From Twins to Tarzan

Waite Park man has an eclectic collection

by Bill Vossler

Al Barth of Waite Park once bought several books from a cat in Massachusetts.

“That was an odd place, a little garage in a small town in Western Massachusetts, where you enter, look at the books, and the proprietor was a cat. If you wanted a book, you put money in a slot in a box. Totally on your honor,” he said.

Several collections are shown here, with Al sitting in front of Twins baseball caps, Twins paraphernalia, and Joe Mauer items on the far right, and baseball puzzles. Photo by Bill Vossler

Al and his wife Joyce have traveled many places in the United States and the world, often stopping at area used book stores hoping to find another needed book for Al’s book collections... or other collections.

“I am an eclectic collector,” Al said, with dozens of collections set up neatly in their garage, small rooms, and corners of the house.

“I try to encourage his collections because he enjoys them,” Joyce said. “He’s very organized, no stuff laying around anywhere, and I’m happy to have them as long as he has them organized so well.”

Those collections include first, his 80 Edgar Rice Burroughs books, beginning with all 24 Tarzan books published from 1912 to 1941.

“The trigger for my love of Tarzan was the Tarzan movies,” Al said. “They drew me to read Tarzan books. My hometown Howard Lake library, which allowed three books per week, had some Tarzan books. The first one I read was Tarzan No. 1, Tarzan of the Apes.”

But not his last. He read all the Tarzan books, and still rereads some from time to time.

“Who wouldn’t want to swing through the jungle on a vine?” he laughed.

He added Burroughs had a great imagination.

“His ideas were so extraordinary and his writing so strong I could believe it, and picture myself in these scenarios,” Al said. “At that early age I wanted to be like Tarzan, free and wild and energetic. Tarzan was amazing. All he had was the jungle to use to make weapons, food, and everything else. Burroughs’ amazing imagination put Tarzan in those situations, and found solutions from that environment.”

While reading Tarzan books, “I discovered he’d written a series about John Carter of Mars, an earthling who traveled to Mars without a space ship or body, using what’s called astral travel, almost like Star Trek ‘Beam me up,’ as indicated in the first book in the series, A Princess of Mars. On Mars in an identical body, Carter received enhanced strength, agility, and combat skills. I liked the Martian tales because a single hero does good for others. That’s another thing that brought me to Burroughs’ books, as well as his fascinating, imaginative, and ahead-of-his-time writing about what the future might be like.”

But Burroughs wasn’t finished yet. He wrote seven other very short series.

“Most of the other novels were science fiction, and a few westerns,” Al said.

He sold about 150 million books in 56 languages, making him one of the world’s best-selling authors. Finding all the books was a challenge, but also fun.

“A small one-owner bookstore in Reddington, Florida, has the largest science fiction collection I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Another is Powell’s in Portland, Oregon, covering an entire city block. I’ve bought books at both places.” 

When Al mentioned Burroughs’ imagination, he could also be mentioning the imagination of him and other family members.

“Along with two sisters and two brothers, we would sit under the apple trees and build tractors and cows and other animals out of apples with sticks in them, and make a farm. Those were the toys we had,” he said.

Other book collections include all 88 of the Caldecott book awards and 104 Newbery Award Young Reader Books. Incredible collections, really.

Another of Al’s collections is the Classics Illustrated comic books.

One bedroom in the Barth house is filled with Al’s collections of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, including Tarzan and John Carter of Mars, as well as Louis L’amour books, and other collections of books. Photo by Bill Vossler

“I used them mainly when I taught grades four through six,” he said. “The first one I found in a used bookstore, as well as checking wherever used comic books were sold. They are very rare, so though I have dozens, I’ve never been able to complete the sets.

“When my students saw a story they liked portrayed in comic book style, that led them to find adventure in paperbacks, hardcovers, different types of literature. I would have liked to see more females in these comics.”

Al tries to get others to read books, too.

“When I worked in the District 742 (St. Cloud) Curriculum Office, book companies often left sample books for me,” he said. “At Christmas, I took a box of books to the young kids in the family so they can choose a couple of books.”

Then there are the jigsaw puzzles.

“I don’t remember when we didn’t do jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid,” Al said. “We had them around the house, and during my early years of marriage to Joyce, they were a nice teaching device for our kids. I have always really enjoyed setting together Christmas puzzles. I have one for our kids to do during Christmas, and our daughters love to do them too. I used to set them together, then take them apart, then set them together again. Finally I decided to put some of the baseball puzzles up on a garage wall.”

That was a process.

“First, put the puzzle together, figure out how to flip it over, glue cardboard on the back with Elmer’s School Glue, lay a second cardboard on the puzzle front, then flip it all over, and put another cardboard on the back. Then nail it to the walls. Thirty-five of them so far,” Al said.

He said baseball puzzles used to be common.

“But no more. Every chance I had as a kid I played baseball, but kids don’t play much baseball any more, so baseball puzzles aren’t around any more,” he said.

Another big collection for Al is hats.

“At one time I had 150 different hats,” he said. “Baseball hats have been a thing for me. I have given some away for our church rummage sale, donated others, sold a few at rummage sales, so I’m down to forty Minnesota Twins hats.”

He has about a dozen St. Cloud Rox baseball team hats.

“Those I’ve gotten as a volunteer usher for the Rox team, and they give us a shirt and hats at times for doing that,” Al said.

“I also have one cap from every major league baseball team,” he added. “You have to be looking and be in the right place to find them. I’ve picked up some of them at Arizona and Florida spring training games for different teams, major league stadiums, and various other places around the country.”

Many of his hats are related to travel. He has a wide variety of other hats, too.

“I got hats in Italy, Sweden, and Australia, for three places. Two of my favorite are the one from the Field of Dreams and the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Al said.

His students knew he loved hats, so at the end of the year they presented him with one that said “Mr. Barth” on it.

“I was riding on a pontoon on a lake and the wind caught it and blew it off. By the time we got back around, it had gone under, so I never got it back,” Al said.

Then there are the special hats from his grandchildren.

The first Tarzan book Al Barth ever read was this one, no. 1, Tarzan of the Apes. Photo by Bill Vossler

“I’ve got a hat from each high school and college that one of our grandchildren attended, and they are very special to me,” he said.

Then there are Al’s Legos.

“That collection started when our grandchildren began playing with Legos,” he said. “I saw how much fun they were having playing with them, and I thought I should do it. Since then, every year I make Halloween items out of Legos, and then for Christmas I do too. I also make a whole array of flowers out of Legos. It’s fun to do with grandchildren. They are quicker than I am. I pick out the pieces when my oldest son is making something out of Legos, but by the time I’ve picked out some for him, he’s already ahead of me, and is picking them out himself. Whenever we go to the Mall of America or a Lego store I have to go in and look around. I always did like to fool around with small things, and see how they could be put together.”

Other collections include baseball memorabilia (like major league baseballs), toy cars, Tonka trucks, train set, old tools, wooden puzzles, as well as a wide variety of his late father’s items: caps, necklaces of unknown people, lunchbox, watch, jackknife, and “Around the outside of our house I have pieces of granite from his working at the granite works, and each year I put my flowerpots on top of them. All in memory of him,” Al said. 

After his father, Al, retired, “He had a summer job in the fairgrounds in charge of a building for winter storage for boats and campers. Because people had to look for him in the building, he had a hat made with his name, Al Barth, on it so people could find him. I wear it occasionally.”

Al says he’s an easy guy for other people to buy for.

“That’s partly because of the collections, but also because I make lists that contain very specific requests for particular collections, like a hat from a grandchild that has gotten into high school,” he said.

“I guess I can’t say why I collect, except that it’s fun,” he added. “When you start to make a collection of things, it’s fun to find another piece that fits into whichever collection it is, and then its fun to complete a set like the Tarzan books. Outside of the fun, I’ve also recognized that as you age, you need to stay active and keep your mind full of ideas. Collecting provides an escape that way, along with the motivation to do things, and keep your eyes open, and looking around for new things.”