George Sloane was born in 1898 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Benedict_Sloane. By the time he was 23 he had a stamp shop on New York’s philatelic Mecca Nassau Street and by 1932 he was writing a weekly column for Stamps Magazine, a stamp weekly that occupied the position at the top of the philatelic literature heap in the 1930-1950 period that Linns fills today. Sloane began his first column in 1932 and for 37 years until his death continued his columns. He never missed a week.
His columns covered both researched reporting and general philatelic musings. His main area of expertise was United States classic and Bureau period (mostly 1894-1916) philately but what made his columns a must read for every stamp collector was the wide range of subjects he covered. His 1350 columns were printed in book form in 1961 (and reprinted in 1980). Much of the information in the articles is still poignant and germane. The scholarly information about various issues, locals and covers is fact based and of course hasn’t changed. But, more interesting, his comments about our hobby and its practitioners has a veracity that rings true even today eighty years after his first article. As the week progresses I will be writing about different parts of this wonderful 440 page book that seem interesting to me and have pertinacity for our times. If you want to buy the book, I believe I saw a copy for sale at http://www.philbansner.com/ for only $25. What a lot of great stamp reading for a small price.