Very early MC literature!

[pem]

Seeing how most of the threads have ground to a halt I thought I'd run by a couple of
questions to our fellow members. At one time I had over a hundred motorcyle books that took me a long time to collect as I am very cheap, er frugal, and did not pay a lot of money for them. Well, most of them. I had all the childrens series books such as Motorcycle Chums and Tom Slade and Bert Wilson, etc. I had a few technical books that were very early for both American and British makes. Plus an odd assortement of coffee table books and such. Plus racing books(Steven Wright)and Japanese classics like Honda's "Race for Leadership". I ended up selling most of my collections a few years ago and of course now I wish I had some of my books back. Anyway, I always wondered what was the earliest work of fiction related to motorcycling? My guess is the 1906 "The Motor Boys" by Clarence Young. In his preface he ends it with his name and a date. January 9, 1906. Which if I am correct means he had to have written the book in 1905. That's pretty early! This was his first book in the series and has a surprising amount of the story dealing with motorcycles. It appears the story takes place in the east and most likely he used Indian motorcycles in his story although he never comes out and says so. The boys had twin cylinder bikes so we can rule out Harley. In this book Mr. Young descibes, among other things, how the boys received their bikes, uncrated them at the railroad platform and went to the drugstore to get some gasolene. He also described in detail how races were run and the tactics used and how they operated the bikes.

Is this the earliest work of fiction related to motorcycles? I just don't know.

Dick Werner

p.s. I just found another copy of "The Motor Boys" on the internet for $6.84 including shipping. Honest. It was in real good shape and had all the pages.

[Chris Haynes]

I had never bothered looking at The Motor Boys as the cover always shows boys in a car.

[pem]

Hi Chris, I know what you mean as I did the same thing until one day I read through part
of the book and found out half if not more was about motorcycles. They really describe what a race was like in 1905 and even mention the use of flags which is different from what is used now. I think you would get a kick out of it.

Dick

[c.o.]

Dick, I see that there was a whole series of "Motor Boys" books. It looks as though they must have been plentiful as there are quite a few for sale on e-bay. Thanks for bringing the book up! I'll have to get a copy.

[Chris Haynes]

While I was laid up in bed I picked a Motorcycle Chums book and started reading it. WOW! talk about a hard read. The style and flow of writing then was much different then than today. It took me several chapters to get used to it. Formal language such as " I say Chums, Shall we go for a ride". It was a fun story about one of the Chums whose motorcycle ran away with him and the kill switch wouldn't work and he left his friends in the dust. I guess the author never thought about puting his hand over the air intake and choking it to death, but that would have ruined the story.
I have a lot of the old kids motorcycle books. Motorcycle Chums, The Motorcycle Chums, Bert Wilson and his twin cylinder racer. Tom Swift and his motorcycle, Boy Scouts on motorcycles, Tom Slade, motorcycle dispatch rider. There were a lot of kids MC books done in the pre teens and teens of the 20th century.

[Rub]

I have collected all types of M/C books for a long time including kids books and am proud to say that every book and magazine I have collected I have read before they go on the shelf.
Kids in the old days had to be much more educated and in a broader sense than today. All the old timers who say they only have an 8th grade education should be glad to know they have a better education than modern high school graduates!
Robbie

[Chris Haynes]

"Rivals Of The Trail" is actually a bicycle book, if memory serves.

[Rub]

"Rivals of the Trail" is motorcycle related both in illustration and content.
Robbie

[vride5]

if i remember right Rivals of the Trail, was written in 96 , there was no motorcycles to write about, when they reprinted it about 10 years later they put a motorcycle on the cover to sell books, it is about bicycles as Chris said.

[pem]

"Rivals of the Trail" is motorcycle related both in illustration and content.
Robbie

I have to agree with Robbie. If I remember correctly it was an early teens version.

I went to a huge used book store in the late 80's/early 90's and found at least a dozen motorcycle related childrens series novels and paid next to nothing for them. You could go to antique malls too and actually find old motorcycle related stuff such as photos, brochures, etc. at a reasonable price. I found an OEM Excelsior parts book that covered the early teens just sitting on the shelf one time. I think those days are long gone. Unfortunetly. Although I was in northern Nebraska 5 years ago and found the neatest movie theater giveaway. When you bought a ticket back in the day they gave you a fan to keep yourself cool as the theaters were not air-conditioned. This one had a picture of a motorcycle cop with his motorcycle giving a ticket to a beatiful girl in a car with the caption "Surely not that fast".

Dick