Topic: The books that have never been written yet - and should be!

[Carnut]

I'm working on a similar project since I was young:

But surely you still are?!!

[Bill Murray]

This is a little bit off of strictly automobiles, but I have in my library several books by the German author Werner Oswald.  Histories of German cars pre and post war, Mercedes cars and trucks, BMW etc.  All well done and well researched.

He passed away some years ago and I recall on other forums some discussions that indicated he had intended to do histories of German trucks, pre and post war but the books were never finished.  Some of the German members of those forums indicated they were trying to track down his archives/collection to see if the books could be done by someone else.  I never saw an answer.

Perhaps some of our German members here may wish to check to see if those files were ever recovered and if they are available to legitimate researchers.

On that same note, Bart Vanderveen. who wrote many books on military and civilian vehicles for Olyslager in Holland and Warne Publishing in the UK also had several titles in the pipeline when he passed away.  His wife sold/donated his entire collection to a Dutch WWII museum and the owner of that museum apparently refused to let anyone access the collection.  Later, that museum was sold to someone else and I lost track of it.

I knew Bart fairly well and swapped materiels with him for years for his books and also visited him several times in the UK and later Holland.  I can attest that his collection was incredible and his books only captured parts of his collection.  Again, maybe some of our Dutch members can try to pick up that thread again and see if they can find the collection.

Just some thoughts.

Bill

[Paul Jaray]

I'm working on a similar project since I was young:

But surely you still are?!!

Well, much younger...
(BTW who cares, I'll have my last birthday tomorrow...I'm one of the few who can say that my birthday party will be the end of the world!)

[Iluvatar]

Frankly speaking, is not the contents that worry me: with the support of Internet and enough people and time, I can suppose that a sufficient level can  be reached.
The real problem is the cost and the potential market of such a huge collection of books. How many people will buy a 1,000 USD car encyclopaedia?
And who will be ready today to invest 100,000 USD to publish it?

I totally agree with this... in my opinion this is not a project that can become a book (or a collection of books) just because if you print the book, when you have it finished there will be a lot of new info to be added... so it's a neverending book... so it's not a book...
I think that the only solution to the problem is to create something on the web. I'm trying to create a database of italian coachbuilders, unluckly it grows really slowly as I have not enough time, but a database of "all the cars" can be the final solution...
Autopuzzles is a good source for infos, and maybe the first step could be a review of all the cars of AP (from the Solved Puzzles) which are a lot but without an order...
Last but not least there can be problems of classification...

[Carnut]

I'm working on a similar project since I was young:

But surely you still are?!!

Well, much younger...
(BTW who cares, I'll have my last birthday tomorrow...I'm one of the few who can say that my birthday party will be the end of the world!)

You could always nip down to the French Pyrenees and hop on that alien spacecraft that's going to evactuate certain chosen individuals; I'm sure you would qualify with your vast automotive knowledge, which might be useful on another planet!
At least that way you could celebrate another birthday next year..

[DeAutogids]

This is a little bit off of strictly automobiles, but I have in my library several books by the German author Werner Oswald.  Histories of German cars pre and post war, Mercedes cars and trucks, BMW etc.  All well done and well researched.

He passed away some years ago and I recall on other forums some discussions that indicated he had intended to do histories of German trucks, pre and post war but the books were never finished.  Some of the German members of those forums indicated they were trying to track down his archives/collection to see if the books could be done by someone else.  I never saw an answer.

Perhaps some of our German members here may wish to check to see if those files were ever recovered and if they are available to legitimate researchers.

On that same note, Bart Vanderveen. who wrote many books on military and civilian vehicles for Olyslager in Holland and Warne Publishing in the UK also had several titles in the pipeline when he passed away.  His wife sold/donated his entire collection to a Dutch WWII museum and the owner of that museum apparently refused to let anyone access the collection.  Later, that museum was sold to someone else and I lost track of it.

I knew Bart fairly well and swapped materiels with him for years for his books and also visited him several times in the UK and later Holland.  I can attest that his collection was incredible and his books only captured parts of his collection.  Again, maybe some of our Dutch members can try to pick up that thread again and see if they can find the collection.

Just some thoughts.

Bill

I believe the CONAM can help you with that.

[als15]

I'd like to come back to the idea of a "Concept-car directory" book.
I worked on a preliminary list of all the concept-cars presented by all the (major) brands at all the (major) motor-shows in the last decade, 2000-2009.
The list includes almost 1000 cars!
I did a quick search, so I think I can still remove some technological demonstrator (without styling contents), some preview-car, some not-so-interesting show-car (just with different paint&trim), but I think I can only reduce by 10-20% the total figure.

Now, the questions are: would it be an interesting book (also considering that it would be only the first of a little series, coming back with one per decade to the 50s or 40s)?

And, after almost all of you have repied that yes, it's interesting, is it interesting also considering that it will be very very expensive?

I think that one page per model is the minimum to provide an overview of its "concept". Below you find an example of how it could look like.

I'm also considering to have it with a very luxury binding, to make it a sort of limited edition collector item. Is it, in your opinion, a good idea?

Many thanks for your friendly feedbacks.

[Otto Puzzell]

My interest is much higher for older concepts. So, I might be a customer at a later date. 

[Paul Jaray]

I'd love to have a collection of books like that.
Like Otto, I'll be far more interested in older ones than in modern but as usual If there will be a serie I'll have to have them all.
You said very very expensive...are there some (highly approximative of course) figures already? If I have to buy 7\9 books I'd like to know where I'm heading...

[als15]

In books (like many other artifacts) the cost (and therefore the price) is higly influenced by volumes.
This influence grows exponentially when the volumes are very low (which is normal for a niche product).
Provided that, I know how much would it cost to do "The" book.
What I don't know is if I've to split this investment on 100, 1000 or 10000 copies...
Let's say that if they were 10000, it would have a reasonable 50 Euros cover price (remember: 2 volumes, 8-900 pages minimum). But I can't ever imagine to sell so many books...
So, to be realistic, I'd focus on a small production. Hard to say at this stage a correct figure (please, dont blame me if the project goes ahead and it changes) but the target could be 150 Euros.

Provided that, I think that having a very luxury binding (hard-cover, perhaps with a nice material for the outside layer and not just paper, slipcase and eventually some other gadget I'm working on) for even something more can be better than a very basic-looking book.

[Carnut]

I'd love to have some comprehensive concept car books, but am only really interested in 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s.
I don't mind paying a bit for a good book, but €150 is getting top-side for me..

I'm really not bothered about luxury leather bindings etc - it's the content that matters and is what lets most books down!
Not yours, though, I'm sure Alessandro.

[Iluvatar]

I think this is not a good idea... although it would be a great book... cause talking about modern concepts you can find a lot of informations and pictures on the web, more then you can find in the book, and to buy a book at that price to find something you can find quite easily with a computer it's fool...
It's just my opinion... 

[als15]

Italian Coachbuilders Encyclopaedia... the project is (slowly) going ahead.
Here you find a draft of letter "A".
I hope to add even some more brands, but it already provides an impression of how the book could look like. So, any of your comment is really welcome to make corrections and improvements on the overall design and structure of the book.
Sorry, Italian version only, so far, but the book will have also an English edition.

[Paul Jaray]

I    can't    wait   .

[Quiller]

I    can't    wait   .

Seconded!

[jotage21]

too!

[cmetisse]

Same for me !

One subject is constantly overlooked : pre-war cars, veterans, etc... In fact, books dealing only with cars made from Cugnot to 1939 are very rare and quite old.

I suppose it is difficult to make saleable a big book (in english) about Leon Laisne, Walter or Duryea, but I was wondering if autopuzzlers with a lot of knowledge and archives from this era would agree to create some kind of big encyclopaedia ?
A sort of Georgano/Beaulieu in a few volumes, and much more detailed stuff on whatever we have. Of course there are countless brands for which nobody has a clue, not even a single picture, but I suppose something more detailed on prewar brands in general would have sense. I suspect some of us have an impressive knowledge on some of these...
It would need probably as much as five or ten volumes, but I'd love to buy and read a full collection like this...

For me, the idea is to forget the big names, and concentrate on small and obscures companies. If you want to read about prewar Cadillac, Renault or Fiat, there's already countless articles and books !
There's so many great innovators the time has forget...

[Paul Jaray]

The book is here and it's nothing short of awesome!

[Arunas]

The book is here and it's nothing short of awesome!

Nice!

It is only in Italian?

[Paul Jaray]

Nope:
http://www.ilcammello.it/Libri/EOIC/eoic_e.html

[Carnut]

It's an absolute must-have for all AutoPuzzlers!

[franck.kegelart]

I totally support the ideas of Alessandro about a book on all the 2000-2009 concepts ( please alessandro, no more than 150 € ! ) and the one of CMetisse : a book about prewar cars made by small and obscure coachbuilders ) but please, don't start from Cugnot ! He is certainly a pioneer but what he made was a locomobile, not a "real" car... I think the real automobile's father was in fact Amédée Bollée Père, with the "Obéissante" from 1873.

[franck.kegelart]

Jotage 21, what about this book about brazilian specialist cars ?

Alessandro, you said the next titles in Aesthetica series will concern Lombardi and Coriasco but I've read on another forum you prepare one about Motto... Which one will be the next ?

The idea of a database covering special-bodied cars from 1945 to 1985 is fantastic too... Hope this project will be realized !

[franck.kegelart]

A book about the forgotten creations of major coachbuilders would be great too.

I would be very interested about the international activities of brands such Renault, Fiat, AMC and more... Yann Le Lay worked some years ago on a book about Renault in the world but it is shelved for the moment, due to Yann's editor disastrous policy...

A book about GM international operations is now available ; I bought it, and it's fantastic !

[Allemano]

It's an absolute must-have for all AutoPuzzlers!

I second that!
What an immense heap of work it must have been, but what a result!
Thanks for the translation, too!