Ivan H. Slater (1900-1968), from Kaeo, Northland, New Zealand, owned possibly the largest private collection of editions of Alexandre Dumas Pere (1802-1870) during the 1930s through the 1960s. Dumas, who began as a clerical worker, is best known for his novels Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844) and Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1844). Dumas used many collaborators in his writing, especially Auguste Maquet, who collected facts for the historical backgrounds of Dumas' novels. Mr. Slater began collecting in 1918 at the age of eighteen when he browsed through Dumas' The Black Tulip. His passion for collecting Dumas material lasted until his death in 1968. Slater worked in association with other Dumas collectors in New Zealand and abroad, principally by correspondence, as he never traveled outside of New Zealand. He corresponded with Frank Wild Reed of Whangarei, a fellow Dumas enthusiast, from 1925 until Reed's death in 1953. Reed bequeathed most of his Dumas notes and material to Slater, which greatly contributed to the Slater Dumas collection.
From the guide to the The I. H. Slater Collection of Alexandre Dumas TXRC91-A26., 1918-1968, (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)
