Praise

“Capt. Peter Strickland owes much to author Stephen H. Grant.”
– Library of Congress

“Grant’s careful blending of historical hindsight with Strickland’s own words brings enormous value to our understanding of U.S. diplomacy.”
– Foreign Service Journal

“This book offers a vivid picture of the unique career of a New Englander who was a pioneer in the diplomatic field in French West Africa.”
– The Day, New London, Conn.

“[This] interesting and informative book on a little known connection between this area [New London] and the West African country of Senegal… opens a window to a neglected aspect of trade in the nineteenth century.”
– New London County Historical Society

“What began with the purchase of an envelope on eBay by a man interested in old postcards turned into six years of research culminating in an intriguing new book.”
– The Resident, Stonington, Conn.

“This is a great new historical source for Senegal, and for 19th century American shipping, trade, and foreign relations.”
– L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin, University of Delaware Library

“Stephen Grant has done a masterful job of weaving the strands and evidence of a multitalented individual’s life into a coherent collage with his biography of the seafaring entrepreneur Peter Strickland. The man had such a mixed life of professional success and unceasing personal tragedy. I thought about life in the mid-1800s: no cars, no planes, and less than luxurious ship conditions. I can’t blame his wife for retreating. Life as a whole was incredibly challenging in those days that Grant has written about in such an interesting way.”
– Mary-Charlotte Shealy

“[Strickland’s] career as consul is of interest to historians of Africa in its insights into late nineteenth-century commerce along the coast from Senegal to Sierra Leone and the impact upon the United States’ role of the onset of French colonialism. Through his consular dispatches, correspondence, and a journal spanning twenty-five years, he documents the primary imports and exports of Senegal to the U.S., but also the business and social relations among those serving European and American interests from Gorée and Dakar.”
– Roberta A. Dunbar, Department of African and Afro-American Studies, University of North Carolina

“Steve Grant’s biography is a little gem. The preface tells of the author’s search for his subject and reads with the pace and surprise of a treasure hunt. Grant has a special gift for writing history, perhaps especially biography. His eye for detail also sees his subject in the round and in all the colors of his time and setting.”
– Sam S. Rea

“Grant not only tells a good tale, but he has made an excellent use of a significant trove of historical materials in doing so, conducting extensive research on two continents, examining volumes of archival records and poring over Strickland’s six decades of personal journals.”
 – Nina Robbins

“An entertaining, lively read. I do not remember reading anything that brings to life so well this period and the reality of living both in West Africa and in New England.”
– Arthur M. Fell

“Stephen Grant has written a wonderfully readable account of an exceptional personality.”
 – Eunice Charles

“Stephen Grant’s biography [of Consul Peter Strickland] adds to our knowledge of what diplomats do and how they do it. . . . The contributions of our consuls have been too often ignored [and] Grant has taken a significant step toward remedying this.”
– from the Foreword by Kenneth L. Brown and Michael E. C. Ely

“As an American librarian specialist in Latin America who has written about using postcards as visual historical resources, I highly recommend this valuable work to librarians, scholars, and students interested in Central America. Combining oral history with exhaustive bibliographic research, Dr. Grant has recovered unwritten and previously unattainable information on people, places, buildings, and events. Dr. Grant’s informative and handsome book will establish a new standard for the growing interest in using picture postcards to document and interpret social history.”
– Martha E. McPhail, San Diego State University

“Stephen Grant introduced me not just to a mass of worn postcards, but to a veritable treasure, preserved meticulously with the care and keep eye of an intelligent, sagacious, and subtle collector. He was a person conscious of what he possessed, knowledgeable about the details and intricacies of what he held, and who recognized the cultural, historical, and anecdotal value of his collection. His aim was to share with Salvadorans the enjoyment of his collection, and to produce a publication which would offer to the public the little known facet of postcards as testimonies of bygone eras.”
– Pedro Antonio Escalante Arce, Secretary, Salvadoran Academy of History

“We express to you our gratitude for the contribution you have made to El Salvador by providing all Salvadorans with this document which will allow historical scenes from 20th century El Salvadoran to be graphically engraved in the minds and hearts of present-day Salvadorans as well as future generations.”
– Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, Vice-President of the Republic of El Salvador

“The commentaries made by others who have consulted your book attest to their admiration for the care and effort you devoted to our country in developing this valued collection of postcards and in placing them in their historical context that we can now appreciate. We also note the outstanding originality and professionalism that have marked your contribution to our history. You have demonstrated enormous sensitivity in your research and have shown us how through picture postcards we can become closer to moments of our past.”
– Eugenia López, Director of National Archives

“It is a real pleasure to greet you and convey to you how moved I am by your book on early Salvadoran postcards. I recognize your marvelous initiative and tenacity which have resulted in such an important document for our culture. Your detailed research has allowed us to know a little more about our own past and the customs of yesteryear, to enjoy nice views and unequaled images that show the world of our grandparents when peace and simplicity were part of the Salvadoran patrimony.”
– Alvaro Dagoberto Gonzalez Soriano

“Stephen Grant, with this work, has given us Salvadorans a part of our history which we did not know. In his book and mine, Stephen Grant and I realized that we were talking about the same subject, at more or less the same period; but with a different yet completely complementary focus. His major work of research outside or contacting historians has been interviews with descendants of friends or personalities at the beginning of the 20th century. This work alone is invaluable for our history.”
– Gustavo Herodier, author of “San Salvador, El Esplendor de una Ciudad: 1880–1930

“The book launch was a very impressive event with Indonesian elites attending. Stephen is lucky to have LONTAR as the producer, as the quality of the book printing is above average. There are people and foreigners who love to collect beautiful old photos and pictures. Yet, there are very few––none to my knowledge––like Stephen––who consistently collect old, beautiful, and eye-catching POSTCARDS from all over the world, and who DILIGENTLY ask experts or historians about the stories surrounding each single postcard. He always asks me questions, sometimes twice, to make sure that his understanding, and that which he records, is entirely accurate. It should be that way.”
– Rusli Amran, Indonesian author

“Grant covers a good deal of my favorite subject: the indigenous people of Indonesia in their original environment, going about their business. Their costumes, as well as their tools of the trade, are now slowly making their way into museums and collections worldwide. That is progress! The value of Former Points of View is that it captured “progress,” although some people might not have been in favor of such progress.”
– Leo Haks, specialist in Indonesian photography

“Overall, Former Points of View provided me with an understanding of what life must have been like in colonial Indonesia.  I have a better grasp on Indonesia’s development and why it is such a blend of old and new, East and West.  The book helped fill a gap in my knowledge, and learning from postcards and anecdotes was much more fun than using a stodgy old textbook!”
– Karen Gunderson, community organizer

“The most important part of this book is the introduction by the author, Stephen Grant.  It is here that he opens our eyes to the real value of postcards.  With time, the function of postcards changes from being a tool for conveying news to becoming an historical document.  This particular book was published within the context of celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Indonesia’s Proclamation of Independence.  The aim of the book was not to remind us of the sensitive colonial period but more to open up a window for young people to look at the past, an era they have not experienced for themselves.”
– Mulyawan Karim, journalist

“Former Points of View, Stephen Grant’s new book on postcards from pre-Independence Indonesia, contains a selection of postcards from the author’s collection.  The postcard images cleverly relate to passages excerpted from over 30 books or periodicals written about Indonesia before the arrival of the Japanese in 1942.  Grant had to meticulously research passages for each postcard and then pick the most appropriate quotation.  The inclusion of the excerpts adds an idyllic nuance to the pictoral images in this charming volume.”
– Amir Sidharta, book critic

“In 1914, I came from Holland to South Sumatra, where my parents had been living since the 1890s.  I eventually took over my father’s rice and coffee export business.  I married a Dutch lady from Bandung.  The wedding took place in Bone, South Sulawesi.  To my utter delight, I found all of these places represented in this postcard album.  What I especially admire and appreciate is the great sensitivity with which Stephen Grant treats the past, whether it be the colonial or the indigenous situation.  I spent a whole day with the book, plunged back into tine, and into my early memories.”
– Wim Kissing, retiree in Ubud, Bali

“Stephen Grant’s Former Points of View will have multiple appeal to readers.  For picture postcard collectors, Grant’s book further demonstrates how effectively and intimately postcards can capture the spirit of an era now long gone.  For the non-collector with an interest in history, Former Points of View takes an important place among a still very limited number of works that provide a window into life in Indonesia in the first half of the twentieth century.  For the visitor to the bustling and dynamic Indonesian Republic, this book will help answer the questions of what came before the modern era and what influences helped shape the Indonesia of today.”
– Scott Merrillees, author of Batavia in 19th Century Photographs

“Stephen Grant travels far beyond stereotypical postcard images of turquoise waters and bikini-clad bathing beauties in this book.  The images range from the highly formal and stylised to others which are beautiful, haunting, stunningly unusual or just plain odd in their depiction of Indonesian life from the late 1800s to 1942.  Grant’s book is an illuminating and fascinating visual journey down memory lane.”
– GARUDA In-Flight Magazine

“While my father was a physician in the Dutch Colonial Service in 1891, I was born in Mojokerto, south of Surabaya.  I left Java for Holland at the age of eight, ninety-eight years ago, never to return.  When I looked through Former Points of View, I relived a part of my childhood.  Of course, I could not relate much to the buildings and to the industrial development, but I was happy to find the mountains, rivers, and natural scenery that had struck me as a child.  The book is so nicely designed!  Postcards are a great tourist attraction: I have bought and sent them all of of my life.  This rich book has also served the purpose of sparking my great-grandchildren––who live in the United States––to inquire about our family’s genealogy.”
– Johanna van Gelder