Friends of Mine beautifully depicts the personal mineral collection of Milton Leet, a devoted collector for over seventy years. Each of the 300 specimens in this finely curated collection is mounted and displayed with great care and with careful attention to the specimens' names and locations of origin. This project is a collaboration between Milt and his son Tim, who now holds the collection. Fearing the beauty of this life-long passion project might be locked away unseen, Milt and Tim conceived this book, a father-son project over a year in the making. Friends of Mine is both a personal tribute and a public offering that serves up dazzling beauty, occasional humor, a touch of sentimentality, and just enough minerology to captivate the next generation of young collectors.
The largest portion of Milt's collection comes from all parts of the globe. This International Collection is divided into chemical families like silicates, sulfides, and carbonates. The second portion of the collection will be of special interest to collectors in Pennsylvania and the Midwest. As a mining engineer working at the Cornwall Iron Mine in the 1970s, Milt gained access to several deposits of beautiful specimens of natrolite, apophyllite, pyrite, and other minerals. Perhaps most unusual were large magnetite crystals that Milt collected while there. Photographs from The Cornwall Collection are covered separately from the International Collection along with several historical photographs depicting Milt's activities while there.
Over his many decades as a collector, Milt wrote a number of short articles and miscellaneous pieces addressed to other collectors, those both experienced and new to the hobby. These writings are full of advice and musings generated over a lifetime and are gathered together in the appendix of Friends of Mine. Milt's personality and enthusiasm come through in these pages, and those who know him will find it hard not to smile. Readers who do not know him may find nuggets of valuable advice from a man who's been enchanted by the beauty of these natural treasures since his first encounter with a handful of colorful rocks in 1950.