NOSTALGIC HISTORY:
I am a 'baby boomer' and in my early childhood there was talk of the "war" everywhere, as a kid it had only finished 10 ~ 20 years earlier so it was still fresh in everyone's minds and often talked about.
My father bought a lot of war related books and passed them to other members of the family and eventually myself for a read as a youngster, books were our source of knowledge in those days - no Google, no smartphones and barely any television to speak of, radio being the main entertainment when not reading a book!
This is one of those books, extolling the power and might of the American B17 bomber from Boeing.
FLYING FORTRESS - The Story Of The Boeing Bomber
Author: Thomas Collison
Published by Charles Scribner's Sons
First edition 1943
No ISBN
No barcode
Printed and bound in United States Of America (NY)
Hardcover
Non-fiction dealing with the development and design (in quite technical detail) of the Flying Fortress from Boeing
Many monochrome grauve plates (photographs)
168 pages
Love the text printed on the rear-insert dust cover
Keep 'Em Flyin'!
Buy War Stamps And Bonds
COSMETIC CONDITION:
(I am NOT a book collector nor a commercial reseller so my description is the most truthful and honest I can muster!)
Condition is overall, good
Spine is sound, I think it is stitched not glued but it is sort of folded so it is difficult to see what is holding the spine together and I don't wish to stress it
Outer coloured dust cover is in good (minus) with some wear shows to the edges from handling, particularly near the spine.
The inside hard cover (printed in silver and bright red) though is in very good condition.
SOME discolouration and marks to the dust cover but typical for the book's age I guess
NO missing pages, I carefully flipped through the book and I can find no page missing
NO discolouration to the pages, I am amazed at how white the pages remain and I guess this means that a good quality paper was used for this book - not showing signs of foxing.
NO writing on the dust cover or the internal pages EXCEPT
a) Inside dustcover front flap, in pencil 12/6 (12 Shillings and sixpence, or around $1.25 in our money) This does show where my father got it from (we lived in New Zealand) as the book was published in America and sent to NZ for sale (perhaps in Whitcombe & Tombs) and the pricing is for those countries who still used Pounds Shillings & Pence e.g NZ and I have made no attempt to remove this pencil price marking.
b) Inside the first page is a personal note written with a fountain pen (blue ink). It is a personal message from "Mother" to a relative and dated 29th November 1943. My relative was 17 years old at the time, I received the book around the mid 1960's as he was getting a bit old (35ish) for this type of book.
I am seeking a new home for this book as it is extremely unlikely I will be reading it again, I have sealed it within cellowrap (not sticky!) to maintain the condition and keep out the dust.
