R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

As the Americans among us are about to celebrate our Independence Day, it is appropriate to reflect on the universality of human striving for independence, freedom, and self-determination. As in the Presidential exhortation before the climatic battle in the classic film, Independence Day, the concept of “independence” in not uniquely an aspect of American Exceptionalism, it is a global, and perhaps ultimately, an intergalactic trans-species concept. It often is born, saved, or restored out of the throes of warfare. It is fundamentally a political state, defined and preserved by civilian domestic and international political processes. And while there are at times exceptions, in general independent nations, especially democracies, tend to seek to live in peace with their neighbors and to seek economic and/or political union voluntary (such as the European Community) where in the past under dictatorships or monarchies, unification (such as the unions of Germany and Italy) were accomplished by force of arms.

But before going further into this paean to Independence, we want to acknowledge the unprecedented response to our June column. We are gratified that so many felt that story of the young untested Lieutenant F. E. Fleck, Jr., at Pearl Harbor was a fitting point of focus for Memorial Day reflection, in his own right and as an exemplar of all the others who have served and sacrificed on behalf of their nations. We also very much appreciated the acknowledgement of our commitment to sound historiography and our effective use of modern research tools. While we do not need to apply this level of rigor to all of our offerings, we frequently do so in order to adequately and effectively present items for our consideration. As many of you already know from firsthand experience, we are happy to delve deeper, at the request of clients with serious interest in specific items, into the background of authors, printing history, and status of works in their areas of historical or political literature.

But now let us shift back to Independence. Of course we have many works on the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. The date of July 4th has achieved mythic status in the American culture and psyche. If Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia had been victorious at the Battle of Gettysburg, perhaps July 3rd would have achieved similar status had the nationhood of the Confederate States of American been so achieved? There is a growing literature of the “what if” variety of historical speculation, and we have examples of those including conjectures by Newt Gingrich. In the first case, our Independence Day reflects the political decision taken that declared our nation, and our people, free of British rule. At other times, in other contexts, the date of independence comes from a strategic victory, such as that of the Viet Minh over the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The political processes took time to ratify the results, whether by the Treaty of Paris or the Geneva Accords, but the dates of those agreements are in the province of scholars and perhaps advanced Jeopardy players, and are not embedded in the fiber of a nation.

Independence is not just a national political state; it is an individual political state, and part of an individual’s character. In some parts of the United States, there are more declared political independents than declared members of either the Republican or Democratic parties. The dynamics of the political process has shifted from machine politics delivering the votes of the party faithful (including those who took voting as a grave responsibility and continued to cast their ballots after their deaths), to establishing a stronger community of interest on issues with both independents and members of the other major party. There does not seem to be as clear a Republican equivalent to the Blue Dog Democrats who align with the Republicans, but that may be because Teddy Roosevelt co-opted the Bull Moose, John Anderson was mascot deprived, and Ross Perot could not break out of the Big Ear image. For some reason, the Democrats were not able to get any traction with the concept of “Pink Elephants”!

Beyond the political affiliations, we have a long history of respecting people who have an independent streak, who reflect this in their character, their outlook, and their deeds. We have many biographies of leaders who laid out their principles and their course of action, and who resisted the easy path of “go along to get along.” Many paid a price for their commitment, for their independence. Some we may share ends with, but not means—such as John Brown. Some we may share both ends and means with, such as the commitment to non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi. We may disdain both the ends and the means of others, such as Lenin, but we cannot argue that even with his commitment to collectivism and communism, in his time, he was an outcast, a visionary, and had a streak of independence in this thought and action.

So, as we in the United States pause to enjoy, and hopefully appreciate, our independence in this month of July, we hope that all of our clients are able to enjoy peace, freedom, and personal, political, and national independence. We of course, remain ever ready to process your individual and independent selections from our diverse stock of books, pamphlets, ephemera, and frankly odd-ball items. Upon request, we will grant a ten percent discount on purchases through our website.

R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

Booksellers are full of stories. We have many. One of our favorites involves a three-volume set entitled Carter’s Medals of the British Army. We had two volumes of the set and were contacted by a dealer in Spain who had a copy of the volume we were missing. The issue was whether he would buy our two volumes or we would buy his single volume. As many of you know, we are very careful in our descriptions of our items, so we informed our Spanish compadre that our two volumes had a rather large and ornate bookplate inside the front cover of each book. He replied that his copy also had a similar bookplate. Intrigued, we mentioned that our bookplate was that of James Ashbury. We were astounded when he confirmed that he had the missing volume for that set. This was too good a story not to drive us to purchase his single volume. Based upon subsequent research, we believe that the James Ashbury who owned this set was possibly the same James Ashbury who sailed the Cambria to New York to compete in the first America’s Cup of 1871. The son of a Manchester wheelwright who had invented a railway carriage, James Ashbury was not content to have fortune. He was eager for social recognition and in particular recognition from the high society, which explains his membership in numerous British yacht clubs, such as the Royal Harwich and Royal Thames Yacht Clubs. In 1868, Ashbury appointed Michael Ratsey to build a 188-ton schooner christened Cambria after the Cambrian Railway, a company in which James had some interest. As the United States defended the America’s Cup the next year, it appears sadly that Ashbury, and his ship, did not win this historic first encounter.

The Internet is a wonderful tool. We recently used to in researching a copy of a Naval Academy Manual of Athletic Requirements by W. A. Richardson published in 1927. It appears to have been an update of a similar manual initially published in 1920, with a second edition in 1922. It contains three photos of Midshipman F. E. Fleck, Jr., front, back and side that appear to have been taken during a physical examination. These show a lot of skin, and the cheeks are quiet visible on both the front and back views. As one would expect of midshipman, the pictures depict a fine physical specimen. We wondered what sort of career Midshipman Fleck later had, and were astounded with what we were able to discover in a few days of innovative and effective use of our research knowledge and Internet tools. Our virtual tour of Fleck’s career took us from Annapolis to Pearl Harbor, to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.

Our journey was not logical or chronological in terms of his career. First we determined that Fleck, with the rank of Captain, commanded the USS Salamonie from 4 September 1954 until 1 February 1956. The USS Salamonie (AO-26) was a Cimarron-class fleet replenishment oiler, named for the Salamonie River in Indiana. Salamonie was laid down on 5 February 1940 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 13) as Esso Columbia by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia.; launched on 18 September 1940; sponsored by Mrs. Eugene Holman; designated for US Navy use on 20 November 1940; and commissioned on 28 April 1941. During the period of Fleck’s command the ship had deployments with the US 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. We then searched and located a website dedicated to this ship (http://salamonie.homestead.com). Unfortunately, an exchange of e-mails yielded no additional information on Captain Fleck.

Undeterred, and in fact feeling challenged, we proceeded to try several search engines. Not surprisingly, we got some different ‘hits’ from basically the same searches. We were particularly pleased with the results from Bing, although we initially thought we would get references to a type of cherry and to Bob Hope’s Road movie buddy. We found the text of a dispatch from the Commanding Officer, USS Henly to CINCPAC, dated December 15, 1941 on the Subject of “Offensive measures during air raid on Pearl Harbor, T.H., December 7, 1941.” In this dispatch the following statements are made:

“Lieutenant F. E. Fleck, Jr., U.S.N., was commanding officer of the Henley at the time the air raid commenced. The manner in which he got the ship underway and fought the enemy during the sortie of the Henley is worthy of special commendation. The seamanlike manner in which he picked up his Captain and Executive Officer at sea is greatly appreciated.” What a time for the senior officers to be ashore!

Our search then took us to Wikipedia to learn more about the ship. We found out that: USS Henley (DD-391), a Bagley-class destroyer, was the 2nd ship of the United States Navy to be named for Captain Robert Henley, an officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War. She departed San Diego 14 April 1941 to join the Fleet at Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941, Henley was moored in Bast Loch with battle stations manned, a green sailor having sounded General Quarters instead of Quarters for Muster. This fortunate mistake gave Henley under the command of Lieutenant Francis E. Fleck, Jr., the opportunity to fire the first destroyer shots as the initial wave of enemy planes swooped in. A bomb exploded 150 yards off her port bow as she slipped her chain from the buoy, and, as she cleared, she received a signal that a submarine was in the harbor. Henley maneuvered through the smoke, fire, and confusion and sped out of the channel. Her gunners shot down one dive bomber with her .50 cal. guns and shared credit for another. Commanded by a junior lieutenant—both her commanding officer and executive officer were ashore when the attack began—Henley dropped depth charges on a sonar contact, possibly a midget submarine, outside the harbor, and continued to blaze away at the enemy with her guns.

Clearly Lieutenant Fleck was a hero the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, as were many others who rose to the occasion that fateful day. His copy of the Manual of Athletic Requirements had become a tangible connection not only to how naval officers were trained between the two World Wars, but also to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is possible, but unlikely, that this copy was on the USS Henley with Lieutenant Fleck when the fleet was attacked.

While, there were still gaps in our knowledge of the career of F. E. Fleck, Jr., we knew what happened to the ships. The USS Salamonie was decommissioned in 1968. The heroic USS Henley had perhaps a fate more fitting a combatant vessel. “On 3 October 1943 Henley was steaming with Reid and Smith on an offensive sweep off Finschafen when her skipper sighted two torpedoes heading for her. Split-second maneuvering permitted Henley to evade those two torpedoes; but a third was immediately sighted, closing too fast and too near to be avoided. Henley was struck on the port side, with the torpedo exploding in the number 1 fire-room, destroying her boilers, breaking her keel, and displacing her bow about 30 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the ship.

At 18:29, with all her crew having abandoned ship, Henley went down, stern first. Her companion DD’s searched for the sub, then returned to rescue Henley’s survivors, who had lashed their life-rafts together and were using flashlights as signals. Eighteen officers and 225 men were rescued, with 1 officer and 14 men missing.”

Based upon the information we had accumulated, we contacted the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and submitted a general information request. Their response filled in some key gaps.

“RADM Francis Edward Fleck, USN (Ret.) was a graduate in the class of 1934. He was married to Isabelle Fleck.

He died in Waynesboro, PA on 7-12-1990 of cancer.

He received several medals during his career: Navy Commendation Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Silver Star Medal, and Bronze Star Medal.”

We may continue doing research, with the National Archives or with some naval historians we are acquainted with (and have provided diverse items to), but there is only so much time one can (or should) spend on individual items. It is nice to know that this green lieutenant who had a day of heroism at Pearl Harbor also had what it took to enjoy a distinguished lifetime career in the Navy, rising to flag rank.

We tell you this story for several reasons. First and foremost, we believe the story of F. E. Fleck, Jr., a hero of Pearl Harbor, should not be forgotten. Second, we believe that the saga of our filling in the gaps based on three photos and a name written in a book should tell you that what our website says about us is real—we are historians as well as booksellers, we love our work, we respect our stock, and we seek to provide unparalleled service to our customers. Lastly, if anyone reading this has additional information of Rear Admiral Fleck, we would love to learn it so we can improve our description of the Manual of Athletic Requirements.

Not a lot of wry comments and word play in this month’s column—we will try to catch up next month. As always, we include in our columns the opportunity for you to request a ten percent discount on any item purchased from our website. As we explained in our e-mail announcing the May column, when we use third parties to complete sales, they charge a fee. By offering you a discount when you buy directly from us, we are passing along our savings to you.

We hope that you have enjoyed this “fleck” of history and discourse on our research efforts!

R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

No, cloning is not involved!  We have received inquiries from time to time from customers who tried to order a book that was shown as available and we then had to tell them that the item has been sold.  Typically these are signed books whose author or subject has died or otherwise become newsworthy, or books that somehow have gotten media attention.   The collectible book business model has a lot in common with the real estate business—especially in terms of multiple listings.  On any given day, we have the same item available via direct purchase from our website, via Alibris.com, Advanced Book Exchange, and Biblio.com.  Through these venues, the same book then also becomes available via Barnes and Noble, Chapters, and a host of other outlets around the globe.  When a book is sold from our website, it does not automatically disappear from the other venues.  We try to update frequently, especially to remove sold items, but occasionally orders for a single book come in almost simultaneously—we fill orders based upon when received—and there has not been time to update the other listing services.

As many of you know from personal experience, we seek to avoid disappointing customers.  In some cases, we have multiple signed and inscribed copies of works, such a Tim Russert’s Big Russ and Me.  Unless the inscription or the recipients are particularly noteworthy, we offer the comparable copy at the same price.  In some cases we may have a non-identical copy, paperback instead of hardcover, later printing, without dust jacket.  Here again, in those circumstances, we try to offer our customers an alternative at an appropriate price reflecting the difference between the two versions.  Sadly, it is not always possible for Ground Zero Books, Ltd., to meet our customers’ desires when the initial book has been sold.  While market conditions and availability of items can vary considerably, we also try, if our client so desires, to see if we can locate another, comparable copy.  In many cases it is not possible to provide a comparable copy at the price of our previously sold item.

There have been days when we have updated our listings half a dozen times to reflect multiple sales.  The week of President Reagan’s final illness and death we sold about a dozen copies of his An American Life.  When NBC’s Tim Russert died of a sudden heart attack we sold signed hardback and softcover copies of his books, and because of the depth of our stock, listed and promptly sold about another half dozen copies over the next two days.  Yet, despite our prompt attention to updating our databases, we still had multiple orders on several occasions.  When the identity of Deep Throat was revealed, we had about a dozen orders for the two copies we had—and this title has proven quite elusive to restock.   This spiking of interest occurs not just with deaths and signed items; we find that often what is in the news drives sales.  The earthquake in Haiti spurred interest  in our holdings on both Haiti and earthquakes.  We expect a surge in interest in Ronald Reagan next February, when his centennial is celebrated.  We expect 2011 to have a sustained interest in items on terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the 9/11 attacks and aftermath.  Having 50,000+ items available online and an equal or greater number of items pending entry into our database makes tracking duplicates and restocks both necessary and a challenge.  We spend a significant amount of our data entry resources tracking additional copies of items in our database—capturing the shelf location so that we can re-list promptly.  As you all understand, to be successful in the out-of-print and collectible online book business—we cannot be LISTLESS!

Our goal is always to delight, and we strive never to disappoint.  While it is possible for one of our books to be in two places at the same time, we can and will only sell it once.  We are committed wherever possible to offer a comparable copy at a consistent price.  We take MasterCard, but while our books can be of great value, nothing we offer for sale is price-less.

So, for those of you who have asked about books that vanished when ordered, and for those of you who never gave this phenomenon a thought, we hope the above discussion has been of interest.  Some times our columns are more humorous, but we hope the always entertain and inform.  At a benefit to those of you who have slogged through to the end of this column, we thank you and offer, upon request, a discount of ten per cent on any item currently in stock, and a commitment not to charge you if you order any item previously sold.

R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

At the end of last month’s column, we promised to address the varied ways in which the word “Duke” appears in titles, authors, and subject matter in works of war, peace and politics.  This is more than homage to the illustrious John Wayne, the ultimate twentieth-century Duke, film star, and prototypical American warrior as cowboy, cop, soldier, sailor, or Marine.  One of the most interesting books on John Wayne is by Pat Stacy, who claimed a long-term relationship with this American hero in his book entitled Duke:  A Love Story (our item 42935).

In the nineteenth century, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, was known as The Iron Duke.  This was not because of his skill with ironing clothing or because of any link to the invention of the steam iron.  It is true that the Duke of Wellington was “es-steamed,” but not in a technological way.  He was a man of deeply held convictions (none of which resulted in jail time).  His will was steadfast, or to some inflexible.  He was solid, strong, firm, and dominating.  He was the representation of the British Army for half a century, from Waterloo to the era of the Crimean War.  Over time his firmness became inflexibility, his steadfastness became extreme conservatism, his strength became rigidity to a fault, and his dominance due to this battlefield and strategic prowess became domination by virtue of pride and position.  He, sadly, was a man who rose to greatness, and lived far beyond his early achievements to erode the honor, prestige, and glory won in his youth.  We have many works that address his life and works.  A classic from the era of heroic biography is Sir Arthur Bryant’s, The Great Duke (our item 4919).  In a later generation, Elizabeth Langford produced a two volume treatment that covered the flowering of the Duke of Wellington’s career and its later ebbing (our items 2927 and 7881).

Moving from a sublime figure to a person some would consider ridiculous, we come to a modern day Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke.  Clearly not a military figure, Duke is a political figure as well as a social lightning rod.  Based in the South, he has at time had regional impact and attempted to have national impact.  He transformed the rhetoric of racism from obvious race-baiting to a more nuanced form of discrimination and hate mongering.   We have many works on the Ku Klux Klan, modern Southern politics, race relations and racism, and Louisiana local politics.  One of the most interesting treatments of this individual and the political perspective he represents is Tyler Bridges’ The Rise of David Duke (our item 38754).

Perhaps more pathetic than ridiculous is a twentieth-century figure who lost a throne, and to many ultimately his reputation—the Duke of Windsor.  After his death he has emerged as a man who would today be referred to disparagingly as a WUSS, dominated by his wife.  He has also been accused of being a Nazi sympathizer and possibly a collaborator.  For his side of things, there is no better work than his autobiography, A King’s Story (our item 3252).

The term Duke has been not only the property of royalty, heroes, and charlatans, but also a sobriquet of respect given to sports figures and entertainers beyond John Wayne.  Duke Ellington was perhaps the jazziest musician to bear this nickname.  Barry Ulanov has written a thoughtful and insightful biography (our item 28252).  Sports have put up more dukes than most boxers.  Baseball has used the name repeatedly over the years, from figures like Duke Snyder to The Duke of Havana, which is also the title of the biography by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez (our item 38066).

Duke is not just a name or a nickname; it can also be a place, such as Duke University.  Elizabeth Locke has penned a remarkable work called Duke Encounters (our item 27933), which captures activities and experiences gained at this remarkable educational institution in Durham, North Carolina.

Dukes are not only subjects or parts of titles, they are also authors.  Neville Duke wrote a memorable work on aviation, the Book of Flying (our item 22124).  We are not sure how high it rose on the best seller list, but by all accounts the author rose to the occasion in his treatment of the topic.  Joseph Duke tackled a more fundamental topic, and in a way got physical, with his opus Atoms on the Move, (our items 6002 and 6003).

Royalty has a long tradition of Dukes (although we are unaware of any actual Duke of Earl).  Traditionally, Duke was a hereditary title (at least it was in England until the Parliament converted all of the members of the House of Lords into life peers).   Sometimes titles were lost in more dramatic fashion, such as during the French and Russian Revolutions.  The French Revolution was, for many nobles, a heady time, and the treatment of captured nobility was, by all accounts, “a cut above.”  However, during the Russian Revolution, many aristocrats fled into exile.  While deprived of their lands, wealth, and titles by the Bolsheviks in their homeland, many like Grand Duke Alexander tried to maintain their position in the Russian Diaspora.  His remarkable story is told in part in his Always a Grand Duke (our item 12403).

Finally, there is the usage of the work Duke as a form of respect and recognition as to proficiency, prestige, professionalism, or prominence.  Even criminals and spies have gained such recognition, as is recorded in Geoffrey Wolff’s The Duke of Deception (our item 36929).

Much like a dermatologist or an allergist, we have only scratched the surface in terms of the role of Duke in works on war, peace, and politics, or the depth and breadth of our holdings.  We again invite suggestions for topics for future columns.   While we have significant material on social diseases in the military, and works on vice cops, out of deference to the younger set that reads our columns, we have decided NOT to do a column on venereal disease and sexuality in the armed forces (but will be happy to provide a targeted listing to qualifying adults).  Given that we are based in Washington, DC, and have been buffeted by an extraordinary record breaking and snow shovel battering winter season, we are considering a future column on winter warfare, but may save that for next November or December.  If we receive a suggestion for a column that we use, the submitter will be granted a special discount on a future purchase of his or her choice.  For those of you who are used to seeing a discount offered in these columns, we toyed with the idea of suggesting a surcharge on any of the specific items highlighted, since supplies are limited, but that approach seemed counterintuitive to our prevailing business philosophy of unexcelled customer service, outstanding items for sale, and favorable pricing.  Therefore, we will continue our practice of offering a ten percent discount upon request; please use the discount code APRILDISCOUNT when you place your order via our website.   As always, we appreciate your messages, comments on the columns, want lists, and suggestions, and look forward to responding to you.

R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

No, this is not just a clever title to capture your attention, although we hope your attention is now transfixed on this column.    Have you consider just how versatile a word “Price” is individually and in phrases (or book titles)?  Assuming that you have not mused on the diverse usage of “Price,” this column will provide you with a quick start to this process.

Let’s start with John Wayne.  He was, as an actor and an American icon—priceless.  But that is beside the point and counterintuitive to the topic.  While well known for Stagecoach (1939) which made him a star, he is perhaps even more well-known for True Grit (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor).  Devotees of Wayne and/or movies will of course remember that his cat was named General Sterling Price, after the famed Texas Confederate military leader during the Civil War.  Thus we have the intersection of the word Price with an animal’s name, the American Civil War, Academy Award winning films, and one of the most famous American actors of the Twentieth Century—all without having a thing to do with our monetary system or the cost of any activity.  Clearly the word has many meanings and can be used in many contexts.  The rest of this column will discuss some of these, and very cleverly most, if not all, of the associations can be mapped to books, pamphlets, or other materials currently offered for sale by Ground Zero Books, Ltd.  Rather than keep our readers in suspense until the end of this column, we will get to the special offer right now.  Any work that is by an author who has the word “Price” in his or her name, or any title that includes the word “Price,” or any item which has a price associated with its sale is eligible for a ten per cent discount upon specific request.   Also, with each item purchased, for the month of March 2010 only, you can propose a price for any item of equal or lesser value to the one you have purchased.  We will consider your proposed price but can not guarantee to accept it.  All items sold as part of this offer are NOT covered by our standard no questions asked within seven days policy.

Getting back to price, dear database browser, you can explore our holdings by searching author or title for the word price.  Under titles,  you might find the work of Senator Albert Beveridge on The Price of Peace, which addressed the end of the First World War (item 7887).  Taylor’s classic work on appeasement, Munich:  The Price of Peace (item 475) brings us to the opening moves of the Second World War.  Moving forward in time into the Cold War period we find Friedman’s work on the Price of Peace which focused on living with the Nuclear Dilemma (35758).  There is another Cold War era The Price of Peace book (25605).  There are undoubtedly other works with “the price of peace” in their titles and more will probably be produced in the future.  Why?  Because “peace” is a sometimes rare commodity of inestimable value.  People will give a great deal to have peace.  People will also give a great deal to deal with threats to peace.

Continuing with our database mining, on the concept of paying to avoid an absence of peace, we have works like: The Price of Terror by Gerson (30843), The Price of Surrender by Walker (20088), The Price of Freedom by Golyakhovski (39540), The Price of Vigilance by Tart (42638) on surveillance programs, What Price Defense by Senator Muskie (28120), The Price of Admiralty by Keegan (21291), The Price of Victory by Thompson (33363), The Price of Liberty by Barth (25071), The Price of Honor by David Hackworth (25881 or a signed copy at 50110), one of the most heroic soldiers of the Vietnam era.  Many people will argue that everything has its price, and while there are numerous works that support this argument, others use the term “price” to accentuate what to them appears to be an intangible and intrinsic value, such as The Price of Our Heritage by Robb or The Price of the Past by Gaddy.  Price is not only a means of determining a specific value, but can also be a comparative measure.  There is a fascinating study on Jewish Women entitled A Price Below Rubies (36332).

In addition to peace, there are other values which are addressed in terms of price.  Suskind wrote about Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill and the Bush administration in The Price of Loyalty (46561).  Thompson wrote of the Price of Adventure (16710), and de Angli sought to recapture a bygone era in her work Butte at the Old Price (31995).  In addressing the place of nationalism in the fabric of her being, Bernadette Devlin, Irish Nationalist and sometime member of the British House of Commons, wrote about the status of Ulster under British rule in The Price of My Soul (16622).

Let’s move more fully into the economic realm.  Within the holdings of Ground Zero Books, Ltd., are many works on oil prices, gold, other commodity prices, monetary policy, wartime price controls, and Producer Price information for the USSR as well as for the United States.  We have works on price stability and instability.

Additionally, price is the specific cost of items.  Within our holdings we have volumes of American Book Prices Current  (such as 4497), or Broadfoot’s Civil War Books: A Priced Checklist (2088), and Seaby’s Coin and Medal Price List (9823).

Finally, let us return to where we started—no, not John Wayne—but with Price as the name of the author or another person.  We have Congressional Hearings on the Price-Anderson Act, named for Representatives Price and Anderson! (see for example 49639).  We have a beautiful special signed edition of Bright Captivity by Eugenia Price (50927).  We have a copy of Alfred Price’s Luftwaffe Handbook (32700).  We have works by Price Waterhouse (and can make a reference to John Wayne and the Academy Awards since this firm has been involved in processing the ballots by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).

Having come back to the Academy Awards, at once a priceless honor and at the same time a cause for salary increases for winner’s next projects, we recognize that price is a flexible concept in the English and we suspect other languages.  It is a verb, to price a book.  It can be a proper name/noun.  It can be an adjective or an adverb, without going into advertising language creation like “pricecilious.”  With all its versatility there is one aspect that is indisputable (we hope), which is that when a buyer and a seller agree on the value of an exchange, such as payment for a book, then THE PRICE IS RIGHT.   Thank you again for the comments, column suggestions, and other feedback.  We have already had a suggestion by one of the readers of a draft of this column that a future column should be entitled “Put up your Dukes” and cover the Duke of Marlborough to the Dukes of Hazard, Duke University to John Wayne and beyond.  Let us know what you think and perhaps you will see it in April.

R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

War is typically thought of in the sphere of deeds, glorious or inglorious, but fundamentally needs also to be viewed in terms of words, whether as a cause for conflict or bellicose posturing.  As we snuggled deeply into the Winter Quarters of February, when military action is limited by weather and wherewithal, our thoughts turn from legendary battles to the language of war.  From word of mouth, cave drawings and oral tradition to today”s easy self-publishing and the Twittering of the next Iranian revolution, it is words, along with images, that convey fact (and some fiction), reality (and propaganda), and the important along with the seeking to be important.  To the extent that the word is reduced to print, or disk, or drawing, or photo, or other copyrighted form, it may be found within the holdings of Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

I am a movie buff, and enjoyed the cinematic epic staring George C. Scott as General George Patton.  I also devoured Ladislas Farago”s biography of Patton, upon which much of the movie is based.  However, neither captures the thoughtfulness, tempo, and perspective on the practice of war, the art and the science of war, as does George Patton”s War As I Knew It.  This may seem like a generalization, but Patton was perhaps the “fightingest” General of the Nation.   In the early 1970s, when there were still double features at some movie houses, I recall a double bill of Patton and M.A.S.H.  I thought that this combination brilliantly captured the spectrum and dichotomy of war, at least in the 20th century.  Both movies were conceived from books.  Both books were based upon real people and events, although one was fictionalized and the other immortalized.  One was a fundamentally serious film, and the other, whimsical one, became a series.  The word does not have to be written to have the impact of an artillery barrage—but it helps.  There is art even, or perhaps especially, in Art-illery.

It is now appropriate to move from the words and war of the artful practitioners like Patton, to works on The Art of War.  It was Frederick the Great, in his Instructions for His Generals (1747), who opined that “The art of war is divided between force and stratagem.  What cannot be done by force, must be done by stratagem.”  Napoleon considered that “the art of war is a simple art; everything is in the performance.”  With this quotation of Bonaparte, presented in Herold”s The Mind of Napoleon (1955), we can make a comparison between Napoleon the First and Ulysses S. Grant!  Now, we confess, there are few opportunities to make such a comparison.  However, Grant is reported by T. Harry Williams as stating “The art of war is simple enough.  Find out where your enemy is.  Get at him as soon as you can.  Strike at him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” [in Williams" essay in Why the North Won the War, 1960].  There is, of course, an immense lack of uniformity in how defining “the art of war” has been approached by generals and soldiers, philosophers and technologies, and myriad others over time.  Ferdinand Foch, whose generalship may have cost more lives of his own soldiers than those of his enemies, noted in his work The Principles of War that “The art of war is the art of preserving one”s freedom of action.”  Freedom of action is NOT the same as achieving victory or otherwise achieving a performance objective!

There has been, throughout the history of war, which is to say the history of humankind from its earliest existence, a quintessential dichotomy as to whether to consider War as an art or a science or some mixture of both.  Marshal Maurice de Saxe, felt that War must be an art; in his Reveries Upon the Art of War (1757) he stated that “All science have principles and rules.  War has none.”  If Marshal Saxe is correct that science has principles and rules, then there is an argument to be made that War is a science in that there are Rules of War, Laws of War, and Principles of War.  War may be waged by unprincipled princes, kings, generals, and politicians, but no less a luminary than Karl von Clausewitz, in his classic On War (1832), wrote that “The destructions of the enemy”s military fore is the leading principle of war.”  A lesser luminary, but a leading American thinker on military topics, Henry Halleck (nicknamed Old Brains by those who practiced war more than they thought about it) recognized that the duality between art and science need not be a source of division, and wrote in his Elements of Military Art and Science (1863) that “War is not, as some seem to suppose, a mere game of chance.  Its principles constitute one of the most intricate of modern science.”

Not everyone who recognized the existence of the principles of war felt that these were instructive or valuable.  General Ulysses S. Grant, in his Memoirs (1885) stated that “If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.”  One of the greatest interpreters of Clausewitz and modern military thinking, Peter Paret, wrote in 1966 in his masterwork Innovation and Reform in Warfare that war principles were “a catalogue of commonplaces that has served for generations of soldiers as an excuse not to think things through for themselves.”  However, Winston Churchill, a soldier, war correspondent, leader of the British Admiralty, and wartime Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, wrote in The World Crisis (1931) that “The truths of war are absolute, but the principles governing their application have to be deduced on each occasion from the circumstances, which are always different; and in consequence no rules are any guide to action.”  So here we have from two noted authorities the opinion that the principles of war preclude the need for soldiers to think and make thinking in the context of specific circumstances a necessity!  Unlike questions of constitutional law, there is no Supreme Court for military thinking that can definitively rule on whether a war is an art or a science, or whether there are valid principles or not, or if there are such principles whether they help or hinder the practitioners of war.

War has, since the inception of time, or the dawn of human history at least, been a uniquely human endeavor.  Certainly in the animal kingdom there is conflict, conquest (leadership determination in packs of wolfs or prides of lions), and killing.  However, these are typically instinctual rather than goal oriented.  It is mankind and (with due deference to the Amazon community) womankind who have added to the human experience mobilization of resources and execution of campaign for purposes of expansion, religion, and other “high ideals.”  However, the science, more than the art, of war presents a potentially different future.  As Frank Barnaby has noted in The Automated Battlefield (1986), “The concept of automated warfare raises basic questions.  If warfare is becoming a battle between unmanned vehicles and robots, on the one hand, and automated missiles on the other, why not simply decide the issues by having the generals play computer games?”  That may be a topic for a future column.

This column has been informed, or perhaps more accurately inspired, by Words on War:  Military Quotations from Ancient Times to the Present compiled by Jay M. Shafritz (Prentice Hall, 1990).  This is an erudite compendium that has the capacity to dazzle as well as dismay, through the thoughts reflected in the words.  Speaking of words, we at Ground Zero Books, Ltd., appreciate all the good words we have received in response to past columns and targeted email offerings to specific clients when items in their interest areas come to hand.  As has been our practice in these columns, we seek to encourage our valued readers to actually come to the end of the column, by including a discount offer within the column (frequently in this last paragraph).  This month is no different.  We offer, upon specific request and reference to this column, a ten per cent discount on any items ordered that contain any words on war, peace, or politics.  In the interest of fairness, the opinion of our customers as to whether such words are present will be final.  After all, we would not want to fight over whether there was a word of war in play!

R. Alan Lewis
President, Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

Our resolution this year is to add on-line more than 2009 items on war, peace, and politics!  Please help us decide what to add by sharing with us your areas of greatest interest, or items that have proven so far to be the most elusive.

The New Year is a time both to reflect back and to look forward.  Let us hope that this New Year will provide opportunities for all of us to make omni-directional forward progress.  As we reviewed what we sold last year and what we added to our stock, we are reminded about the depth and diversity of the literature on war, peace, and politics and the interests and activities of many of our customers.  We hope that in 2009 we can continue to match books, pamphlets, and memorabilia to the desires of established and new customers.  As a firm now in its fourth decade of operation, we have seen the results of the technological revolution on both our stock and our business practices.  We started out as a brick and mortar and mailed catalogue business.  The advent of the Internet and the growing power of computers made assembling and mailing out paper catalogues obsolete.  With a few keystrokes we can create a targeted list of items that directly respond to both specific and general requests from clients.  This listing can be e-mailed in a matter of minutes.  We estimate that we have almost twice as many items not yet in the database as we have on-line (over 40,000).  We frequently “explore” our uncatalogued holdings looking for items of interest to specific clients.  In one recent foray for a customer interested in items produced by United States military schools and training centers before the Second World War, we identified over a hundred items (and are just now finishing putting the last batch into our database).  We also have a number of issues of military, intelligence, technology, business, and political periodicals.  We encourage our customers to ask whether we have issues not presented on our database.

We have often been asked how we chose what to add to the database, given that we have such a large uncatalogued stock.  Some many titles—so little time!  While we acquire a number of recent publications, in general we tend not to put on-line items that were published in 2000 or later.  We do make exceptions; for example, we tend to put signed items on-line even if the work was recently published.  We watch the news—when notables pass away, there is a spike in demand for signed, and some unsigned, works.  We will add items while trying not to feel ghoulish.  As we approach the tenth anniversary for the September 11, 2001 attacks, we will increase the number of items we have on terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, low-intensity conflict, special operations, counter-intelligence, and items directly related to the 9/11 events.  We will do this starting about a year from now and will use this year to preferentially assemble relevant items in a designated area of our warehouse.

As many of our customers have commented, we have perhaps the finest selection of House of Representatives and United States Senate documents on-line.  We have great depth from the 1960’s and 1970’s onward, but have some Congressional documents going back to the early 1800’s.  We have hearings, reports that go with legislation, General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office), Office of Technology Assessment, and other official publications.  We also have technical reports from major federal agencies, especially NASA, Department of Energy, and of course the Department of Defense.  We have at least 10,000 House and Senate hearings “in queue,” and several thousand agency technical and program reports awaiting data entry.  The point, of course, is that if you do not see it in our on-line holdings, that does not mean we do not have it—PLEASE ASK.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have asked us whether we had items in specific areas or fields.  We pride ourselves, as trained historians, former federal officials, and experienced book buyers as well as booksellers, on our key word descriptors.  Unlike some of the “sell it by the pound” vendors who list by ISBN number and little else, we explore each book we catalogue, carefully note condition, and generally provide six to eight descriptive keywords.  Often, the way in which our customers present their interests challenges us to go beyond our standard keywords.  We frequently add descriptors to the set we use based upon how our customers view the topic, the literature, and the current political/popular culture.  So, we invite you to challenge us to search through our stock based upon the information and perspective that you value and not just to rely upon our exceptionally detailed, effective, insightful, and perspicacious keywording alone.

As we enter the New Year, we are approaching another Presidential Inauguration—one that is without precedent and one that is steeped in precedent, tradition, pomp, and circumstance.  In honor of this quadrennial reaffirmation of the vibrancy and strength of the American Democracy, upon request we will grant a ten per cent discount on any items with a Presidential association, whether it is an inaugural item from a past ceremony, item signed by a President or First Lady, or a biography or political monograph focused on the Presidency, a particular President, or a specific Administration.

Let us end as we began, by wishing all of you a healthy, happy, and book-filled New Year!

R. Alan Lewis
Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

I do not believe that Bill Haley, or any of his Comets, ever imagine that their “Rock Around the Clock” would have become to many the song that exemplifies the beginning of Rock and Roll, or that more than half a century later an impertinent bookseller would rhyme clock with Glock to start a column on military firearms.  Well, I was looking for a high caliber image after the American Thanksgiving, and frankly was stumped trying to come up with any meaningful association for the word “Blunderbuss”!  Certainly there have been many blunders to address, but I gave the most obvious association with buss the “kiss off.”  I kept revolvering around and around, and even practiced a blank expression for a while, and tried to write in an empty chamber, until the deadline for the column had me over a barrel.  I took stock of what I had, and as stock rhymed with both clock and Glock, I ended up back here with the way to start this column.  Fortunately, I have not violated any of the bookseller’s cannons or local ordnances that I am aware of.  I would be mortar-fied if I did!

Weapons have been in the hands of man since Cain used a rock to slay Abel—but that rock roiled the folks in the Old Testament.  Technology development led to spear-ited debates, and some folks saw the arrows of their way.  During the era of King Arthur, his knights used their Lances a lot.  However they got their transportation from the corral and stables and not the Camel Lot.  After a while, generals and soldiers were told to take a powder by the Chinese and then went ballistic. They thought they would give the challenge to taking down fortifications a shot.  Sailors reacted with some sour grapeshot!

So, in the two short paragraphs above, we have gone from the Stone Age to the age of massive firepower.  We can trace this development a number of ways:  by a focus on weaponry and materials, through an examination of technology development processes, by exploring technology diffusion such as gunpowder from China reaching Western Europe (does Marco Polo come before or after Horse Polo?).  There are, of course, inventors, and also the conflicts that spurred the need for the next military advantage or which demonstrated the effectiveness of the latest military advantage.  Within the holdings of Ground Zero Books, Ltd., we have books, monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and ephemera that describe, illustrate and often illuminate these various themes and processes.  Trolling through our database listing, using keywords effectively, we are sure you will hit bull’s eyes in your searches.

We have works in many languages, principally English (American and British, with a sprinkling of Canadian, Australian, New Zealandese, and South Afrikaans), with substantial other Romance languages (French, Spanish, and Italian).  What military specialist bookseller would not have a number of works in German—and believe us, we can tell our Reich from what’s left.  We are not disoriented either, with a few works in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.  One thing about language though–weapons tend to speak for themselves and to be universally understood.  Show a picture of a sword and it does not matter what language a caption may be in—if you get the thrust of our argument.  There is an old story from the American Southwest toward the end of the Second World War.  Two groups of Indians were communicating by smoke signals from distant peaks near Alamogordo, New Mexico, when the trinity test of the first atomic bomb occurred, dwarfing the signals of the two Indian groups.  The first Indians to react, with admirable aplomb, signaled to the other group “Wish I had said that!”    The weapon, and its impact, at some levels are universal in fact and effect.

Weapons are tools, and war can be waged with or without them.  Boxers and other trained professionals have their hands deemed to be “deadly weapons,” even if they can not be put into an armory.  Weapons have always been considered an extension of the warrior’s body—hence weapons are called arms, their warehouses are called armories, groups of fighters called Arm-ies,  and there is a clear difference in one’s behavior when one is feeling amorous and when one is in an  Arms “R” Us mood.   Just so you do not think this is an aimless column, let’s discuss the supporting technology that has developed to maximize the power of weapons.  Innovation from the time of Cain did not go immediately to the next weapon.  There was a period of optimization of the rock, an early form of rock-etry.  Instead of trying to put his donkey in a leather strap (i.e., ass in a sling), Cain and others used the sling to propel the rock farther and with more force than slamming it into someone from an arm’s length away.  Centuries before Gene Kelly, sailors and soldiers were “slinging in the rain” when such behavior was deemed generally acceptable or admirable.  After the sling, the challenge became how to use larger and heavier rocks.  The person who could provide that capability would clearly be catapulted into fame.  Soon you had an entire support system to accumulate weapon grade rocks, to transport them to the battlefield, to issue them to combatants (both hand-helds and those appropriate for mechanical rock delivery systems).  Instructions were devised for the proper loading, transport, and unloading of rocks with variations for sieges and battlefield applications.  For some large boulder type rocks, where lifting would prove difficult, means of rolling were devised, bringing us and the topic of weaponry back to rocks that roll.

I just hope you appreciate the gravity of the topic of some weaponry and do not fault the limited attention given to explosives.  I trust you do not think that this column has bombed, and we hope it has not induced any projectile vomiting in our readers.  To the best of our knowledge, no rocks have been harmed in the writing of this column.  However, to avoid any risk of discomfort on any of you, our dear readers, we offer—upon request and reference to this column

R. Alan Lewis
Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

Does sitting down for a good read with a military service work on military tactics constitute manual labor?  You bet it can!  Surprising, it’s “no sweat” reaching that conclusion.  Military manual labor comes in many forms—perhaps only one of which constitutes having a hard time.

Clearly the hard time is the result of the application of the Code of Military Justice, and proceedings under the Manual for Courts-Martial that result in convictions of service members for various offenses.  Many soldiers were sentenced to serve at the prison at FortLeavenworth or other military prisons.  Manual labor was a form of redemption and rehabilitation, although it was also something that civil libertarians could get “exercised” about.

Another area of manual labor was not performed by prisoners but by pioneers, Seabees, and engineers.  They and their colleagues built the roads, and constructed camps, bases, harbors, airfields and fortifications.  The phrase “Can you dig it?” may actually have originated with General Goethals at the Panama Canal!  Military units led the exploration of our country, plowed the seas, set up coaling stations, surveyed the routes westward, and fought their way to their objectives more often than not.

“How they fought” is not only an exclamation of appreciation but also a question that was often answered in text form by military manuals—field manuals, technical manuals, training manuals, and related materials.  This is the major form in which over the centuries the lasting contributions of “manual labor” are manifest.  To know how soldiers and sailors, and later airman, were training is to understand how they fought and how they thought about warfare in their era.  Military manuals provide an often under recognized, and under valued, resource to understand the ebb and flow of battles, the intentions of commanders, and the fog of war, and to help explain outcomes.

To some extent, one can argue that military manuals reflect the society from which soldiers and sailors are drawn, and the times, which are always “a-changing.”  The Plattsburg Manual for American Citizen Soldiers is a reflection not only of the training and tactics philosophy of the American Army, but also of the expectations of our citizenry.  The training of the British Territorial forces had similarities and subtle differences.  The training of French, German, and Russian troops might have had similar content in terms of drills, marksmanship, and ceremonies but were reflections of both the national military establishments and the character of their people.

One of the wonderful aspects of military organizations is their capacity for establishing procedures, regulations, training, and specifications for just about every action an army, air force, or navy can take!  In perusing the current holdings of Ground Zero Books, Ltd., we can find examples of the range, depth, and occasionally the breadth of military manuals.  There are manuals for mail distribution and work flow analysis.  There are manuals for communications and signal security.  There are translations of enemy manuals on German and Japanese weapons from the Second World War.  There are instructions on how to lay out a soldier’s “kit” on a bunk bed for inspection.  There are manuals for aerial photography, map reading, and Ranger operations.

We have manuals for building fortifications from the age of Vauban and manuals for counterinsurgency operations from the late 20th century.  We have manuals most notable for the administrative forms they contain and some draft manuals that reflect the evolution of military thinking as technology and strategic contexts evolved.

Some manuals become contentious, such as those dealing with prisoner interrogation.  Others may appear timeless, such as drill and ceremonies.  Others are delightfully anachronistic, or of value to the growing groups of “reenactors” who recreate the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, or the French and Indian War.  Perhaps the only conflict, and one which had a devastating 50 per cent mortality rate, that is not associated with any documented manual, is the war of attrition between Abel and Cain—reportedly the earliest documented Middle East conflict.    Nevertheless, the best military manuals were often seen as the Bible for troop training in their time.

So, let us invite you to settle into a comfortable chair, or a functional desk, or a reenactor’s field work with one or more field manuals, technical manuals, or training aids, and let them take you back to their era or bring you forward to a new sense of understanding or a concept of what might be needed for the future.  In order to make this even more attractive, once again Ground Zero Books, Ltd., is pleased to grant, upon request, to those who have labored through the many references to “manual” a ten percent discount on any listed military manual in our database.  Also, for those who long, or lust, after other items in our holdings, we will offer the same discount if you state that you will pick up these other items manually—you have to “hand” it to us in terms of our flexibility!  We just hope that you will find that one or more of our items will come in handy.

R. Alan Lewis
Ground Zero Books, Ltd.

The other day we were telling the story of one sale, some years ago, of a rare (and expensive) antiquarian book that was purchased only after we had confirmed that it contained a specific page.  This page was not an illustration or a map, but a poem in Latin.   This put us in a musing frame of mind on the many meanings and significance of the word and tangible reality of a “page.”  Have you recently contemplated, as we did one evening over lightly fermented libations, how many uses in the English language we have for the word?  We decided we could riff pages on this subject, but not to worry, this column will be like most of the others—it will equal about a page of text!

As I am sure we all have internalized over the years, the word “page” in Roget’s International Thesaurus can be understood in terms of paper, book, to summon, to paginate, and as an attendant, and it is in all these forms that items in the offerings of Ground Zero Books, Ltd., can be understood and located!

Let us start with a single sheet of paper, or—dare we expand the concept—multiple sheets of paper!  I am not suggesting that we all go out and acquire a ream of standard or legal size paper, or British foolscap, or oddly dimensioned items.  We have autograph letters signed and typed letters signed that may only be a single page.  We have caricatures drawn by the famous political cartoonist who signs his work as KAL that are on single pages (or sheets) of flip chart paper.  We have printed political items, broadsides, and flyers that are on a single page.  Sometime a page can speak volumes without requiring a mass of paper.  And for the medically informed, we are not aware of any documented case where the acquisition of a package of 500 sheets of paper resulted in a case of “your reamia”!

It is an easy transition from a single page to the pages of a book.  It is a harder transition from having created the content of a page to creating the content of a book.  We would not be so bold as to suggest that folks who have writer’s block and cannot produce more than a page are have somehow gotten themselves into a bind—the situation is actually quite the opposite.  The wonderful thing about the single page or the page of a book is that is does not discriminate against its content.  It can hold a map, a drawing, a photo, a chart, a table, a figure, text, or through an existential blankness convey transition or even the termination of a section or the entire work.  The page, while to many is a form that speaks to the reader, is also able to communicate without words.  You might say that in individual or book/pamphlet form, communication is the “calling” of the page.

And of course, the act of calling or summoning is the function of the job of a page.  In this respect a page is both a person and an act.  Not quite like Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage and we are merely players,” but once again like a sheet of paper with two sides, the duality of “pageness” presents unbounded potential.  Who of a certain age and experience does not remember the opening scene of “Have Gun, Will Travel” when the character portrayed by Richard Boone is called out to receive a message by a page in the lobby of a famed San Francisco hotel?  The page was suitably anonymous, responding to the response back from Mr. Boone, who calls out “Hey Boy!” to the oriental page.  Pages can be viewed as more illustrious—such as the pages who serve the Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.  On occasion, such pages become noteworthy in and of themselves, whether because of scandal or performance or future success.  One of Georgia’s most notable local historians, Robert M. Willingham, Jr., of Washington, GA, was once a Congressional Page.  He has recently authored and published Deadly Trust:  The Mysterious Disappearance of the Nelms Sisters.  While newly issued, we are able to obtain copies ($18), and in some cases can get copies generically signed ($25) or with a personalized inscription ($30).  Please call, write, or e-mail if you are interested.  If you have a forceful enough voice, you could try paging us, but we are dubious you would be successful.  Most of Mr. Willingham’s previous works are now out of print, widely sought in the collectible marketplace, and highly prized by those privileged to own any.

As you have read from the above, there are a number of meanings and uses for the word page, and numbering is also one of them.  Pagination is one of the most arcane and complex of the publication and cataloguing functions.  Someone once suggested that there was a malevolent, evil supernatural, potentially immortal force in the universe behind the complexity—a sort of Count Pagiatula.  Do you physically count the pages when cataloguing an item, or just present the last numbered page?  How does one paginate folding charts, or maps in end pockets?  What if there are Roman numerals for the prefatory material or, as sometimes happens, for the index?  What if some of the illustrations, typically color or black and white full page plates, have no numbers?  Perversely, the last number used on a page of a book may not be something one can count on!

However, we hope that you will come or continue to count on Ground Zero Books, Ltd., to service your present and future needs for the acquisition of pages in individual or collective form.   We also continue to encourage you to ask for what we do not currently list.  We have thousands of items yet to be put into our database, some of which are actually reachable, topically separated, and readily searchable! Also, our world wide network of colleagues, like ourselves, are not listless.  We frankly relish the challenge of finding items for our customers, believe we can cut the mustard, and will work our buns offs hot-dogging it to fill a need.

In keeping with our tradition of acknowledging with gratitude those who have managed to slog through the monthly blog yet again, we are pleased to offer upon request a ten percent discount on any items from our listed stock containing a page or multiple pages.  Also, so as not to be accused of unfairly discriminating against the fibrously challenged, we will accord the same discount on items such as compact discs, long-playing records, a Marine Corps cigarette lighter, and other such non-pageous items that we have listed in our data base.  Thank you all again for the feedback, and for the suggestions regarding topics you would like discussed in future columns.