Most readers probably know how much I love books and that I have amassed a formidable library of rare books relating to nuclear weapons. There are some holes in the collection, though and Frank Shelton’s privately printed memoir, Reflections of a Nuclear Weaponeer, is one of them.
A copy of Reflections of a Nuclear Weaponeer is available for sale on Amazon.
At $1,745, this one is way out of my league — once every couple of years I might spend a few hundred dollars on something especially hard to find, but that’s it. If you can shell out the dough, though, you’ll probably never see another hard copy for sale.
(I sent Shelton a note once asking whether he might have a copies for sale. He answered with a rude reply about all the people who keep bothering trying to buy a copy of his book. I now have an electronic scan somewhere.)
Anyway, if you buy this copy, just invite me over to play with it one day.
anon | June 22, 2011
Gatsby had a really Great library.
spigwin | June 22, 2011
What’s his problem? Why write a book if you don’t want people to read it.
Alex W. | June 22, 2011
Harvard has a copy in their stacks, which I spent some time looking at awhile back.
It’s a very odd book — maybe 3/4ths somewhat well-worn history, and the other 1/4th being unique, individualized narrative about weapons testing, if I recall. In that sense, it somewhat reminds me of _Nuclear Express_, which has a very similar feel to it in terms of style: not quite straight autobiography, not quite straight history, somewhat choppy on the editing.
Carey Sublette | June 22, 2011
Most of the text that is not Shelton’s actual recollections or direct commentary is lifted verbatim from government reports.
nukeman | June 22, 2011
I have a signed copy of both of his books at home and if you’re ever this way, I’ll be glad to let you look at this and much more in my extensive collection of nuclear related material.
Carey Sublette | June 22, 2011
I have original copies of Chuck Hansen’s “U.S. Nuclear Weapons”, Winterberg’s “The Physical Principles of Thermonuclear Explosive Devices”, and the above mentioned Shelton book. All of these have been offered in recent years for over $1000 on-line.
Of these three, I have been considering selling my copy of Winterberg since I also have a scan – and the physical copy adds little or nothing (books with glossy photographs are different).
Chris Griffith | June 22, 2011
We should start a collection to pool our funds and buy it as a sharable version…
John Schilling | June 22, 2011
A Wonkish library would be a wondrous thing indeed, though the argument over where it would be sited might be interesting.
More generally, what public or quasi-public libraries are there with good collections in this field?
krepon | June 22, 2011
I have had difficulty giving books away to university libraries. And donating heavy boxes of books to NGOs and libraries abroad is prohibitively expensive.
Carey Sublette | June 23, 2011
A Wonkish library would be a wondrous thing indeed, though the argument over where it would be sited might be interesting.
I’ll bet my collection is as good as any outside of a government institution.
Jeffrey | June 23, 2011
I bet that it is, with the qualification that I may have a better selection of China items.
Walt Slocombe | June 22, 2011
Sounds like a lot of self-published books! Available at a reasonable price, and very informative, is Admiral Jerry Miller’s, “Stockpile:the story behind 10,000 strategic nuclear weapons.”
Daniel Pinkston | June 22, 2011
Are you sure it’s not “new Taiwan dollars?”
nukeman | June 23, 2011
I’ve read Nuclear FEQ and its an amazing piece of work. It’s ashame that there’s not more interest in the accurate scientific aspects of proliferation. I would bet that I probably have one of the largest collections of scientific and technical information around. My collection of Iran material is extremely extensive and goes back many years.
George William Herbert | June 25, 2011
If one were seeking a library location, MIIS / CNS might work, if only someone we knew had an in there to coordinate it….
Of course, I’m only thinking of that because it’s a pleasant and practical drive distance from home, but it actually makes some sense.
Dan A | June 27, 2011
Uhh, can the guys bragging about their huge collections of ridiculously rare/expensive books do something useful and get them scanned and uploaded to the internet so we can all read them? Just a thought.
Jeffrey | June 27, 2011
That is an enormous investment of time and money, as well as a copyright infringement lawsuit waiting to happen.
Don’t think we aren’t emailing each other, though.
What we really need is a physical library that can make materials available. The National Security Archive is great, but this is something else — a complete collection of hard to find resources for the dedicated arms control wonk.