I purchased “Colt: An American Legend” out of an interest I developed in the history of Harley Davidson and Smith & Wesson; a number of great American corporate institutions have followed a wandering path. Business entities are bought, sold and merged to extract profit and to raise capital. Product lines are sometimes force fit, dropped or recreated to facilitate streamlined marketing plans. Occasionally, and for the good of the enthusiast, a product is stronger than the plunder, and it survives the folks who seem bent on its destruction. Who knows, maybe Colt will eventually return to being civilian market friendly again, and enjoy the turn around success of some of these other companies. In the mean time, books like “Colt: An American Legend” serve to document the history of the gun, the company and its heritage for all of us who did not have a chance to experience much of this company’s history first hand.
By the pound alone, this book is a great value; 406 pages in a hard covered 8.5″x11″ format, 300 excellent color photographs, and 150 black and white photos of guns, assembly drawings and historical portraits. The paper quality is good, not gloss, but heavy stock and the images are bright – the book weighs 4 1/4 lbs. The color photos were shot for this book, so there is a uniformity of appearance rather than the cobbled look of books pasted together from a selection of stock photos. This printing is being sold at less than half the price of the original $65 release.
The Colt timeline followed by the book is 1836 to present, 1986, the book’s copyright date. It is an authorized history of Colt firearms, written by Robert Lawrence Wilson, so while the work may put a somewhat positive spin on Sam Colt and the company, it was also completed with cooperation and with access to historical Colt records. Just the opening description of Sam Colt, his childhood, early employment and his approach to developing his dream helped me to get a better understanding of the company. I was left with the sense Sam Colt was like a good number of gifted entrepreneurs of his day, able to put a concept next to money, draw on qualified resources and do whatever was necessary to assure success. Then, as is the case today, there were lots of good people, with lots of good ideas, that never move beyond doodles on a pad of paper, someone that could kick off a company that endured over 160 years is phenomenal.
The books addresses Colt models from the original wooden prototype he carved at sea, the Paterson Colts and ring lever rifles, and Dragoons and pocket revolvers. There was a good deal of information on the open top versus Single Action Army types, as well as the 46,000 breech loading conversions that were accomplished. The Single Action Army section introduced a history of famous owners in context to geography and lots of examples of factory “fancy work” and limited edition models. I learned a good deal about Colt’s double action products; I really was unaware of the 1877 Lightning Model origins, and I didn’t realize the Browning design auto began in 1897. Beyond this there are muskets and Gatling guns, double barrel hammer type shotguns, Derringers, lever action and pump action rifles. If there is a short fall, it is in the coverage of any modern firearms. The AR15 and M16 are covered historically, but rather briefly, 1911 type gun coverage was virtually non-existent, however, and there was a very large dedication to collectors editions of revolvers. It’s as though the company wanted to position itself as a collectors product, and to disassociate itself from modern guns for combat or self defense. Still, this is a terrific book and an excellent value, a book I’m glad I added to my firearms library.
Thanks
Joe
| Book Info & Summary: | |||
 Retail Price: |
$29 | Author: |
R.L. Wilson |
| Publisher: |
Artabras | Publish Date: |
June 1992 |
| Format: |
Hardcover 409pp | Available: |
Barnes & Noble |
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