Half-Price Books had another coupon sale last week (before everything went to heck in a handbasket), and I managed to hit most of the sale days. (I missed Monday and Thursday, for reasons.)
On the non-gun book front, I picked up mostly small beer: a copy of Laura Shapiro’s What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories for $8.49 plus tax. I know it sounds awfully feminist, but I’m interested in food history and food anthropology, and I’ve enjoyed Shapiro’s other books.
My other non-gun book purchase was the three volume non-abridged (I’m pretty sure) Modern Library edition of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (in the ugly brown covers) which I got on Sunday using a 50% off coupon: originally $40 for the set, so $20 plus tax. It seems to be in at least good, if not very good, condition, and I probably could have gotten it for about that price plus shipping through Amazon’s used market, but this was just easier. (Yes, I could also have downloaded it for free from Project Gutenberg: indeed, I actually have. But I’ve found it hard to read the PG edition, and it was worth $20 to me to have a printed copy.)
And what of gun books? Well, I did find a few of those…
Colt Dragoon Pistols and Colt Percussion Pistols, both of which appear to be a joint effort of James E. Serven and Carl Metzger.
These are curious little books (Dragoon is 56 pages, Percussion is 60) that I’m still trying to figure out. I believe these are the original 1946/1947 editions, as I don’t see any signs of a reprint. ABEBooks says that there is a 2013 print on demand reprint of Dragoon but I don’t see a listing for a reprint of Percussion. If these are originals from 1946/1947, they’re in very good shape. It looks like prices on ABE start in the $25/$35 range and go up from there. HPB had both of these marked at $20: I picked up Dragoon for $16 and Percussion for $14.
For the size, these seem to be extremely detailed (and copiously illustrated) guides to the respective subjects. Collecting of older Colts isn’t my speciality, but these will be nice to have around (or possibly trade fodder to some Colt collector). There is a third book, Patterson Pistols, which HPB did not have.
Instructions to Young Marksmen by John Ratcliffe Chapman and How I Became a Crack Shot by W. Milton Farrow. Yet another of those bound reprint editions from the Firearms Classics Library that I’m a sucker for. Plus, two, two, two books in one! My other Sunday purchase: $12.50 plus tax.
The Complete Reloading Manual for the 10mm .40 S&W. Didn’t actually get a discount on this, but it was $4.48 plus tax. And I shoot .40 S&W, and know people who shoot .40 and 10mm, so why not?
American Hunting Rifles: Their Application in the Field for Practical Shooting by Craig Boddington. This was priced at $35, so I paid $21 plus tax on Saturday. As I was checking out, though, the cashier told me I’d saved considerably more than $14, as this book had been marked down from over $100. That seems odd to me, as $21 looks like close to Amazon price (or a little over). I can’t imagine why it would have been marked up that high, except maybe…
Mr. Boddington is still alive, but since I don’t move in Safari Club circles, I suspect that I won’t meet up with him any time in the near future. So I’ll settle for this one: it is in excellent condition.
Handgunner’s Guide: Including the Art of the Quick-Draw and Combat Shooting by Chic Gaylord.
This was my biggest find of the week, and I almost overlooked it: it was on the top of the shelf in the nostalgia section at Southpark Meadows, rather than down among the sports books. I’m glad I found it, especially at $18 ($30 minus 40%. Plus tax.) This is a little below what copies are going for on Amazon (at least in this edition), and I’d say it is in good shape: a little bit of wear on the top of the dust jacket, but none at the bottom. I used to have a copy of that Paladin Press reprint, and yes, Amazon’s algorithmic pricing is out of control.
Chic Gaylord was an extremely famous holster maker and student of shooting. He pioneered a lot of what’s taken for granted today in concealment holsters, and worked extensively with the NYPD, Federal law enforcement agencies, and (rumor has it) other Federal agencies that shall go unnamed here.
John Taffin wrote a good article about Mr. Gaylord for American Handgunner, which includes the famous photo of the 13 (yes, 13) concealed handguns. Del Fatti Leather has a reprint of one of Mr. Gaylord’s catalogs. (Praise be unto them.)
($7 in 1958 translates to $62.66 in 2020. Just saying.)