web. It's a remarkable collection of images you've assembled.