Calif. man collects 1,026 newspapers showing Sept. 11 horror
The terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left Americans filled with horror and uncertainty. For Michael Perry, those events sparked a mission — a self-proclaimed obsession, really — to collect a copy of every newspaper that reported the tragedy.
Perry, 43, of Roseville, Calif., says he has spent about $150,000 on 1,026 newspapers from around the world, including one from each state. The issue dates are Sept. 11 and Sept. 12, as the papers reported the al-Qaeda attacks on American soil that killed more than 3,000 people. He claims it's the most extensive newspaper compilation of its kind.
"I started collecting newspapers because it's the one historical event of my lifetime. I wasn't around for Pearl Harbor, but I imagine it felt the same way," Perry says. "This just shook me and really took me by surprise. That whole day I felt like I was watching a movie. I didn't stop watching the news on TV. It's been 14 years, and I am still shocked that it happened."
Perry started gathering what he could find in his area: Bay Area papers and the major newspapers — The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Paste BN. "That's when I went online to eBay and saw so many from around the world. I went crazy and started spending lots of money on them," he says.
Perry preserves the stacks of emotional headlines and heartbreaking photos alphabetically in individual Ziplock bags stored in professional moving boxes at his home. He occasionally shows off the collection at local conventions and fairs, but the mass of newspapers is something he revisits every day.
"It was initially for historical reasons and for my kids, so they could have a hands-on experience about what happened and how different states and countries around the world viewed it. I have newspapers that display people at their saddest, and people celebrating," Perry says. Unfortunately, he says his kids — 18, 15 and 6 — don't really care.
"As time goes on, I just can't move on. Maybe it impacted me more than I thought. I revisit the collection every day. It's still so devastating," he says. "Three-thousand people going about their daily lives with their families, waking up one morning thinking everything is fine, going to work, then this happens."
Perry is still waiting for more papers to add to his collection. He says he still checks eBay two to three times a day, making sure he can snatch up any papers that come to auction.
The priciest paper in his collection? A newspaper from Kuwait, for which he spent $600.
"A lot of my friends are like, 'Move on, there are more important things happening. There's the economy, employment, Iran.' I'm sitting here stuck 14 years ago," he says.
Papers Perry frequently revisits are the Toronto Sun and the San Francisco Examiner, both of which ran the headline "Bastards!" — the headline that echoes reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and something Perry was surprised to see printed in a newspaper.
Despite his connection to the papers, Perry says he'd be open to passing it along, but not as a donation. In 2011, the Napa Valley Register reported that Perry had offered the collection to the Newseum for $250,000, which it turned down.
"I've been asked that by museums and I don't know about a donation because this has taken me $150,000 and 14 years," he said. "If the price was right and someone wanted to purchase it, I'm not looking to get rich but I would be interested."