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States "Thirteenth Edition -- 1969" of a book originally published 1960. Very good golden hardcover illustrated primarily with B&W photos. Signed both "Berthe Herter" and "George Leonard Herter" (names only) in blue ink in their two distinctive hands to front pastedown. Signed copies are scarce. "Before there was an Internet or a Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop or Gander Mountain, there was Herter's -- the first outdoors gear juggernaut," wrote Doug Smith in the Feb. 7, 2015, Minnesota Star Tribune. Herter's mail-order catalogs included lengthy descriptions, instructions and often audacious claims, though the products were of high quality. Reclusive entrepreneur George Herter launched his mail-order operations in Waseca, Minn. in 1937 out of his father's dry goods shop. "Though he died more than 20 years ago, he remains an enigma -- and one of the most interesting characters in Minnesota history," Smith reports. "It's easy to dismiss him as a crackpot and goofball, but the reality is he was a genius," Doug Lodermeier, 60, a Minnesota waterfowl historian and collector, told Smith. Herter labeled most of his products "world famous" and claimed many were endorsed by the North Star Guides Association -- which existed nowhere outside his fertile imagination. Herter reportedly wrote all the copy in his catalogs, instruction manuals and pamphlets and also was a prolific author. "Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices" opens with a passage which the New York Times (dubbing Herter, with characteristic urban superciliousness, an "All-American crank (and) ornery survivalist") once said "remains unmatched in American literature." Herter advises: "I will start with meats, fish, eggs, soups and sauces, sandwiches, vegetables, the art of French frying, desserts, how to dress game, how to properly sharpen a knife, how to make wines and beer, how to make French soap and also what to do in case of hydrogen or cobalt bomb attack, keeping as much in alphabetical order as possible." Of "The Authentic Martini Drink," Herter here reveals "The Martini drink is strictly German and was invented by J.P. Schwarzendorf, a German music composer born in 1741. . . . Here is the correct and original recipe. It is far superior to the slop called and served as martinis in American bars and homes today." To two ounces of original European Genievre -- "not imported into North America" -- add one ounce of dry white wine "and one-sixteenth level teaspoon of ground cinnamon. . . . You will note that there is no vermouth, or olives in the genuine martini. Vermouth is nothing but a cheap spice flavored white wine and was originally made in order to get rid of wine too poor to sell on its own. . . ," while American so-called martinis are suitable only for alcoholics looking for a "strong jolt." Herter also asserts no one can make decent bread or pastry with the "all-purpose flour" made from "soft wheat" -- which American producers conspire to pawn off on American housewives so they will come to depend on ready-made baked goods, leaving them too much leisure time, which leads to divorce. Unfortunately, after decades of success, Herter's overexpansion into retail stores at a time when oil prices were skyrocketing, combined with the unconstitutional Gun Control Act of 1968 (which banned the sale of firearms through the mail), and further federal bans on importation of the feathers of some species of birds used in Herter's trout flies, led to the firm's bankruptcy in 1981. Virtually anything sold by Herter's is now collectible, Smith reports. In the end, a Sports Afield writer may have summed him up best, calling George Herter "a dazzling mixture of bamboozle and brains, snake oil and savvy." 384 pp. including index, now reduced from $140.
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