Found at a library book sale – “The Great Racing Cars and Drivers”

Photography by author.

As I’ve said in the past, sometimes good car stuff turns up where you least expect it to be. My latest fun find was at my local library’s book sale. I know: big surprise to find a book at a library. Well it is when it’s a car book! Not to mention a vintage racing book!

Here’s the book cover.

The Rebecca M. Arthurs Memorial Library annual book sale offered many titles of greatly varying subject matter, but normally race cars isn’t one of them. The sale is usually dominated by fiction paperbacks with the good books – at least what I like – off in the periphery. And at first glance, it looked to be much the same this year. But a little digging in the outer reaches netted this book, The Great Racing Cars and Drivers by Charles Fox.

Scenes from the 1914 French Grand Prix.

Published in 1972, this hardcover coffee-table sized tome was hidden away in a generic section for oversized books. My daughter found the section and my son found the book while I was pretty much standing right next to them—so much for my detective skills this evening.

Here’s the 1925 Indy 500.

This book is loaded with remarkable photographs. In fact, there are 240 fantastic photos distributed over 247 pages and 112 of them are in color. It begins with 1914 French Grand Prix and covers racers and cars up to about 1971. Here are the chapter titles to give you some insight. Boillot’s Folly; 100 MPH at Indy; The Bentley Legend; Nuvolari vs. the Third Reich; The Coming of the Roadster; The Grandmasters; Recollections of Ferrari; The Funny-Car Revolution; The Days of Jimmy Clark; What Price Le Mans?; McLaren Unlimited and The Superstars.

Yes, that does appear to be a tire coming toward the camera.

I just got the book, so I haven’t gotten too far into reading it yet, but I plan to sooner rather than later. Inside the cover, it says $17.95—in 1972 money. According to the CPI calculator, that’s equal to $102.74 today. My local library said 75 cents for this copy a few hours ago.

A young Jackie Stewart.

The next time you’re driving through your town or any other and you see a sign for a library book sale, stop by and check it out. You may be surprised to find some great car books. The proceeds go toward keeping the library open, so it’s a win-win if you buy anything. We left with three heavy boxes full of books and a few other items, some of which you may see in a future blog.

Graham Hill in the Lotus 49B.

See original article at" https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/07/22/found-at-a-library-book-sale-the-great-racing-cars-and-drivers/