Travels for Daggers by Eiler R. Cook

Description

Authored by the retired Foreign Service Officer and longtime Knife World Staff Correspondent, this handsome leather bound, limited edition book provides a collectors-eye view of the world of knives. Featuring more than 500 knives and other edged weapons, its much more than a retrospective of collecting adventures – its an indispensable guide to the knives of the world. Foreword by C. Houston Price.

BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Knife World Staff

If you’ve been a KNIFE WORLD reader for any length of time, the name Eiler Robert Cook should mean something to you. Mr. Cook penned his first article for these pages twenty years ago this month [October 1984], and his periodic contributions on knives of the world have made him one of our most popular Staff Correspondents ever since.

Mr. Cook’s interest in knives first appeared in boyhood, and this fascination grew as a young Marine serving his country during WWII. After the War, Cook began a career as a diplomatic courier with the U.S. Foreign Service that would eventually take him to seemingly all corners of the globe. This, to him, was a dream come true, for everywhere he went provided not only new cultural experiences, but more opportunities to add antique edged weapons to his growing collection!

Travels for Daggers is at once a retrospective of Mr. Cook’s collecting experiences, a celebration of the many varied pieces he’s acquired over the years, and an excellent source of information on the immense variety of knives to be found on this planet we call home. The book consists of fourteen chapters that neatly divide the text into such subjects as the knives of the world’s various regions, military knives, and the reproduction edged weaponry that Mr. Cook imported for many years. Interlaced with the blades throughout the book, the reader will find the story of a man whose life experiences could quite obviously fill several books without once losing the reader’s interest. Those who think of knife books in terms of dry historical studies and simple price listings will find Mr. Cook’s contribution to the knife literature a most refreshing and enjoyable one.

Produced only in a collector’s edition of 700 copies, Travels for Daggers is a well done book offered at a very affordable price. Whether you’re attracted to the world of knives so often overlooked in this country, or you simply enjoy an fascinating story well told, Travels for Daggers is a book that will definitely bring many hours of reading pleasure.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Reproduction Edged Weaponry
Chapter 2: The Beginnings
Chapter 3: The Early Paris Years
Chapter 4: Diplomatic Courier Travels in Postwar Europe
Chapter 5: The Middle East and Africa
Chapter 6: The Iberian Peninsula
Chapter 7: Scandinavia Ahoy! Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Denmark, and Norway
Chapter 8: India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Ceylon / Sri Lanka
Chapter 9: Southeast Asia and Indonesia Area
Chapter 10: China, Formosa, and Japan
Chapter 11: The Philippines
Chapter 12: South America and Central America
Chapter 13: The Military Connection
Chapter 14: The American Scene
Bibliography
Worldwide Museums with Edged Weaponry Collections
Index

ISBN 0-9721854-3-7