THE STORY OF A STANLEY STEAMER

The author of the exuberant and entertaining John Geff's Mill (1948) describes his induction into the hobby of old cars and his completely new life when he acquired a Stanley Steamer, (getting the boiler first). The joy of automotive archaeology, the delights of tinkering, the hopes and fears during the restoration to working order, the new acquaintances and knowledge the car, and its problems, brought him, the delirium of driving behind steam on the open road -- and the bizarre and benign lunacy the Stanley Steamer brought into the family's life -- all make wonderful reading for the mechanically minded as well as the devotee of obsolete cars. There is much about the car's history, the eccentric identical twins -- F. E. and F. O. Stanley -- their methods of working, their ideas and application, and the decline of their invention -- and more than enough about this auto of yesterday -- canned explosion or Vesuvius or dream buggy, as you will. Those who remember Farewell, My Lovely, the memorial to the Model T Ford, will prove an easy pushover for this. Lots of fun in this mechanical love story.