I have a copy of an original Browning book on early U.S. Quarter Dollars and a fellow numismatist suggested I post a request on The E-Sylum for help identifying an owners inscription in the book. The book is inscribed: "Edwin F. Bitter November 3, 1930" in neat pencil. It looks original with nice script and no erasure marks.

I have contacted ANS and ANA and find no evidence of this individual as a collector. This is clearly NOT the famous Adm Bitler as some have suggested. I also searched social security records some time ago with one individual matching first and last name (not middle initial) in Essex New Jersey who could represent the same person at about that time (he would have been age 39 at time of inscription). It seems a bit odd that someone who was not a collector would have a copy of this book during the depression. Any information would be of great interest.

The Browning book inscribed by Edwin F Bitter belonged to my Grandfather. Edwin F Bitter, of Milburn, NJ, was my Father's Dad and was a very avid collector of everything from coins to American Marshall Arms. He had many books that, after his death, were sold to collectors and one of his books somehow found its way to you.

Edwin F Bitter was a collector of all kinds of artifacts. Stones, coins, animal skins and skulls, insects, books, and guns. His collection of flintlock pistols was perhaps the best in the world and the only person with a finer collection was my Father, Edwin W Bitter. Of course, the comparison is a bit unfair as my Grandfather gave him a very good head start! Among the more important and noteworthy guns were George Washington's personal side arm as well as many other of the finest examples of American origin. This collection of flintlocks was so fine that the Smithsonian sought to acquire it and did so in the 1990s, pledging to build a permanent gallery to display the collection.

Edwin F Bitter was a remarkable man and during his varied career he was in the alcohol business among others. So successful was he that after prohibition he and several of his associates, including Joe Kennedy, sought to acquire distillers in Europe that had been badly weakened by the reduced volumes shipped during prohibition. Later on, he acquired a significant amount of real estate in South Florida including, among many other holdings, what would later become the Galt Mile in Ft Lauderdale.

Please let your reader know that he owns a book that was signed and inscribed by a remarkable man!