America's Cup Bibliography: Questions and Answers



Some Questions Answered about the Bibliography (FAQ)

Questions: (click or scroll down to read answers)

Are you selling these books?

Where can I read these books?

What’s included in this list?

Does this list include everything ever published on the subject?

What’s the difference between “Privately Printed” and “Self-Published”?

How much is my book worth/What does a particular book cost?

There is book missing from your list. Do you want the information?

There is an error in your list. How can I report it to you?

Answers:

Are you selling these books?

No.  This is just a list documenting known books about the America’s Cup.  Nothing is for sale here.

Where can I read these books?

The books are available in various public and private libraries.  No single library holds all of these titles.

What’s included in this list?

Included are:
Books and other published or publicly performed works about the America’s Cup;
special editions of periodicals;
extended chapters or entries in longer volumes;
official yacht club documents or correspondence printed and distributed to competitors or the public;
some academic work published in book form;
some scientific papers;
some dissertations and research theses.

Not included are:
DVD’s, videotapes, and other audio-visual material;
press kits;
simple printed materials, generally considered ephemeral; 
individual magazine or newspaper articles;
regular editions of periodicals, including magazines, even if the issue was designated “The America’s Cup Issue”;
archival materials and unpublished personal papers or correspondence held at research institutions;
detailed, but unpublished, records of private organizations;
acts of government and regulation, as in bills, laws, commemorations, venue-related contractual agreements, and technical documents such as environmental and engineering studies.

Does this list include everything ever published on the subject?

No, but we are working on it.

What’s the difference between “Privately Printed” and “Self-Published”?

Where possible, the distinction is that titles listed as Privately Printed works were not offered for sale to the public.  Self-published works typically were publicly available in some manner.  Information on some works in these categories is not always certain.  In some cases where a self-publishing service was used, we have included that name when available.  For more details on the conventions used to organize the entries, see Editorial Practices.

How much is my book worth/What does a particular book cost?

Most of the trade edition books published after 1945 are not hard to find, and are not particularly expensive.  Aside from recently published works, probably 90% could be found in a used book store for under $10, even under $5, and nearly all of the titles should be under $20 with patience.

Most of the online used book marketplaces, however, are poor guides to market value.  Cheap and plentiful titles are sometimes inexplicably listed online with asking prices of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The few books of the post-war era that legitimately have market values above $50 or $100 usually were originally sold for over $100 dollars at retail.

For pre-war books, particularly those produced in small numbers, there will be fewer bargains under $20, but they do occur.  However, be careful of another hazard of shopping online: there are businesses that take free digitally-scanned files of older books and use them to create newly printed hard copies, selling the new books to the public at various prices.  While there might be value in obtaining a hard copy, sometimes the sales listings for these books mislead as to the true nature of the product, and obscure the fact that the book can be found elsewhere, in electronic form, for free.

There is book missing from your list.  Do you want the information?

Absolutely.   If you can, do the following:

1) Please double-check that the book isn’t listed.  Try searching on more than one applicable term to be sure.  In some cases, the order of multiple authors may vary, for example, or the name of the publisher may change in different countries.

2) For us to include the book, we’d like at a minimum to know: the Author(s), Title and subtitle, Publisher name, City of publication, and Year of Publication.

Even better would be a photo or scan of the title page and copyright page.  If you are really feeling ambitious, please add a photo of the cover and maybe even the table of contents, too.

If the contents or relevance of the book are not obvious, a one-sentence summary could be helpful, but we do not have provisions to publish a full book review, so it is not necessary to send anything elaborate.

There is an error in your list.  How can I report it to you?

Please email us with corrections, suggested edits, or other questions at: 

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