I've been in touch with John privately for some time now but thought I'd get my feet wet in the forum.
I'm very pleased with the ARMA review of my new book "Dueling With the Sword and Pistol." I tried to put together a good overview of the subject, using the most detailed first-person and eyewitness accounts of duels I could find, whenever possible presented verbatim. The book starts with an introduction on the practice of dueling, then has a section on the development of sword dueling; about 30 or so accounts of sword duels; a section on the pistol and 30 or so accounts of pistol duels; a section on variations on the duel, such as horseback duels, the Mensur, the bowie knife duel, etc.; then profiles of four remarkable duelists. These include Peter Drake, who fought 8 duels with the smallsword during the War of the Spanish Succession, and Benito Mussolini, the minutes of whose saber and epee duels I have had translated from period Italian news articles. I realize that many members of this forum will be familiar with most of what has been published on dueling but I am confident I have turned up a quantity of material not available elsewhere.
There's more background on the book in this interview at the Paladin site:
http://www.paladin-press.com/authormo_1204.aspx ARMA members who wish to do so may order the book directly from me (
pkirchner_45@yahoo.com), personally autographed, for cover price ($29.95) plus $2 media mail. Checks or Paypal.
The ARMA site was a great resource for me in the course of my research, and John was gracious enough to help me with a number of technical points.
--Paul Kirchner
