Still rambling about books, etc., I'd like to see -
4. I've been thinking about this particular one for a few days now, and it's time to inflict it on someone else ... ;>)
By the late 1930s, there were stirrings of renewed interest in cycling. From snippets gleaned in some contemporary publications, as well as asides dropped in a number of recent cycling history writings, it appears that cycle-touring was growing; bike racing continued to be popular in Europe; and the financial difficulties of the Great Depression made utility cycling more acceptable in the U.S. There were numerous articles (even in National Geographic!) about Americans cycling around the world ...
Couple that with references on the Malvern Star site to a plan to introduce a line of Australian-made lightweight bikes in the U.S.; Schwinn's introduction of their lightweight line c. 1937; the reactivation of the LAW in certain Northeastern and Midwestern cities ... and you have an interesting historical might-have-been. If World War II had not started in 1939, would there would have been a major revival of cycling in the U.S.?
Lots of questions could be played with here. Even if we conclude that the war was inevitable, what if it had come later? Would dominating the American bicycle market have been the goal of world manufacturers in 1942 - instead of becoming their goal in 1972? Would the resurgence of cycling have had any effect on post-war housing development, or would we have wound up with the same designed-for-automobiles living spaces we have today? It makes for some neat speculation, at any rate - but I think it's worth exploring ...
5. Wierd footnote to above - I mentioned National Geographic. I think it was the August, 1939 edition that had an article about a young American lady cycling around Eastern Europe. It was a to-be-continued thing, and she was crossing the border into Poland as the article concluded. I wonder what happened ...
6. Travellogue writers of the world, unite! Can you picture a collection of cycle-touring stories, from Thomas Stevens to today? I would plead for a chunk of Ian Hibell's travel accounts, or the young Irish lady who rode through India in 1963 ... a serious editing task, to be sure, but still ... perhaps even back to back excerpts on the same region, but as seen in 1912, say, and 1979 ...
Russ Fitzgerald
Greenwood SC
rfitzger@emeraldis.com