In a 1936 letter , Mr. Holman , then the only surviving member of the trio , described the Wakeman gift as '' a distinctive collection of rare Americana to be kept for all time '' and mentioned some of its contents -- a book in Latin detailing the first voyage of Columbus , two of the three contemporaneous histories of the Pequot War in New England , and the Saybrook Platform , the first book published in Connecticut , in 1710 . ''