…and what could be more patriotic than guns and gun books?
This isn’t quite as patriotic as it could be, since the first two of these are about Africa. And the second two are duplicates of existing books in my collection, so I’m not going to spend as much time on them as I usually do.
El jumperino here…
This all started when my book buddy in the Association sent me an eBay listing for an old Ray Riling Arms Books catalog, with the suggestion I pick it up. So I did. Old catalogs can be good reference works.
On the back of this particular one (1987-88) was an advertisement (click to embiggen):
“$35?” I thought to myself. “I wonder what that’s going for today, if it was $35 in 1987? And I’m interested in Africa and photography. Let’s check and see.”
Answer: $15, in the slipcase, plus $8 shipping, in pretty much “Fine” shape. Here are the current ABEBooks search results.
Chronicles of a Second African Trip, George Eastman. The Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries, Rochester, 1987.
George Eastman made two trips to Africa, with the legendary Martin and Osa Johnson as guides. One assumes that they were glad to provide this service, as Eastman Kodak supplied them with film and technical services. (Somewhere I have a copy of I Married Adventure that Lawrence gave me.)
Since I have the second one, it seems like a requirement to complete the set.
Chronicles of an African Trip, George Eastman. Privately printed, 1927.
At the time, the first book was going for substantially more, but “substantially” in this case means about twice as much: $32.55 with shipping. I feel like this price has fluctuated some since I purchased my copy.
George Eastman seems to have been particularly proud of the first book, as there are copies all over ABE. Many of them have his card laid in: I suspect everyone who worked for Eastman Kodak, and anyone who was anyone in Rochester, was handed a copy by George himself.
I’d call both of these “fine”. I’m not sure the copy of the first book was even read (see my comments above) and I suspect the Friends probably overestimated the level of interest in Eastman’s African trips and printed far too many of the second book.
Neither book appears in Riling or Biscotti. The second book is too late for both, but I kind of expected an entry for the first one. It may have been out of scope for both authors. Also, the covers on both of these books (and the slipcase on Second) are basically plain. The production values seem to have gone into the insides, not the fronts or backs.
Experiments of a Handgunner, Walter F. Roper. Stackpole and Heck, New York and Harrisburg, 1949. Riling 2692. This supplements the copy I already have, and is in better shape. Not “spectacularly good”, but “a little better”, in my opinion. I’ll let you decide.
My old copy on the left, the new copy on the right with the snall white tag.
This is only the second copy I’ve seen in the wild, and was part of the package I bought from my book buddy in the Association at the most recent symposium. Since I paid him one price for all the books, it’s hard to break this out (unless you want to take the average: ten books at $600 works out to $60 a book), but he had a $70 tag on the cover. The only two copies on ABE right now are one without a jacket, but signed by Roper, for $125, and one very good with a VG price clipped jacket (“with some chipping and edgewear”) for $150.
Automatic Pistol Marksmanship, William Reichenbach. Small Arms Technical Publishing Company. Plantersville, SC, 1937. Riling 2233.
This also supplements the copy I already have, and is for sure in much better shape. I’ll let you compare.
New copy on the right, old copy with no jacket on the left.
This has the Plantersville publishing imprint and the December 1943 ad date, just like my other copy, which marks it as s second impression per Smith. If this copy isn’t “fine”, I think it is darn near: there’s a tiny bit of wear to the lower right hand front corner, and the lower front spine, but I really can’t see much more wrong with this particular copy.
My book buddy had this tagged at $40. There are two copies of this edition (but with the Onsolow County imprint marking it as a first impression) on ABEBooks right now: one is described as having a “good” dust jacket and in “very good” shape for $49. The other is “very good” with a “good” dust jacket for $16.99…plus $44.41 shipping from the UK.
Next time, I’m thinking I might want to talk about Charles “Chuckles” Dickens and Sam Colt. I’ll probably also throw this guy into the mix:
