Parker by Peter Johnson

[Bill Murphy]

Yes, Jim, that is the way I remember it, but was afraid to spread my praise for my friend, Peter, that far without reviewing the articles. Mr. Johnson and I did not discuss "the book" that much when we would meet. I was not much of a Parker researcher in those pre-PGCA days. Mostly we would discuss guns we would see at shows. I did not own many Parkers in those days and finding more Parkers was more important to me than the history of the company. Mr. Johnson seemed similarly inclined. He was eager to learn more about the guns, having little experience with them beyond doing research for the book. I wish I had persuaded him to do what I was doing, shooting and hunting with Parkers on a weekly, sometimes daily basis.

[MarketHunter]

Bruce,

There is some interesting information in that box of papers actually, I know because I've seen photocopies of it. Some letters between Charles Parker and Johnson come to mind specifically. To say it's a bunch of scribbled notes is kinda stupid knowing that sort of thing is in there to be looked over. There's also letters from former employees and letters from family members of dead employees too. Maybe we're talking about a different batch of papers here, but I know what I saw copies of and read had come from Johnson at least. Maybe that's not what your "friend" bought after Johnson died, I just know what I saw several years ago.


Destry

[Bruce Day]

Feel free to call Charlie Herzog and discuss the matter.

[MarketHunter]

[Edited (see below)...]

I like Charlie, he's a fine fella.

[Edited...]

Destry

[B. Dudley]

I am sure this thread was started speaking about the P. Johnson book entitled "Parker: America's Finiest Shotgun".

I have a copy of that book. Picked it up pretty cheap on Ebay. It is a good read, and has very good information. One thing that I found is that being it was writen so long ago that there is some informaiton that is not 100% accurate. One that really caught my attention was that it says that only 2 invincibles were produced, and we know now that the figure is 3.
And I think that the production figures by Grade may be off in spots, but Johnson states that fact clearly.