Arch Whitehouse redux

[buzz1941]

As a lad, Arch Whitehouse certainly fired my interest in Great War aviation. Now that I'm older and duller, I understand that his works contained some fact errors and unpopular opinions.

But the books were highly readable.

I just wonder why they haven't been reprinted. Who holds the rights? The Whitehouse heirs, if any? The publishers? The books aren't old enough to be in public domain.

[Barrett]

Presumably Whitehouse' heirs & assigns would hold the rights, but IIRC normal copyright is 28 years. Far as I know, AW's "histories" predate that by quite a bit, unless there was a renewal.

Frankly, from an historical perspective, there's no reason to reprint any of his books. Marketing factors may indicate otherwise, as per "Canvas Falcons."

It always possible that a reprint might interest young readers in WWI aviation. But then I always found his books dull compared to some other writers.

[leo]

Why interest them in a load of crap when there are so many authoratative and factual and readable works available?

[Taz]

Arch was not exactly a wellspring of useful information. But I read a lot of his stuff when I was younger. Would not think there would be much of a market for reprints, but then you never can tell. The next Blue Max successor could see a resurgence in interest and not all, or even a small portion, of the interest will be well informed.

Taz

Just think, with all the "expert" info on the internet, anyone could write a new WWI book.

[buzz1941]

What about Whitehouse's fiction? There are his later novels, as well as the stories he hacked out for pulp mags. It might be fun to collect those older stories together, if they could be found ... any suggestions or recommendations?

[Barrett]

Were I cynical, I might be tempted to note the difficulty in separating AW's history from his fiction!

Right on Barrett. I have several old mags with his stories.....were they fact or...?