We've been reading Sherry Buchanan's Vietnam Zippos: American Soldiers' Engravings and Stories 1965—1973 (from the collection of Bradford Edwards).

It's an intriguing book, illustrated with hundreds of photos of engraved Zippos, with informative explanations of the inscriptions on the lighters, and with brief descriptions of the historical and cultural setting in which these folk art relics emerged.

So we decided we'd give you an excerpt from this fine title, artist and Zippo collector Edwards' essay on how his collection came to be.