Book: Parker-America's Finest Shotgun

[Bill Murphy]

I owned, shot, and studied Parker shotguns before Peter Johnson's book ever hit the market in 1961. Many collectors and dealers were buying, selling, and studying Parker shotguns long before Johnson's book hit the market. Whatever information we were able to put together "by ourselves" was assisted by Johnson's book because we didn't work as hard at the research as Peter did. I knew Peter Johnson before he sent the book to market and found him to be an extremely curious person who knew how to ask a question about a shotgun. Garth's comment about Johnson's wardrobe would not have bothered him. He was an odd bird and he relished that reputation. As English instructors (professor, maybe) go, he was as odd as they come. He didn't own or drive a car, never married, etc. etc. However, he met and interviewed Parker people, from a distance, by mail, not in person, and came away with a bunch of information that we would not have if he had waited just a few short years to do his research. Larry Del Grego Senior and Robert Runge had much more information, but no one ever interviewed those guys for a book, then or later. That is one of the weak points in Parker research, but a few researchers or non researchers have the Runge and Del Grego tidbits in their brains and may share it some day.