World War I Aviation : A Bibliography of Books in English, French, German, and Italian : With a Price List Supplement

Scarecrow Press, Lanham, revised edition, 1997. Cloth, 8vo,. x, 607 pp, 8 pp plates. 4217 entries (English :3092; French : 344; German : 624; Italian ; 157.) This handsomely-produced volume is the most comprehensive guide to books on "the War in the Air, 1914-1918" but is also of wider interest for enthusiasts of early aviation generally. The book is a completely revised edition of Noffsinger's 1987 publication "World War I Aviation Books in English: An Annotated Bibliography" and contains a greatly expanded annotated guide to books in English published from 1914 to 1994, as well as less comprehensive annotated listings of books in French, German and Italian which nevertheless aim to capture the important works in each language. The bibliography includes in all some 4,217 entries, for which it gives both a bibliographical description and in the great majority of cases an annotation. The annotations typically range in length from 10 to 200 words and may describe the book's contents, evaluate its merits, or both of these. Noffsinger's coverage extends to privately printed books, limited editions of books of significant rarity, and reprints and variant editions of some of the books, as well as a very good listing of British and US government publications. There is an interesting price checklist of some 900 selected books compiled from dealer's catalogs and collector's evaluations. Illustrated with 8 pages of previously unpublished photographs of decorated book covers, and of aviators. There is an 11-page double-column subject index. As New.