Tucked into a wooden box in the Boston Athenaeum library is a curious book. The book has "a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper" and bears the title "Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est." The book is the 1837 memoirs of a highwayman, bank robber, and "sneak thief" James Allen. The notorious highwayman once declared himself to be the "'master of his own skin." These would prove portentous words, for his memoirs of a lifetime of ill deeds are bound in his own skin.Tucked into a wooden box in the Boston Athenaeum library is a curious book. The book has "a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper" and bears the title "Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est." The book is the 1837 memoirs of a highwayman, bank robber, and "sneak thief" James Allen. The notorious highwayman once declared himself to be the "'master of his own skin." These would prove portentous words, for his memoirs of a lifetime of ill deeds are bound in his own skin.
Tucked into a wooden box in the Boston Athenaeum library is a curious book. The book has "a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper" and bears the title "Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est." The book is the 1837 memoirs of a highwayman, bank robber, and "sneak thief" James Allen. The notorious highwayman once declared himself to be the "'master of his own skin." These would prove portentous words, for his memoirs of a lifetime of ill deeds are bound in his own skin.