Reply To: Book about P-A’s with good coverage of historical data?

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Hi Mika,

I have the following three Pierce-Arrow books:

The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car by Bernard Weiss (life time PAS member and Editor-Publisher for the PAS for almost 50 years). This book is available online in the PAS company store.

Pierce-Arrow by Marc Ralston (President of the PAS from 1986 to 1988).

Pierce-Arrow ‘First among America’s finest’ by Maurice D. Hendry.

These books are all very informative, although any single one of them may not be as comprehensive as the one you describe for the Cord L-29. I believe that the last two are out of print, but you may be able to find them used (which is what I did).

Also a word of warning: watch out for what is in the general literature. Wikipedia quotes the book Cars: Early and Vintage 1886 – 1930 by G. N. Georgano as saying that Herbert M. Dawley (who came up with the fender-mounted headlights) designed almost every Pierce-Arrow from 1912 until 1938 when in fact Dawley left Pierce-Arrow in 1917. Mistakes like this one then propagate themselves (e.g., see past RM Auction Catalogs). RM also stated in a past catalog that that highest annual production for Pierce-Arrow occurred in the 1930s (I believe 1932) when in fact it was in 1929. Who knows where RM got this production information.

Joe