doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Death by Internet--Obituary 2010

how about a book on baker's and the baker family?

Ed and others, thanks much for your kind words about my books, I truly appreciate your comments.

jack rabbit, no big deal, an author just wants to think folks continue to value his accomplishments, and it appears from the used prices I found online, folks still do! After seeing how much they value Custom Rifles I'm going to hang onto the few copies I have left.

The dream of publishing a book is still alive and a very worthy goal. It was never easy for an amateur enthusiast to publish a book, and never will be. Getting a contract with a known publisher without a finished manuscript was always next to impossible. Books like Charlie Semmer's, Walt Snyder's and Bob Elliot's were always going to take an extraordinary enthusiasm, energy and a lot of the author's time and/or money. It still the same. These books have never been money makers so why should they be in these times of literary decline?

As some have said, it has never been easier to publish a book!

Every book takes an extraordinary effort from the author and is an extraordinary achievement with a satisfaction only known to those who accomplish it. Books with genuine content, even those of very narrow interest will endure as will the memory of the fellows who made them happen.

It is a bit different for those of us who are not wealthy, do not have a retirement income to look forward to and who thought of writing as a way to earn a living in advancing age. I NEED to make money from writing, that's just the way it is and the way it's always been. And I will find a way to do that. It is 1848, and I'm at...

Anybody remember how John James Audubon got his Portfolio published? Worthy?

I remember how Audubon got his elephant portfolio published and I think it would work on any tome that is as inclusive of its subject

Recently saw on PBS the Audobon story and included his extraordinary efforts and personal expense to have his life's work published. A colossal effort... lesser men would have given up - or never even taken on such a project. He believed in himself and the self-sacrificing work he did and he finally found someone who shared that belief.

A lot like some of the very best authors who dedicate so much of themselves (and personal finances and endless hours) to see their project to completion.

Yeah, I guess the kicker is that you dedicate your life and finances to a book project and you never get to see it sky rocket in value,and desirability,during your lifetime. I'm sure glad Audubon went the whole nine yards though, and ditto for Rex Brashear.

Ed: My Parker Guns; Shooting Flying and the American Experience (Collector Books 2008) is 9x12 hard cover, with 368 full-color pages, 550+ pictures, 44 chapters, a bibliography and is indexed. Chapter 25 covers "William H. Baker's Namesake Guns." Dave Noreen's Paragon Grade is pictured; also Phil Murphy'd Paragon Grade with Destry as my hand model. Baker's exploits are traced back to a March 1876 "Allerton & Baker" ad from Forest & Stream (pictured). Also pictured are old-time ads for the Three Barrel Gun made by Baker himself after he and Allerton parted ways (ca. Oct.1876). There is one of the first L. C. Smith ads featuring the "New" Model Three Barrel Gun," and going back to Chapter one, p.18, Dr. Bill McP's ca.1880 Baker 3-bbl is pictured. I believe this is about the extent of Baker info that the market can stand. And by the way...

My first SxS was a Baker that I got as a $25 bargaining chip when I bought my first car, a 53 Merc. The gun and 6 boxes of shells were in the trunk. The seller wanted $325 for the car but wouldn't move...I had offered $300...the buyer wasn't comfortable about taking her son's gun in the house (he was in the Navy overseas). I solved the problen by coughing up $325 and took the gun and liked it better than my Dad's Model 11 Remington and, thus, the double-gun seed was planted. The 53 Merc is pictured on page 191: What would that car go for now?

Finally: Not to short the lovers of other makers, I'll mention that PG: Shooting Flying builds on my controversial DGJ article, "Why Parker?" which some drew hate mail and several retaliatory articles. If figured that if there was so much interest and indignation that I might as well build on the premise: "Why Parker?" is Chapter One (edited and modified) and leads to many of the following chapters, which cover the competition, explaining why many of them fell by the wayside while Parker Bro's continued to prosper, or in some cases why Parker and the other makers were just different.

There are full chapters on : 1860s--Ethan Allen; Maynard; Wesson; Whitney; Roper; and Boyd & Tyler; 1870s--Remington-Whitmore; Baker; Lefever; "Original" Geo. Fox; and Colt. Baker's Ithaca is covered, and later I explain how the Winchester 21 and the Parker (and other pre-Great Depression guns) are "apples and oranges." Buy early...well, as soon as possible, and often.

As to the Audubon Elephant Portfolio, back in 2005, after I wrote When Ducks Were Plenty and having used Audubon's image of passenger pigeons, I was in NYC at a well-known print and book dealer's shop on 74th st off Madison ave., checking out rare gunning books...when I spotted an original Elephant Folio print of the passenger pigeons. I was admiring it and thinking I should own it and asked the salesman "How much?" He said "Twenty-nine..." and paused, and I quickly thought $2,900 was something I could afford, until he finished his sentence: "...thousand." Oops!

John James Audubon has a full-page side-bar leading into Chapter 3 of Shooting Flying--"Muzzle-loaders versus breech-loaders." To my knowledge, Audubon had his images printed in England, because Americans then lacked the ability to do the picture job here in the USA. The entire book--imported pictures--with domestic text block was assembled in America; the text was printed here, because if the complete book was printed overseas the import duties would have killed it. Likewise my Dodge Sprinter R/V by Mercedes: The entire van was manufactured and assembled in Germany, then disassembled sufficiently to beat the import taxes, and put back together here. Nothing new under the sun when it comes to stupid tax laws. How all of the present-day offshore publishing/printing can beat the domestic cost structure with the extra shipping and import duties is an amazement. But wait! We import drywall from China...go figure! EDM

Ed, completely O/T, but how do you like the Sprinter?