JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT
Kenneth Collings
Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938. First Edition.
Dust jacket is in poor condition, and separated into five pieces, with sizeable chips along
top, bottom, and on spine (see photo). Also some old scotch tape along bottom of front panel.
Original '$2.75' price still intact on jacket flap. Jacket remnants presently preserved in mylar protector. The book itself is Near FINE,
bright & tight. Inscription by author on title page reads: "To Elinor Meyer(?), whose
enthusiastic cooperation made the task of writing this book much easier. Kenneth Collings"
Inscription is dated 'July 25, 1938', the year of publication. 373 pages.
Introduction on
jacket flap reads:
"Vagabond in the Montana Rockies, seaman ~ more or less able ~ on a Central American
fruit steamer, flying Marine bringing order out of the black chaos of the weird
threatening jungles of Haiti, foreign correspondent with new and startling eye-witness
views of Ethiopia and Russia, happy-go-lucky barnstormer putting to rout fifty ten-ton
trucks with one airplane.... here, a man in his thirties sets down a whole crowded
lifetime of exciting experiences."
Table of Contents as follows: Orville Wright Makes a Promise; White House Jag; The Debunking of a Big Shot;
Casting Off the Apron Strings; The Education of a Hobo; Honduras Honky-Tonk; 'We'll Never
Get Out of the Army Now!'; Use Your Rudder!; Fly or Die!; Orders to France; Red Ruin from the Gothas;
Our Noble Allies the Portuguese; Fear, Fever and Flu; $3,000 Buys a Lot of Beans; Blackstone on Wings;
They Skinned Morris Alive; Haitian Revolutions Start in the North; Louis Nord and Louis' Brother;
Hong Kong Epilogue; Murder in the Haitian Hills; Finger of Suspicion; Flying Ambulance;
Black Death in the Black Republic; San Domingo Delirium; Airplane Rescues Ship: That's News!;
King of the Bucketeers; Measure of Life; Lindbergh vs. Chamberlin; The Truckmen's Foe;
Aviator's Paradise; Pan-American Air Mail; Too Much System; The Potentate; A Bombay Jockey Did It;
'Get Haile Selassie!'; African Jig-Saw Puzzle; Elect of God; Abyssinian Disillusionment;
A Box of Bombs; Ethiopean Sideshow; Gone from the Headlines; No Neutrals Wanted; Russian Report;
Trans-Andean Air Express.
Author was a Marine Corps aviator in WWI and during
the Occupation of Haiti. Book recounts his Marine Corps service and adventures in 23
countries. After publication of book, Collings was lost at sea in 1941 when he went down on a
British transport in the North Atlantic, torpedoed by a German submarine. His body later
washed up on the Scottish coast.
An increasing SCARCE title, particularly with dust jacket. OUT OF PRINT.
$125.00
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