King: I'm in agreement with Dave, Dean & Todd. One thing that Peter Johnson had that the others that came later did not was access to many of the original Parker employees, He was able from them to obtain first hand knowledge of the production of Old Reliable. As was pointed out, "there has to be a first effort" and that was Peter Johnson. BTW he signed my copy.

Best Regards, George

I have known Peter Johnson for going on fifty years now. In the early days, I would talk to him on a monthly basis at local gun shows. I was a Parker student before he published his book. Our knowledge of Parkers "Before Johnson" was obtained from old time collectors and dealers who were more than willing to share information they obtained by buying, selling, and shooting the guns that they had owned since they could buy them new at local gun stores. Johnson added to this information by writing of the history of the company and its founders, information the old timers could not provide us with. There is a wealth of information in the Johnson book that new Parker students need for a basis of knowledge. The book is cheap, real cheap, and may be the book you should devour first. When we first saw the book, we knew that Peter Johnson was not going to be the "know all, teach all" about the guns themselves and collecting them, but his perseverence in studying everything but the collecting was invaluable to us as collectors and students. If it weren't for Peter Johnson, all we would know about is the guns. How boring would that be?

Thanks Bill, you do a great honor to Peter Johnson by your statement.

i thought the peter johnson book was very good....it was my first parker book at 13.00 cost and finally i scraped up enough and got the big set of books the parker story.... charlie

I accept with thanks everything here about Johnson's role in reporting Parker history. Stephen Hodges, however, was looking for opinions on buying the BEST Parker book. There's no dishonour or disrespect in saying that Johnson's isn't in the running. I was disappointed in its depth, structure and writing. Affection and gratitude has its place but no one is served by anything less than impartiality and honesty in answering questions.

Come on, King, I ranked the Johnson book dead last. Where is that "dead horse" icon? We gave the poster the information he asked for and for another ten bucks, he can have a Johnson book.

Guys, thanks for all your input. I need to get busy buying books!!!

I agree with that statement King, but in view of the fact that this thread had morphed (as most threads are wont to do) into other facets of 'Parker books' and what is regarded by most as a complete 'Parker library' I will repeat that no Parker collector's library would be complete without Peter Johnson's contribution.

Best, Dean

In his later years, Peter Johnson was failing and a couple good friends and PGCA members aided him. After he passed away, one of them bought the manuscript and research collection and it is out here now for safeguarding. Here is his remaining Colt 1911, also out here.

I'll never be able to afford to collect every grade, style, or variation of the Parker Gun, but we can all afford a complete collection of the books.