The Book of The Gun

THE BOOK OF THE GUN BY HAROLD L. PETERSON This fine book presents a fascinating panorama of firearms from gunpowder to magazine weapons. Experts and enthusiasts from many countries have collaborated to tell the story of the gun, and of the more than six centuries of effort devoted to making it shoot fast, hard and true. It is a story of vast scope and high excitement, of innovations, frustrations and triumphs, as men changed their way of waging war and hunting game. The author, Harold L. Peterson, is an historian, a collector and an outstanding authority on arms and armour. His brilliant and meticulous text has been prepared with the collaboration of three of Europe's foremost arms specialists: Howard L. Blackmore, President of the Arms. and Armour Society of Great Britain; Claude Blair, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and William Reid, of H.M. Tower of London Armouries. Beautiful full-colour studies of important guns in historic settings have been specially photo- graphed for this book to provide page after page of rich illustration, and there are prints and drawings gathered from the major arms museums and private collections of the world. This exciting blend of words and pictures ranges over the turbulent life of every important gun that man's imagination has devised for his arsenal-matchlocks, wheel locks, flintlocks, breechloaders, repeaters and magazine arms. The story begins with Friar Bacon's experiments with the substance we now call gunpowder. It ends at the doorstep of the modern era, with magazine arms established, black powder on the way out, and such names as Winchester, Henry and Mauser linked with unique and unforgettable designs. Now in its third impression, this is truly THE BOOK OF THEGUN, a volume which firearms enthusiasts will treasure both for its content and its beauty.