The After-Obama Gun Book Sale is on!

Unnoted and uncelebrated, the eight-year existential threat of President Obama coming for your guns passed unfulfilled yesterday.

To celebrate, we dust off our inventory of related works, last offered on sale in honor of Dr Walter Palmer, the safari-mad dentist of Bloomington, Minnesota. That remains the most popular post we have ever made.

By coincidence, the internet program Rare Book Cafe featured a segment on collecting books on guns today. Here’s a link.

Corbett, Jim, The Corbett Collection (Safari Press, 6 volumes slipcased, 1991). ISBN 0-940143-54-2. Legendary British/Indian hunter /conservationist James Edward Corbett (1875-1955) devoted much of his life to hunting down and killing man-eating tigers and leopards. Between 1935 and 1954 he wrote six books on his experiences: My India; Jungle Lore; Man-Eaters of Kumaon; Temple Tiger/Tree Tops; and Leopards of Rudraprayag. Attractive five volume set, hardcover, very good condition. A prize for the big game enthusiast and pre-independence India fans. HBB price: $150 obo.

Housholder, Bob, editor, Grand Slam of North American Wild Sheep (Imperial Lithographers/Roswell Bookbinding, 2nd printing, May 1974). A collection of tales by ten members of the Grand Slam Club of the North American Sheep Hunters Association, describing what it was like to be among the fifty or so hunters to bag all four North American rams. Hardcover with gold lettering/ram’s head on cover and spine, no dust jacket, very good condition, affectionately inscribed by contributor Dr. Roy A. Schultz,DVM to Russ Reid, “one of the best sheep outfitters and sheep guides on the North American Continent!!!” in September, 1977. HBB price: $100 obo.

Kirkland, K.D. America’s Premier Gunmakers: Remington, Colt, Browning, Winchester (JG Press, 1st. ed., 4 volumes, slipcased, 2012). ISBN 13: 978-1-57215-257-1. Arms historian K.D. Kirkland’s histories of the great American gun makers is a classic. Each volume is profusely illustrated in color, with the kind of detail that is the mark of true scholarship. Hardcover, unclipped dust jackets, as new. The set comes in a handsome slipcase. HBB price: $150 obo.

O’Connor, Jack, Hunting in the Southwest (Alfred A. Knopf, 2nd ed., 1945; originally published in limited ed., as Game in the Desert, 1939). Arizona native Jack O’Connor (1902-78) was the longtime firearms editor of Outdoor Life and created the journalism department at the University of Arizona. By 1945 he could support himself in conservation, hunting and firearms journalism, and moved to Idaho for the rest of his life. Hunting in the Southwest was the fourth of his 16 books. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket with a few small nicks along the top, good condition. 8.5” x 5.75 inches, 280 pp. Rare. HBB price: $100 obo.

Proper, Datus C., Pheasants of the Mind:  A Hunter’s Search for A Mythic Bird (Prentice hall Press, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1990). ISBN 0-13-662750-1. A Montana naturalist philosopher (“It is impossible to read this without being reminded of Garrison Keillor at his best,” famed food writer M.F.K. Fisher wrote), contemplates nature and the challenges of hunting for pheasant. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition, autographed. HBB price: $75 obo.

Rinella, Stephen, The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine, (Miramax Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2005). ISBN 1401135237-5. A bracing account of one man’s attempt to assemble all the ingredients required to produce the 45-course feast laid out in Escoffier’s 1903 book, Le Guide Culinaire). Praised as “part memoir, part cookbook, and a love song to hunting, fishing and the American wild.” Hardcover, octavo, 319 pp.Fine condition. Rare. HBB price: $100 obo.

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Schwing, Ned, The Browning Superposed: John M. Browning’s Last Legacy (Krause Pubs., 1st ed., 1996) ISBN 0-87341-350-4. The first full account of the Browning Company’s history from 1926 to 1995, and of the design, development and production of “the last of the high-quality, hand-built, and hand-engraved over and under shotguns.” 496 pp, over 600 illustrations, 100 in color. 11.25” x 8.75”. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. Rare and highly collectible. HBB price: $150 obo.