RAF_Louvert 101 Posted July 17, 2011 . This last week I picked up another three wonderful tomes to add to my collection. The first is an original private printing of Jack Morris Wright's letters home, entitled 'A Poet of the Air'. Collected together by his mother and published through the Houghton Mifflin Company in 1918 shortly after Jack's death, these intimate letters to family and friends give a wonderfully bittersweet insight into the personal thoughts and hopes and dreams of a young man who volunteered for service in France in April of 1917. Shortly after earning his wings and commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army Air Service, he was killed in a crash during advanced combat flight tactics training in January of 1918. I've read this work before and find Jack's letters to be superb in the way they show the excitement, the self-examination, the vanity, the insight, the joy, and the idealism of youth in a time of war. The second is 'Capronis, Farmans, and Sias: U.S. Army Aviation Training and Combat in Italy With Fiorello LaGuardia 1917-1918' by Jack B. Hilliard. This gorgeous 616-page volume incorporates entries from the diaries and letters of the first 46 US Army flyers to go to Italy in 1917 to train under the command of Fiorello LaGuardia, and to battle the Germans along the Italian front. FIlled with many rare photos of the pilots and their planes, along with numerous maps, it is an incredible resource detailing the first American flyers at this oft-forgotten front. And the third, (following Shiloh's report on how much he enjoyed the book), a fine hardcover 1st U.S. printing of 'Horses Don't Fly: A Memoir of World War I', by Frederick Libby. So many books, so little time. . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted July 18, 2011 The man who preserves the inner child in him, will feel he has a longer life. I wish you comfortably warm winter reading, Lou - if they last so long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rickitycrate 10 Posted July 18, 2011 Congrats on the acquisitions Lou. You have a library of dream calibre. My humble shelves just added another copy of Rickenbacker's "Fighting the Flying Circus. Not so collectable as it's from Time Life's Wings Of War series. A nice binding of a reproduction of the original publication. Largish print so a good reading copy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shiloh 12 Posted July 18, 2011 I hope you are not disappointed at my recommendation Lou. My family and I are living on the frugal side right now as I embark on my new career so I'm afraid it's to the library and back until I can see some good income again. So my library will have to wait but until then, I hope its okay if I live vicariously through your fine collection. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAF_Louvert 101 Posted July 18, 2011 . Thanks Gents, I am a bit of a fool for old books. Shiloh, I don't believe I have ever been disappointed by any of the writings I've purchased over the years, and I am sure your recommendation is sound. Also, I can appreciate living on the frugal side, I've been doing it most of my life. Now then, since you mentioned my WWI book collection, after these latest acquisitions it is looking like this: Personal Narratives and Biographies: "A Flying Fighter", E.M. Roberts, (1918 1st Edition) "Airmen O' War", Boyd Cable, (1918 1st Edition) "An Airman Marches", Harold Balfour, (Vintage Aviation Library Edition) "An Airman's Outings", Alan 'Contact' Bott, (1917 1st Edition) "An Aviator's Field-Book", Oswald Bolcke, English Translation, (1917 1st Edition) "A Poet Of The Air", Jack Morris Wright, (1918 1st Edition) "A Rattle Of Pebbles: The First World War Diaries Of Two Canadian Airmen", Brereton Greenhous, (1987 1st Edition) "Beyond the Tumult", Barry Winchester, (1971 1st Edition) "Cavalry of the Clouds", Alan 'Contact' Bott, (1918 1st Edition) "Cloud Country", Jimmie Mattern, (1936 Pure Oil 1st Edition) 3-volume set "Days on the Wing", Willy Coppens, English Translation, (1931 1st Edition) "Death in the Air", William Heinemann, (1933 Edition) (famous faked aerial photos) "Double-Decker C.666", Haupt Heydemarck, English Translation, (1931 1st Edition) "En L'air!", Bert Hall, (1918 1st Edition) "Fighting the Flying Circus", Edward Rickenbacker, (1919 1st Edition) "Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps", James McCudden, (1918 1st Edition) "Flying for France", James McConnell, (1917 1st Edition) "Go Get 'Em!", William Wellman, (1918 1st Edition) "Guynemer, Knight of the Air", Henry Bordeaux, English Translation, (1918 1st Edition) "Heaven High, Hell Deep", Norman Archibald, (1935 Signed 1st Edition) "High Adventure", James Norman Hall, (1918 1st Edition) "Horses Don’t Fly: A Memoir of World War I", Frederick Libby, (2000 1st US printing) "Immelmann: The Eagle of Lille", Franz Immelmann, English Translation, (1930 1st Edition) "In The Clouds Above Bagdad", J.E. Tennant, (1920 1st Edition) "Kitchener's Mob", James Norman Hall, (1916 1st Edition) "Letters From a Flying Officer", Rothsay Stuart Wortlrey, (1928 1st Edition) "Memories of World War 1", William Mitchell, (1960 Edition) "My Experiences in the World War", John J. Pershing, (1931 1st Edition) 2-volume set "Night Bombing with the Bedouins", Robert Reece, (Battery Press Edition) "Nocturne Militaire", Elliot White Springs, (1934 Edition) "No Parachute", Arthur Gould Lee, (1970 1st US printing) "Open Cockpit: A Pilot of the Royal Flying Corps", Arthur Gould Lee, (1969 1st Edition) "Rovers of the Night Sky", W.J. 'Night-Hawk' Harvey, (Vintage Aviation Library Edition) "Sagittarius Rising", Cecil Lewis, (1936 Edition, 1st US printing) "Stepchild Pilot", Joseph Doerflinger, (1959 1st Edition) "The Flying Poilu", Marcel Nadaud, English Translation (1918 1st Edition) "The Red Knight of Germany", Floyd Gibbons, (1927 1st Edition) "The Way of the Eagle", Charles Biddle, (1919 1st Edition) "Up And At 'Em", Harold Hartney, (1940 1st Edition) "War Birds; Diary of an Unknown Aviator", Elliot White Springs, (1926 1st Edition) "Whom The Gods Love", Lewis C. Merrill, (1953 1st Edition) "Wind in the Wires", Duncan Grinnell-Milne, (1918 1st Edition) "Winged Warfare", William Bishop, (1918 1st Edition) "Winged Peace", William Bishop, (1940 1st Edition) "With the Earth Beneath", A.R. Kingsford, (1936 1st Edition) "With the Flying Squadron", Harold Rosher, (1916 1st Edition) History, Reference, and General Interest Books: "A World Undone: The Story of the Great War 1914 to 1918", G.J. Meyer, (2006 Edition) "Air Aces of the 1914-1918 War", Bruce Robertson, (1964 Edition) "Aircraft of Today", Charles Turner, (1917 1st Edition) "Aviation in Canada 1917-18", Alan Sullivan, (1919 1st Edition) "Capronis, Farmans, and Sias: U.S. Army Aviation Training and Combat in Italy With Fiorello LaGuardia 1917-1918 ", Jack B. Hilliard, (2006 1st Edition) "Colliers New Photographic History of the World War", (1917 Edition) "Decisive Air Battles of the First World War", Arch Whitehouse, (1963 1st Edition) "Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War", W.M. Lamberton, (1964 Edition) "Flying The Old Planes", Frank Tallman, (1973 Edition) "Fragments From France", Bruce Bairnsfather, (1917 1st Edition) (Great War cartoons by the master of the genre) "Heros of Aviation", Laurence La Tourette Driggs, (1919 1st Edition) "High in the Empty Blue", Alex Revell, (1995 1st Edition with author's signature card) "Historic Airships", Rupert Holland, (1928 1st Edition) "History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion", L.C. McCollum, (1929 Edition) "History of the World War", Francis March, (1918 1st Edition) "History of the Great World War", Rolt-Wheeler and Drinker, (1919 1st Edition) "Land and Water" Magazine, (entire April through September 1917 series, hard bound, ex-library copy) "Ludendorff's Own Story", Erich Ludendorff, (1919 1st Edition) "National Geographic" Magazine, (entire 1918 series, hard bound, ex-library copy) "Reconnaissance & Bomber Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War", W.M. Lamberton, (1962 Edition) "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man", Robert W. Service, (1916 1st Edition) "Source Records of the Great War", (1923 1st Edition) 7-volume set "The First War Planes", William Barrett, (1960 Edition) (the one that started it all for me) "The Great Air War", Aaron Norman, (1968 Edition) "The Great War", George H. Allen, (1919 1st Edition) 5-volume set "The Great War in the Air", Edgar Middleton, (1920 1st Edition) 4-volume set "The Imperial Russian Air Service, Famous Pilots and Aircraft of World War One", Alan Durkota, (1996 1st Edition) "The Lafayette Flying Corps", by James Hall and Charles Nordhoff, (1964 Kennikat Press limited edition two-volume set) "The People's War Book and Atlas", (1920 1st Edition, signed by Lt. Col. William A. Bishop) "The United States in the Great War", Willis Abbot, (1919 1st Edition) "The U.S. Air Service in World War I", Maurer Maurer, (1978 1st Edition) 4-volume set "The War in the Air", Raleigh and Jones, (1st Edition) 9-volume set with map cases, (originally in the military library at Whitehall; my personal Jewel of the Crown) "The Western Front from the Air", Nicholas C. Watkis, (1999 1st Edition) "Time-Life Epic of Flight", 23-volume set, (not old and not strictly WWI but still a lot of good info and photos) "True Stories of the Great War", (1918 1st Edition) 6-volume set "U.S. Official Pictures of the World War", Moore and Russell, (1924 1st Edition) 4-volume set "1920 World Book Encyclopedia", (entire set with addendums, great for cross-referencing in a contemporary context) Instructional Books: "Aeroplane Construction and Operation", John Rathbun, (1918 1st Edition) "English-French War Guide for Americans in France", Eugene Maloubier, (1918 Edition) "Learning to Fly in the U.S. Army", E.N. Fales, (1917 1st Edition) "Lewis Machine Gun 'Airplane Type' Service and Operation Manual", (1918 Edition) "Manual Of Rigging Notes Technical Data", (1918, possible reprint) "Practical Flying", W.G. Minnies, (1918 1st Edition) "The Art of Reconnaissance", David Henderson, (1916 1st Edition) "Science of Pre-Flight Aeronautics", (1942 Edition) "Self-Help for the Citizen Soldier", Moss and Stewart, (1915 1st Edition) . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Javito1986 14 Posted July 18, 2011 I demand photographs of your home library Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAF_Louvert 101 Posted July 19, 2011 . My pleasure Javito. Here is a view of the book shelves in my flying room: And the view from the book shelves: . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
