OGHAP: The Procurement of Volume 4

Work continues on my first book, a study of Orcadians who served as Gordon Highlanders during the First World War. One source I've been eager to consult is of The Life of a Regiment Volume IV: The Gordon Highlanders in the First World War 1914-1919 by Cyril Falls, the official account of the regiment's service in the First World War. The curator of the Gordon Highlanders Museum informed me that the volume was not only poorly written ("... to the point where I frequently want to hurl my copy out of the nearest window in frustration!"); but it only went through one printing in 1958, making it extremely rare. I resigned myself to the prospect of waiting for a loaner copy to be dispatched to me across the Atlantic.

The thing is, an edition was listed on Amazon for $17.60 (plus shipping). So, I decided to give it a shot - worst case scenario, I was out $20. My friends at UPS delivered a parcel on Thursday afternoon, and I eagerly tore into the packaging, and...

Holy smokes, holy smokes, holy smokes, seriously!?

Apparently, the University of Michigan Library has a program (by way of HP Bookprep) whereby they reprint rare books in their collection. One such book? The Life of a Regiment Volume IV: The Gordon Highlanders in the First World War 1914-1919 by Cyril Falls. The front cover could do with some serious adjustments, and the printing itself (which apparently took place in December - seriously, December, what timing!) reproduces various artifacts from the library book (for example, stamps indicating that it was due on January 2nd 1997 February 5th 1998), but I received an otherwise pristine reprint of a book that's been out of print since my parents were children... That I need to consult in order to write my own book... For $17.60 plus shipping. Between that and my copy of The Gordon Highlanders: A Concise History by Trevor Royle, which I received as a gift from the Museum to help me with my research, I'm now well resourced to put the Orcadian Gordons' exploits into the wider context of the regiment's service in the Great War.

Holy smokes, holy smokes, holy smokes, seriously!?

So, there's also the little matter of copyrights. According to both British and American copyright laws, the work should be protected from copyright infringement for seventy years after the death of the author. I'm not sure when Cyril Falls died, but given that the book was published in 1958, there is no possible way that the book isn't still protected by copyright in both countries. Even if Cyril Falls died immediately after the book's publication, it would still be protected by copyright until at least 2028. Of course, that's not for me to worry about... But it's certainly interesting, don't you think?

And so, work continues.