The Checkered Flag, 1961, Peter Helck, Very Good First Edition Folio

Helck, Peter.  New York, NY.  Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961.

English, First Edition, Very Good, Hardcover, Folio, 10 ¼” x 13 ¼", 178 pp.

Gray woven cloth over boards in publisher’s dust jacket with full color pictorial wrap, stamped silver gilt and black image to front, stamped black titling to spine, black and brown text to dust jacket cover, white and brown text to spine of jacket, black text and black-and-white photograph of Peter Helck to back of jacket, black and brown text to flaps. Mild age toning to edges and pages, very minor edgewear, otherwise tightly bound, clean throughout, and excellent. Protected in a Fair dust jacket. Chipping to top and bottom edges of dust jacket, several tears to top and bottom edges, edge wear, mild shelf wear, otherwise good. 178 pp. Replete with black-and-white images of sketches and paintings throughout. Full-color image of The Duelists, Jenatzy (Mercedes) and Lancia (Fiat), Vanderbilt Cup Race, Long Island, 1906 at frontis. Includes dedication to Al Poole, Acknowledgements, Introduction, and Appendices. From the dust jacket: “For the first time this book presents an authentic history of Road Racing in America from the very first race in 1895 through 1916 when the last of the old Vanderbilt and International Grand Prize races were run. Never before have these latter two classics been fully covered in one volume.” Told in four parts, excerpted from table of contents, “Part I. From Open Road to Closed Circuit,” “Part II. Road Racing Comes to America,” “Part III. Mr. Vanderbilt’s Silver Cup, 1904-1916,” and “Part IV. The Last of the Classics.” Helck wrote and illustrated the book which took two decades to create; it was a true passion project for the automotive historian.