New Winnipesaukee history book

[Waco1148]

As you may have noticed in local newspapers, there's a new book about the seaplane base that flourished at the Weirs in the period 1923-1953. Bob Fogg was the aviator starting in 1923, carried air mail around the lake and thousands of passengers. Title is "Bob Fogg and New Hampshire's Golden Age of Aviation," $19.95 on Amazon or at local bookstores. A piece of big lake history that few have ever heard of.

[mcdude]

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More on Robert Fogg http://www.lwhs.us/win-bobfogginterview.htm

from our friend Boardwalk Bluesboy http://weirsbeach.com/reasons-to-vis...seaplane-base/

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1p9...Frefid%3D34704

“Bob Fogg and New Hampshire’s Golden Age of Aviation” tells the story of the Granite State’s true pioneer of aviation, and includes many previously unpublished images of airplanes and aviators of the 1920s and 1930s. Bob Fogg brought aviation to Concord and the Weirs in the early ‘20s and he and his pilots introduced flying to a whole generation that grew up in that time period. For those interested in the history of the Lakes Region, it describes the seaplane base that was a prominent feature of the Weirs boardwalk from 1923 until the early 1950s, and the planes that hopped passengers from many lakeside resorts throughout New Hampshire. Classic Wacos, Travel Airs, Beech Staggerwings and Sikorsky amphibians that once plied the blue skies over Lake Winnipesaukee come to life again in the pages of this fascinating history.
About the author
Thanks to her father, Jane Rice was exposed to the antique airplane hobby from a young age. There was a grass airstrip in the back yard of her home on Parade Road in Laconia, NH, just up the hill from the Weirs, and a variety of old airplanes in the hangar over the years. Although she never learned to fly, she has always been interested in the historical side of aviation, which led her to investigate the history of the Weirs Seaplane Base, where her grandfather was in the seaplane business with Bob Fogg in the 1930s.

Jane Rice, her Father (Lyman Rice), and their dog Ripper, with a Waco biplane her dad built in the 1960's.

photo from the Moultonborough Historical Society
http://www.moultonboroughhistory.org/

[NoBozo]

I checked Barney Noble this afternoon. They are aware that it was published in September but are unable to get it. I checked Amazon the other day. The only "seller" is the publisher in NH. ($19.95 + 3.99 S&H.)

The lady at Barney Noble thinks the book is likely of local or regional interest and therefore might only be availabe "locally"....Maybe Blacks in Wolfeboro... NB

[mcdude]

It's available at the Moultonbourough Historical Society Museum Bookstore.

also available through the winni.com classifieds http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/...?do=ad&id=5383

Rice will be giving a presentation about the book at the Laconia Library on November 13.

Here's an interesting article that appeared in the Laconia Daily Sun

Written by Roger Amsden LACONIA — When Jane Rice was growing up on Parade Road in the 1960s there was a grass airport in her backyard and and a hangar with a variety of old airplanes in it that her father Lyman Rice owned.
The hangar was a gathering place for those interested in antique airplanes and from her earliest years Rice was steeped in the history of the earliest days of aviation in the Granite State and her family's link to that history.
''In the garage there was a sign "Fly at Weirs, N..H. - Enjoy Seaplane Safety'' and that piqued my curiosity.'' says Rice, whose book ''Bob Fogg and New Hampshire's Golden Age of Aviation'' was released last month.
She says that her grandfather, Thomas E.P. Rice, was a business partner with Bob Fogg, who operated the famous seaplane base at The Weirs and was a pioneer in the exciting early years of flight.
''I've always been fascinated by that history and the more I researched it, the more I saw how important Fogg was in the history of aviation in the state'' says Rice, who says her grandfather was Fogg's business partner in 1936-38 as president of Winnipesaukee Air Service.
She says her grandfather also flew planes out of the seaplane base but was more involved with the business aspects. ''He was as much of an angel investor as anything else. Bob Fogg had a lot of business partners over the years,'' she says .
Fogg brought aviation to Concord and the Weirs in the early '20s and he and his pilots introduced flying to a whole generation that grew up in that time period. The seaplane base operated at the Weirs from 1923 until 1950s and Fogg also pioneered mail delivery during summers around Lake Winnipesaukee and to its islands.
Rice considers herself extremely fortunate in being able to gain access to not only Bob Fogg's scrapbooks and log books, which were donated to Dartmouth College, but also to hundreds of photographs of the Weirs Seaplane base from Fogg's son, who lives in Florida, for her book.
''I was really lucky. Some neighbors in Meredith invited Bob Fogg, Jr. (now 87) to a wedding last summer and I got to meet him. I told him about my interest in writing a history of his father's adventures. He had three scrapbooks of photos of the seaplane base and found a fourth one when he went back to Florida,'' said Rice.
She said that writing the book took virtually all of her spare time from October through February. ''I had become so immersed in it that it didn't take long to put it down on paper. Thank God for the Internet. Whenever I had to research something it was right there. I was so lucky how things just kept falling into my lap. I just sat here in Moultonborough and things kept happening. I was so glad to be be able to write the book while these people like Bob Fogg, Jr. and my uncle Tom Rice (a former Laconia legislator, now 89) were still alive.''
Rice, a 1974 graduate of Laconia High School who went to college at Nasson College in Springvale, Maine, where she majored in English and History, has worked at the Moultonborough public library for 29 years and has always been an avid reader.
''She was a bookworm from the word go,'' says her mother, Mary, who accompanies her daughter to many of the public events where Jane talks about the book and entertains her audiences with a slide show featuring photos of Fogg and the many airplanes he flew, ranging from a pusher type Curtis MF "Seagull" to Classic Wacos, Travel Airs, Beech Staggerwings and Sikorsky amphibians.
She says that the book has been well received in the historic aviation community and was invited to Moosehead Lake in Maine for an international seaplane fly-in the weekend after Labor Day to sell copies of her book.
And Rice says she's learning something about the book publishing business. ''I thought that the hard work was writing the book. Now I'm finding that you have to market it as well, and that can be harder than writing a book. But I'm going to keep busy at it. I don't want to leave a thousand books in my garage when I die,'' she says.
Rice will be giving a presentation about the book at the Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society next to Funspot on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 7 p,m. and at the Laconia Library on November 13.

[Waco1148]

The book is available through Amazon, and is shipped by the distributor in Enfield, NH. Don't know why it's posted at B&N and yet not available. It's available at Black's and Country Bookseller in Wolfeboro, also Bayswater in Center Harbor and Innisfree in Meredith, plus Annie's in Laconia, and the Old Country Store in Moultonborough-if sold out they will order it for you. Author works at the Moultonborough Public Library and can get you a copy there. Or ask your local library to buy a copy-all libraries around the lake should have it!

[carguy]

The photos in the book are underexposed and and printed on a poor quality of paper. If the publisher had used a higher quality glossy paper the results would have been better (at a higher price to the consumer). I am sorry that I purchased my copy from amazon.com.

Carguy

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

[Waco1148]

I'm sorry that you were disappointed in the book, although you are the first that I have heard that from.

As far as the quality of the images, most are copied from 80-year-old small black and white snapshots, so there is a limit to the print quality that can be achieved. I think I was lucky to find as much as I did to help to preserve this aspect of Winnipesaukee and aviation history. I would love to have put out a glossy coffee-table book with full page images, but I'm just a local author with a story to tell, not National Geographic. To produce a book of that type would have been cost prohibitive, and I'm sure more people will enjoy learning about this story for $19.95 than would pay coffee-table book prices.

I looked back to my contact with the publisher, and the book is printed on 60 lb. house white paper, which is typical for the publishing industry. It is bright white and opaque enough for the pictures not to show through from the opposite side of the page. For comparison, typical copy paper is 20 lbs. Hope this clarifies carguy's issues with the book for any other potential readers. I'd be glad to hear what any other readers or purchasers of the book have to say, positive or negative.

The Author

[NoBozo]

Originally Posted by Waco1148

I'm sorry that you were disappointed in the book, although you are the first that I have heard that from.

As far as the quality of the images, most are copied from 80-year-old small black and white snapshots, so there is a limit to the print quality that can be achieved. I think I was lucky to find as much as I did to help to preserve this aspect of Winnipesaukee and aviation history. I would love to have put out a glossy coffee-table book with full page images, but I'm just a local author with a story to tell, not National Geographic. To produce a book of that type would have been cost prohibitive, and I'm sure more people will enjoy learning about this story for $19.95 than would pay coffee-table book prices.

I looked back to my contact with the publisher, and the book is printed on 60 lb. house white paper, which is typical for the publishing industry. It is bright white and opaque enough for the pictures not to show through from the opposite side of the page. For comparison, typical copy paper is 20 lbs. Hope this clarifies carguy's issues with the book for any other potential readers. I'd be glad to hear what any other readers or purchasers of the book have to say, positive or negative.

The Author

I found the book in the bookstore in Wolfeboro last week. Just finished.. and found it quite interesting. I'm particularly interested in aviation history..and anything else Old... with an engine in it.

I particularly found the Sikorsky S-38 amphibian of interest as I believe I have seen one in an aviation museum in Canada back in the late eighties. This particular plane had a Palm Tree emblazoned on the nose and had been used as a commuter somewhere in the tropics. The museum would allow visitors to board the plane and be seated while listening to a short audio describing a typical "island" flight back in the day. NB

[NoBozo]

Here is a video of the last "flying" S-38B....Albeit a Replica. Picture Bob Fogg's S-38B at the Weirs... including.. the boats. NB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ERfeD-jCM

EDIT: Turn up the sound.