Our History

David H. Lowenherz, owner of Lion Heart Autographs, was first introduced to the world of autograph collecting through his father, Max. In 1978, at the age of 27, David opened Lion Heart Autographs and from the start he set out to make his business international in scope. Focusing on American and European material, the business grew from a one-man operation into one of the premier historical manuscript dealerships in the United States, specializing in art, history, literature, music, and science.

Lion Heart (a translation of David’s surname) combines David’s love of rare collectibles and scholarship with his business philosophy: Quality, Service, Value and Integrity. For more than three decades David has assisted hundreds of Lion Heart’s satisfied customers to build their collections; some even refer to him as their “personal curator.”

David’s personal collection of Robert Frost signed books, letters and manuscripts, one of the finest in private hands, was exhibited in 1999 at the Grolier Club on the occasion of the 125^th anniversary of Frost’s birth. The richly illustrated, limited edition catalogue Robert Frost: The David H. Lowenherz Collection – Letters, Manuscripts, and Inscribed Books can be purchased directly from Lion Heart Autographs.

In 2000, David began a series of books that brought together famous and important letters organized by theme. The first book, The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time, published by Crown, a division of Random House, received enormous attention and praise since its January 2002 release and went, almost immediately, into a second, third, and then a fourth printing. It was also published in Israel, Italy, Japan and Korea, and selections from this book were used in the first “Sex and the City” movie.

In conjunction with the release of his book, David lectured to a sold out audience at New York City’s 92^nd Street Y, appeared on the BBC’s World Service, was  interviewed 12 times, coast-to-coast, on Canadian radio, and on many U.S. radio stations including WNYC’s The Next Big Thing. He continued to speak on the subject of love letters and autograph collecting while completing his second book of the series, The 50 Greatest Letters from America’s Wars, published by Crown in December 2002.

David was joined by Heather Wightman in 1999 and Michel Sauvage in 2002.