From a homesick GI in the South Pacific. It was discovered in Nash’s things after he died. It was a photocopy of microfilm V-Mail, the type sent by servicemen during World War II:

Lt. Col. R.W. Cole Jr.
8th Cav APO 201 c/oPM
San Francisco
September 4, 1944

My dear Mr. Buckingham:

This being September, although here in the Admiralty Group one would never suspect such to be the case, my thoughts have been turning more and more towards home and the gunning days. My home is in Little Compton, a small fishing-farming community on the eastern shore of the Sakonnet River. In such a location along the Rhode Island coast, the black ducks are in evidence the season round and the thought of throwing my decoys on home waters once more makes the months overseas even longer. I know you have shot over the same country of salt marshes and pot holes, of sand dunes and rocky spits over which the long files of coot pass at dawn and dusk, so I feel your understanding far better than most. To those of us who love the out-of-doors, homecoming means infinitely more than for those luckless individuals whose lives are not in tune with the whisper of wings at sundown.

Have you ever thought of how your books have brought pleasure to us out here? I made a short cruise on a combat mission with the Navy and during lulls in the bombardment and the continuous state of “precautionary general quarters”, I found time to read “The Shootinest Gent’man” for the fourth time. Even the thrill of being at sea on grim and important business was forgotten. This time, I believe I enjoyed “Play House”- “no more Eddinses fo’ the wars!”- even more than usual, as it struck a sympathetic note. Thank you for speeding the hours.

The Cavalry Division will be hard at it again in the near future and when you read of its exploits, think of it in a more personal sense than might otherwise be the case as I, in my capacity of Executive Officer of one of its fine old regiments, am a very small cog in its wheel.
Sincerely,
R.W. Cole Jr.

Thanks to all of you who have responded to this thread. I'm here in the midst of late summer, having just discovered that one of my Gordons, Cedar, most likely has cancer, and remembering past hunts with her, and planning to beat this disease and to start the season in Minnesota as we have for so many years. Your recollections and descriptions have made me more optimistic. I hope the months to come are memorably good for all of us.

What’s not to like about Lynn Bogue Hunt’s art?

I have that book too Ted and have photographed some of those pages with Hunt’s art.





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I've got an old copy also. It is falling apart but still a great read

Deans’s pictures of inscriptions in the books “from Bill Tapply’s collection of his dad’s things,” made me think of the book my dad gave me. I haven’t read it in years, but now as fall approaches ... again—damn it... maybe it’s time.

On the subject of duck hunting, here's another recent acquisition with more artwork from LBH. The photograph is the author with a big swan.

Ted, can you see what gun he’s holding. That’s a very distinctive forend... maybe Ithaca? Maybe Elsie?

Van Campen Heilner bought a .410 IJ Skeeter from A&F and it is recorded on the same page with my .410 Skeeter 2-barrel set.



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Dean - I don't think its an Elsie but I admit that I am not good at identifying guns from photos. Here are some others which may show it clearer. In at least one you can see a vent rib? It's a big gun, perhaps 10 ga? I've scanned through the book and see no mention of guns, gauges or loads. This book was published in 1939 nd he referred to several years of "research" leading up to his writing of it.

I believe it’s a graded single-trigger Ithaca though I’m not good at identifying Ithaca’s grades.




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That is my guess too, but I am not an expert on Ithaca's either.