Wow, I've accidentally stumbled onto the most amazing collection of paper doll books in the world.

I bought my daughter a Broadway stars paper doll book for her birthday. It was written and illustrated by an artist named Tom Tierney. On a lark, I Googled him to see what other books he may have published.

Holy God Almighty! Tom Tierney is a one-man paper doll publishing machine. He has created HUNDREDS of paper doll books. And from the book that I bought my daughter, these paper doll books are beautiful, and wonderfully made.

Check out some of these titles:

Carmen Miranda
Clark Gable
Favorite African-American Movie Stars
Glamorous Movie Stars of the 1950's
Glamorous Movie Stars of the Eighties
Glamorous Movie Stars of the Eighties
Glamorous Movie Stars of the Seventies
Glamorous Movie Stars of the Thirties
Glamorous Stars of the Forties
Glamorous Stars of the Sixties
Grace Kelly
Great Black Entertainers
Greta Garb
Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy
Joan Crawford
John Wayne
Judy Garland
Marilyn Monroe
Mikado
Rock 'n' Pop Stars of the Sixties
Rudolph Valentino
Sarah Bernhardt
Vivien Leigh

On his Web site, Tom Tierney writes:

In 1975 Tom was casting about for a unique Christmas present for his mother. Remembering that she had saved her paper doll collection from when she was a girl in the early 1900s (Lettie Lane, G.G. Drayton, and assorted movie star paperdolls) he decided to make her some paperdolls of the 1930s movie stars who had been her favorites.

Pleased with the dolls, Garbo, Harlow, and Gable, his mother showed them to a number of friends, one of whom turned out to be a literary agent.

The agent convinced Tom that a book was there and as a result, his first book, "Thirty from the `30s", was born. It was published by Prentice-Hall in 1976.

After "Thirty" had had a successful run it was retired.

In 1978 Dover Publications, Inc. contacted Tom and proposed that he do some paper doll books for them. It has been a happy and continuing relationship.

Although the creation of paper dolls now consumes the major portion of Tom's working time, he still "keeps his hand in" the field of commercial art, doing fashion illustration, movie posters, and other illustration for children's books.

He has also written, in collaboration with Malcolm Vance, a history of film costume design, which is as yet unpublished.