The BOOK of FAMOUS FLYERS

Signed on the title page by the editor 

James Mollison

Collins Clear Type Press. First edition first printing  1934.     Quarto size, 191 pages and well illustrated with photos and some full page colour plates.

Very Good condition hardback book in blue embossed covers. The book has a stamp on the front end paper which reads ‘Royal Aero Club Aviation Centre Library – Not to be taken away’. There are no other library or previous owner markers.  The exceptionally scarce dustjacket is in Good condition with some light loss to the corners and spine ends but is otherwise in very decent order.

First published in 1934, the book traces the story of flight from the pioneering experimenters through to the celebrated aviators of the early 1930s, combining biography, aviation history, and numerous illustrations. Edited by James Mollison, then at the height of his fame, the book succeeds in conveying the excitement and romance of flying at a time when long-distance air travel was still a daring adventure.

There are chapters on all the great pioneer aviators and one titled ‘The Amazing Mollisons’.  In his Introduction, Mollison charmingly writes: ‘In conclusion, I should like to emphasise that, as editor, my main interest is the spacing and accuracy of the subject matter. The opinions expressed are not always my own. This applies particularly to the chapter concerning my wife and myself, which is unnecessarily flattering, and has only been retained at the insistence of the publishers’.

A very decent copy of a book that any young lad would have been delighted to find under the Christmas tree nearly a century ago. This copy, signed by Mollison and perhaps given by himself to the Royal Aero Club Library, must have been perused by hundreds of pilots over the years. A real piece of history.