Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$168.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Volume II only, book in good condition mild wear.
Seller: Books From California, Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$220.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Complete two volumes bound in blue cloth lettered in gilt. Gilt upper of deckled text block. Both books have loosened hinges- netting exposed along both hinges of volume one. Boards moderately worn with bumped corners and rubbed surface. Spine of volume two is sunned and has silverfish erosion from crown that obscures bit of titling. Volume 1 has .5in ding in cover emblem. Interior unmarked.
Seller: Chamblin Bookmine, Jacksonville, FL, U.S.A.
HALL (James Norman) & NORDHOFF (Charles Bernard) Eds.. The Lafayette Flying Corps.. 1920, 1920.
Price: US$339.91 + shipping
Description: 1st Ed., 2 Vols., 4to, xviii+514pp., col. frontis., 2 col. plates, approx. 120 b/w illus. & approx. 250 portraits & xii+361pp., col. frontis., 25 col. plates (inc. cartoons & unit insignia), approx. 100 b/w illus. Boston & NY: Houghton Mifflin Co., The Riverside Press, Cambridge. A substantial & lavish record of the Lafayette Escadrille & Flying Corps, the former a unit composed of American flyers who volunteered to serve with the French before the USA entered WW1, the latter American volunteers serving in the French air service. Vol. I commences with an account of the origin of the Escadrille Americaine & of the work of the Escadrille Lafayette & the Lafayette Flying Corps at the Front in France, followed by detailed biographies with portraits &c. of around 250 members of these units. (Nearly all the volunteers involved were members of the monied American families, notably the New England 'gentry.') Vol. II contains various personal recollections of enlistment, training, active service in the air & life at the Front, plus Rolls of Honour & index to both volumes. Orig. blue cloth, VG throughout & rare original edition.
Seller: Turner Donovan Military Bks, Brighton, SXE, United Kingdom
Price: US$399.99 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920. Ex-library first edition, 1920. Exhaustive history of the Lafayette Flying Corps (not the official Lafayette Escadrille squadron) who served with the French Air Force during World War I, along with profiles, service records and photographs of the men who served. Generously illustrated in black and white, some color. The first volume is devoted mainly to the pilots; the second to the Corps history in combat and life on the battle front. Good sound copies but with considerable library markings, including stamps on most of the plates. Blind-patterned green cloth, spines covered with green binder's tape and paper labels, 514 + 361 pages. Corners worn and frayed, good hinges, firm text blocks with a library rubber stamp at the top of each volume, library indicia on front endpapers, library name perforations to title pages, a few very minor repaired closed tears to margins, pages a little age-yellowed but mainly quite clean with some occasional light finger soil, plus the aforenoted library rubber stamping to plates. . Hard Cover. Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.
Seller: Resource Books, LLC, East Granby, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$510.68 + shipping
Description: Two volumes, thick quartos, original navy blue cloth with gilt Lafayette insignia on the front boards; copiously illustrated throughout with some hundreds of photo portrait plates embedded throughout the text, additional double page plates of insignia, aerodromes and so forth, as well as colour plates of aerial combat by Vimnèra. Vol. I: xx, 514 pp.; Vol. II: colour frontispiece, xii, 362 pp., illustrated. The first volume lacks its frontispiece and the lower spine end of this particular volume is a little frayed, front inner hinge of the second volume split and tender. Otherwise an attractive near fine set. The definitive biographical reference set on the Lafayette Escadrille, authored by two former members with distinguished service records. The set contains detailed individual biographies of members of the squadron and others serving with French units. Many of the colour plates detail squadron insignia from units staffed by American aviators during the war. This is without doubt one of the best written and researched American books of the First World War, and an indispensable addition to any research collection on the subject. Surprisingly, this original edition is not noted by Myron Smith in his definitive bibliography of First War aviators, although he does list the 1964 facsimile (number 790). Given that Myron Smith's personal collecting interest was the Lafayette Escadrille, this omission indicates the scarcity of the book in a pre-digital age. Sadly, the present set that we are offering for sale lacks one of the frontispiece plates, and has been priced accordingly. Given the outstanding - and in many respects unique - value of this book as a biographical register, it is a good opportunity to purchase a set for reference use at a modest price. Myron Smith writes of James Hall 'received his PhD from Grinnell College in 1910. Seven years later he enlisted with the French Air Service, serving with the Lafayette Escadrille and SPAD 12, 1917-1918. When American air units began arriving in the Western front, he applied to join them and served with both the 103rd and 94th Pursuit Squadrons in 1918 before being shot down and taken prisoner by the Germans. The six-victory ace then escaped, but saw no further action.' Dornbusch 18; Howes 83; Noffsinger 1278.
Seller: Rare Aviation Books, Millers Point, NSW, Australia
James Norman Hall & Charles Bernard Nordhoff. The Lafayette Flying Corps. Houghton Mifflin, 1920.
Price: US$895.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 2 Volumes Fine Copies First Edition 1920/1920. Excellent Set. Very Scarce in this Condition.Great History of Aviation.
Seller: Jeff Bergman Books ABAA, ILAB, Flemington, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: First printing Both volumes of this two volume set are in very good+ condition in decorated dark blue cloth covered boards with gilt text on the spine and gilt text and decorations on the front boards. The top edges of the text blocks are gilt. The cloth at the corners of the heads and heels of the spines is lightly worn and rubbed and the spine of volume II is faded as is the outer edges of the front board. There is also a prior owner's name and address on the first free end pages of each volume. Both volumes are small quartos measuring 10 3/16" tall by 7" deep. Volume I contains 514 pages and volume II contains 361 pages including appendices and an index. Without dust jackets. Laid-in to volume II is an undated, three page specimen copy of an appeal from The Escadrille Lafayette Memorial Association for funds to help complete a memorial cemetery in France dedicated to the Americans who lost their lives over France during the First World War. Both volumes are illustrated with black and white photographs and color plate illustrations. Volume I contains the personal biographies and service records of each of the members of the Lafayette Flying Corps Considered by many to be the standard reference on the Lafayette Escadrille. A very handsome set with none of the foxing so often seen.
Seller: Town's End Books, ABAA, Deep River, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition; two volumes; publisher's cloth. Bookplates; owner's signature on the verso of one endpaper; the back hinge of the first volume is cracked; a very good set in the original cardboard slipcase, which has been repaired. Nordhoff was a member of the Lafayette Escadrille, which was a squadron of the Flying Corps. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.