In yesterday's MMD John Rutoskey described a copy of this book
signed and numbered by the author.  He wonders how many copies survive.
I think all 1000 copies were signed and numbered, but that very few
survive.

The book was written by McTammany while in hospital, and describes his
involvement with the invention of the player (by which he meant a
device using a paper roll to operate a piano or organ).  He felt that
his contribution had been undervalued!  It probably had been, because
he was a man who seemed to make enemies.  Some extraordinarily nasty
claims about him are repeated in the Bowers Encyclopaedia, almost
certainly being the slurs which prompted him to write his side of
events.

The book was printed by the Musical Courier Extra, whose editor,
William Geppert, championed McTammany's cause.  The 1000 copies were
given to McTammany.  Incidentally, it was Geppert who called McTammany
"The inventor of the player piano", a claim McTammany clearly states
is not true!

The book was not formally published -- there is no copy in the Library
of Congress, for instance.  I believe it was distributed to those in
the trade who had helped McTammany.  The writing is muddled at times,
and I wouldn't be at all surprised if most recipients threw the book
away as a piece of junk mail.  This would explain its scarcity.

When I received my copy, I looked for it in the various reference
books I have.  There is no mention of it or any of the information it
contains in the Bowers Encyclopaedia or any of the Ord-Hume books.
These authors had almost certainly not seen a copy, or even been aware
of the book's existence.

The only place I have seen any of the information in this book is a
newspaper article reprinted in the AMICA Journal, from Akron, Ohio,
McTammany's home town.  I wouldn't be surprised if McTammany had sent
a copy to the local library or newspaper.  It's nice to know from John
that at least one other copy still exists!

When McTammany recovered, he wrote a series of articles for the Musical
Courier Extra which were brought together in the book "The Technical
History of the Player" in 1915.  This latter book was reprinted by the
Vestal Press, and is referred to in other works.  In it he says that
600 copies of the earlier book had been distributed amongst the piano
trade.

I wrote articles describing these two books for the Player Piano Group
bulletin.  I'll arrange to place them on our web site in the next few
days.  The books are extremely interesting and valuable sources of
information about the early days of the player organ and piano.  Were
there any other autobiographies from key inventors such as McTammany,
I wonder?

Julian Dyer