Thanks again for the responses! If you'll bear with me, I'll share -
Chris Barbour made these suggestions -
1 - The Complete cyclist (4th ed.) / Harold Moore. London: Pitman, 1952. Described by CB as "a good book, a general guide and survey with good illustrations, and a lot of the author's heart in it."
Chris also noted that Dartmouth College has the only American holding. "Borrow it before it falls apart and they discard it." Note that Dartmouth is also currently charging something like $16 for interlibrary loans - the library I work for really can't afford that. I located a 1947 edition in Scotland, which with shipping will still be cheaper than that. It will hopefully be here soon.
There was a chapter description I found while googling that piqued my
interest - "The Footpath Way, or the Pleasures of Pass-Storming." Which
made me think of Allan Nelson's "Cycling Before Lycra" site at
http://www.a-nelson.dircon.co.uk/
When I ran a search via Abebooks.com, I noted a 1935 first ed. of this book for $75. Gulp. There were some later editions, at least into the mid-60s, and I'll leave it to those more familiar with it to tell us if they were greatly revised.
2 - Teach yourself cycling / Reginald C. Shaw. London: English Universities Press, 1967,1953. Described as "a basic cycling guide, but has 8-10 Patterson drawings that take the cake." Versions of this are out there as recent as 1972.
3 - Cycling manual (23rd ed.) / H. H. England. London, Temple Press, 1954. "Photos, instructions, essays on gears, frame fit, touring, racing, etc. England was long-time editor of Cycling magazine, and one of the great men of British cycling. My copy had tucked under the dust jacket photographs and factory instructions for setting up a Simplex coil-spring derailleur!" We should all be so lucky! I located one of these in California, and ran up my charge card a notch more.
3 - Cycling handbook (2nd ed.) / A. L. Pullen. London: Pitman, 1953. "Similar to England's volume, but if memory serves, not as complete." Toni Theilmeier seconds Chris' recommendation of Pullen's book.
Mick Butler's list of picks ran earlier, but I'll note that he mentioned -
4 - Newnes Every Cyclist's Handbook, F. J. Camm, 1936. I snagged a copy of this on eBay not too long ago, and this was one of the books that spurred this enterprise. It's a general how-to book. My favorite line in it comes from p. 142 - "Be prepared to give pedestrians and led animals coming towards you on your own side of the road."
not mentioned, but found while searching inventories online was -
5 - Cyclist's Touring Club Touring Handbook, 1962. I have no idea of what it will be like, but it looked cool! That one and England's Cycling Manual will hopefully arrive sometime soon ...
6 - Know the Game - Cycling, 1952, in collaboration with the CTC and the Road Time Trials Council, 32pp. There's a copy on eBay right now, as well as a copy at eBookman.com ... I suspect that if I felt more competitive, I'd go after it ...
7 - The Guiness Guide to Cycling, 1977. J. Durry, transl. w/ intro by J.B. Wadley. Okay, so it's not quite like the others ... but still, I'll let you know how I like it when it arrives.
odd notes -
There is a lovely bibliography online at
http://website.lineone.net/
Who can tell us about "Ragged Staff?" I find two books out there, "Joyous Cycling" and "Cycling is Such Fun" ... was Ragged Staff a nom de plume, or a publication or organization?
Are the various Kuklos Annuals that turn up worth pursuing? I know he was William Fitzwater Wray, and he wrote a lot of influential material.
Again, thanks for the responses, and I'd love to hear more recommendations. At least this gives me something to do until it's warm enough to ride again ...
regards,
Russ Fitzgerald
Greenwood SC
velocio@meta-net.net