Autographed books

[Troy13]

 

[Troy13]

 

[Troy13]

This book has a neat story behind it. My wife was at a business dinner and was talking with her colleagues and was telling them about me collecting WWII artifacts and liking history, when the man at the table behind her turned around and started talking to her. He was asking about me and such, and then began to tell her about his father and that he had written a book about his time in WWII. He asked her if she would like a copy of the book. My wife (who doesn't necessarilly "get" what I do, but has my back) said yes and gave him her business card. About two weeks later she received a signed copy of his fathers book in the mail! It was the kindest gesture ever. Very interesting read!

 

Silver Star winner Lt. Frank "Lindy" Fancher

 

 

[Troy13]

Finally, this is one of my prized books.

 

I heard a local sports radio station (they do more that just sports) interview James Magellas one day. He told his story and I was glued to the radio. I did not get much work done that day. The stated he would be signing his books at local mall and I knew I would be there. So when the day arrived, I drug my wife and found the store. And there sat Mr. Magellas. And to my surprise, there was no one around. No line, no nothing. There sat a hero and no one was there to meet him and his wife. So, I went up and took a book and sat with him and talked. (As luck would have it, a couple others did arrive and begin to wait). So after a few minutes, I got up, shook his hand, said thank you and left. It was of my first sit down meeting with a WWII a paratrooper.

 

 

 

[tsellati]

Here is the only WWII memoir book in my collection autographed by the author, William J. Guarnere -

 

 

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Guarnere and had an excellent chat with him a few years back at the Allentown, PA Gun Show.

 

Of course, this is one book that will always remain in my library.

 

Tim

[navrocky]

Though not a collector of autographed books per se, I do have a few I can mention here.

 

The first one I have is a first edition of Audie Murphy's biography, "To Hell and Back" autographed by Mr.Murphy. The book was later turned into a movie asmost of you know.

 

I also have a book "4 Jills in a Jeep" written by the late actress Carole Landis who signed the book Carole Landis Matthews. While touring various military establishments in England, Gibraltor, N. Africa with three other Hollywood names, she met and quickly married an Army Captain, Tom Matthews, the courtship and her "honeymoon" is documented in the book. Matthew turned out to be husband #3 and the marriage lasted just two years. Miss Landis married twice more before she died in 1948 at the age of 29, allegedly by her own hand.

 

And I also have a book written by the Colonel (whose name I forget as I write this) who headed up Spandau prison housing the "Big Boys" during the infamous Nuremberg trials and he too autographed the book.

 

I will take pictures when I get my trusty HP computer back from the Geek Squad.

[Dave]

Here's one that I had and sold a few years back.

 

About 15 years ago, Major General Cragie, USAF, (the first US jet pilot!) passed away at the nursing home at a local USAF base. His family dumped a large quantity of his stuff, but an orderly at the hospital was a good dumpster digger and pulled what he could for me. Interestingly, I got boxes at least once a month of items from (mostly) general officers who had recently passed away and their families discarded their items...unfortunately, he quit the job after a few years and the boxes no longer came. Too bad...God only knows what was leaving in the dumpster...

 

This book came out of the estate of General Craigie, amongst a huge pile of other items, ranging from books, documents, photos, his "crusher" Luxenberg made general officer's hat and more. Some absolutely mind-blowing stuff. Unfortunately, I sold it all, but I kept this book for years...

 

Fast forward to 2004, and I decided to sell the book. I listed it up on eBay a few times, but no bites. Finally, I got an e-mail from an Air Force historian who told me he knew the general's son. Just great, I thought...legal issues time ("no, that was MY book....etc.") Anyway, got a really nice e-mail from his son who not only offered to buy the book for my asking price but when the check arrived, he had added $100 to the check just for "handling"!!! Dang!

 

It was a great book, I just wish the pics were bigger. It was signed by the President, Vice Presidents, the head of B-17 production, the first test pilots, etc...really a "who's who" of the B-17! Awesome!

 

Dave

 

EDIT - forgot to mention that the shipping documents were still tucked in the pages of the book!

[Dave]

A few more books:

 

Ron Willis, Navy Wings of Gold (great guy!!!)

 

RADM Eugene Fluckey, MOH and NCx4. It's a generic autograph, but the photo is of me and him. Why wasn't I smart enough to have him sign it TO ME??? Oh well... :think:

 

Jim Sawiki, the DI King...

[Dave]

A couple more books. I actually have a bunch of foreign militaria books that are autographed, but they aren't in the theme of this forum (now if I post a photo of the book that I wrote, with my autograph, would that be okay, even if it's about foreign militaria???)

 

The bottom book is POW and it belonged to POW Charles Mott along with a couple chairs from his estate (don't know how those ended up together!)

 

The top book is Yangtze Patrol by RADM Kemp Tolley. It belonged to one of his fellow "River Rats" (from the Yangtze...NOT Vietnam!) and I found it at a flea market in Maryland. I opened the book and all the other items fell out of the cover! A bunch of postcards from RADM Tolley, a nice letter, and more. Pretty wild!

 

NOW, oddly...at the SAME time, RADM Tolley passed away and I overheard that some of his stuff made it up to the library at the Naval Academy. Since I worked there at the time, I ran over and checked it out...box after box of paper, photos and more! WOW! Turns out the family was chucking it all and one of the librarians at the Academy stopped by and rescued it all...what a disaster that would have been!

 

Dave

[We few...]

Wow, those books really look great, thanks for sharing guys!

Last year I had the pleasure of attending a dinnerparty in Bastogne with Mr. Ed Shames (I think needs no further introduction) and Mr. Joe Cicchinelli (551st Parachute Infantry Battalion):

They both signed my Currahee scrapbook:

 

 

Let me tell you, that Mr. Shames is still a tough s.o.b.

Throughout the next year Mr. Cichinelli and I wrote eachother letters and last december the release off his book "GOYA" took place in Bastogne during the 65th anniversary off the Battle of the Bulge. Offcourse Mr. Cicchinelli was present and it was great seeing him and talking too him again. What a great man that is. His book "GOYA" is great, the writer off this book is also a member on this forum (Patrick Brion):

 

[Plankowner]

This is a privately printed book on Matt Urban, MOH. I am sorry to say that the book is not very good reading but this can be excused. I spent several hours talking to this man and, wow, what stories. He talked in a very "froggy" voice, the result of being shot through the neck! Mr. Urban died on March 20, 1995 and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

[JerryK]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a copy of Rendezvous with Destiny signed by General Mc McAuliffe to a 101st trooper.

[Ken_Carroll]

Finally, this is one of my prized books.

 

I heard a local sports radio station (they do more that just sports) interview James Magellas one day. He told his story and I was glued to the radio. I did not get much work done that day. The stated he would be signing his books at local mall and I knew I would be there. So when the day arrived, I drug my wife and found the store. And there sat Mr. Magellas. And to my surprise, there was no one around. No line, no nothing. There sat a hero and no one was there to meet him and his wife. So, I went up and took a book and sat with him and talked. (As luck would have it, a couple others did arrive and begin to wait). So after a few minutes, I got up, shook his hand, said thank you and left. It was of my first sit down meeting with a WWII a paratrooper.

 

 

I met Mr. Megellas at DFW airport while waiting on a plane home to Atlanta. He was sitting at a table in front of one of the book stores and everyone was just walking past his stack of books. I started talking to him and bought one of his books which he graciously autographed. I must have talked to him for 30 minutes, during which we managed to draw a good sized crowd trying to hear what we were discussing. As a result, he sold a few more books!

[Lightning Ace]

Here's my autographed book that I bought at a garage sale years ago titled: Marine ! The Life of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller USMC ( Ret) that's autographed to a Master Sgt. Terry D. Brown from Portsworth, Va. 5 March 1963 by Chesty Puller. I've been liquidating my collection fro the last 6 years and plan on putting the book up for sale as soon as I find out approximately what it might be worth.

[m1tommygun]

I know my father picked up a used copy of Chesty Puller's book signed by him to a retired Marine Sergent. I will have to ask him who it was signed to.

 

Scott

[6armyAS]

My collection of signatures of Alamo Scouts. Three signatures are from rescued POW's from the Cabanatuan raid. There are a few more non-Scout signatures in the mix.

[6armyAS]

...and the other two pages of signatures:

[USAFnav]

...and the other two pages of signatures:

 

 

Very cool, thanks for showing that.

Pete

[Lightning Ace]

Besides the Chesty Puller autographed book I listed here a while back I also have this autographed book by Saburo Sakai signed by Saburo and the author and my Profile picture shows me meeting him.

 

Mike

[Oddball]

Here is mine. Both signed by author.

Mr Groves was a 17 year old runner in the 1st Div. He was shot in the neck and then bandaged up by a german medic during the war.He lived to be 97years old.

[TrenchfootJoe66]

In 2003, Prior to On the Ground, John Meyer penned Across the Fence - The Secret War in Vietnam. A great work that just six years later is hard to locate. Here is a very scarce, hard cover edition with dust jacket signed and dated by Tilt. I really like the dedication in this volume which I will quote verbatim in the next post. In speaking with Meyer, he advised that some of these volumes were signed and dedicated to those assisting with various actions against CNN after the slanderous "Valley of Death" Operation Tailwind story.

 

Wow!! Im really jealous. I have all of those books and would kill to get some of those autographs. I have all of those Real War Stories publications as well. They are really great books and out of print if Im not mistaken. Seems we have similiar interests. Ill post one of mine in a sec...

 

JW

[Ricardo]

...

 

[kriegsmodell]

Wow!! Im really jealous. I have all of those books and would kill to get some of those autographs. I have all of those Real War Stories publications as well. They are really great books and out of print if Im not mistaken. Seems we have similiar interests. Ill post one of mine in a sec...

 

JW

 

Thanks for the kind words. I have to admit that the Across the Fence volume signed with the "Tailwind" commentary is one of my favorites. I also sent you a PM that you might find interesting. Meantime, let's see your signed books JW!

[TrenchfootJoe66]

Thanks for the kind words. I have to admit that the Across the Fence volume signed with the "Tailwind" commentary is one of my favorites. I also sent you a PM that you might find interesting. Meantime, let's see your signed books JW!

 

I posted my signed copy of Donlon's "Beyond Nam Dong' in the book reports thread instead of this one. My mistake. Ok, Ill pull something else off the shelf here in a minute

 

JW

[TrenchfootJoe66]

OK here's an odd one... A signed copy of Mike Yon's "Danger Close".