Scouts in Bondage

Geoffrey Prout. SCOUTS IN BONDAGE. A Story of Boy Scouts in Strange Adventure.
Aldine Publishing Co. Goodship House, [London]. [No date / 1930.]

Current Selling Prices
$60-$300 /£45-£200

JUVENILE FICTION / BIZARRE BOOKS
Wandering through a local seaside down this Easter afternoon I spotted this excellent book in the window of a second hand bookshop. Knowing the uncanny canniness of the owner I was slightly worried about buying the book but a £20 note was exchanged. The internet reveals no copy at less than £100, several copies around £200 and no copies in dust jacket. Result! Time for punching the air etc., Whether the book ever sells for significant sums is another matter. The book has no real use except to display in shop windows and face out on a shelf for a good, but brief laugh - and therefore in these glum times it may not necessarily translate into further folding money.

It is probably the ultimate 'bizarre' book title. There are two books about strange or inappropriately titled called 'Scouts in Bondage' and the book is featured on the cover of Russell Ash and Brian Lake's magisterial 'Bizarre Books.' Geoffrey Prout was also author of 'Trawler Boy Dick', also worthy of a chuckle. I am indebted to blogster Mister Roy ('...raised by wolves on waste ground in Portslade') for a summary of the plot.

A professor (who 'wore an old quilted black-satin dinner-jacket and a skullcap with a tassel on it'...) engages the Scouts to help dig up remains of a ruined chapel, seeking blocks of masonry with inscriptions. Assembled together these reveal the location of a secret treasure, actually a document which restores the rightful owners to the local mansion. Along the way, various lower-class 'wasters', 'hooligans' and even 'hobble-di-hoys' attempt to thwart them. Punches are thrown, rivers forged, cars crashed, tables full of pies demolished - and all is well in the end. It is an enchanting period piece. The text is punctuated with cries of 'Crumbs!', 'By Jingo!', Right-o!' and 'Well, I'm blest!' Prout was a Scoutmaster apparently and his enthusiasm for the movement shines through every page - it is in effect an advertisement for Scouting.

Scouts in Bondage is in the section of 'Bizarre Books called 'They Didn't Really Mean it' - other titles include 'Girls of the Pansy Patrol' (1931) 'Shag the Caribou' (1949) 'Explorations at Sodom' (1928) 'Handbook for the Limbless' (1922, foreword by John Galsworthy) 'Erections on Allotments' (no date) 'Penetrating Wagner's Ring' 'Enid Blyton's Gay Story Book' (1946) and 'Men who have Risen: A Book for Boys (1859).

OUTLOOK. Quite good, the taste for whimsy and bizarrery is probably growing in a post Python world, with the occasional wag willing to put money on the table for the stuff. There is probably a ceiling on values but the amount of bizarre, silly and zany titles is almost limitless. I heard sometime ago of someone selling a largish collection of these titles for a significant but not life-changing sum... Meanwhile on Amazon there is a jacketless copy in 'standard used condition' (whatever that is) at $265 ('LOW ITEM PRICE'.) The joke of the title is lost on Amazon's recommendation robot who suggests some DVDS -'... Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in Kidnapped Gagged Women or Beautiful Women Bound and Gagged!

John Blaine. Danger Below, 1968.

John Blaine. DANGER BELOW. Grosset & Dunlap, NY 1968.

Current Selling Prices
$450-$600 /£220-£300

U.S. JUVENILE ADVENTURE SERIES
A much wanted book, one of a handful of true Grosset firsts (normally a reprint house.) Like many rarities it is the last of a series (began in 1947) and it is that odd thing - an illustrated hardback that came out sans jacket. A book that looks like nothing, in fact a book that looks like trash, but in nice condition can be cashed in for a $500 note. Of the content the Wikiman explains:

'The stories focused on teenaged Rick Brant and his ex-Marine pal, Scotty. They live on Spindrift Island off the coast of New Jersey, where Rick's father, Hartson Brant, heads a group of scientists working in the field of electronics, later expanding to a wider range of scientific endeavors. In this way, Rick and Scotty are able to be involved in various adventures in the US and abroad, solving many baffling mysteries. Series second-banana regulars include a resourceful youth from India named Chadha; Steve Ames, agent of a government spy group called JANIG; Rick's pert younger sister Barbara; and proto-girlfriend Janice Miller.

The publishers were averse to any suggestion of the supernatural in the series. An ambiguous coda to "The Blue Ghost Mystery" was dropped, and an entire book ("The Magic Talisman") was rejected due to its inclusion of ESP elements. This lost tale was eventually published in an independent edition in 1990.'

VALUE? Most copies that show up seem to be unpleasant ex library copies with pockets , stamps, labels and perforations, a clean civilian copy can cost as much as $600. Signed copies are not unknown, usually signed Hal Goodwin. John Blaine was a pseudonym for Peter J. Harkins and Harold L. Goodwin. Goodwin wrote the last 21 of the series of 24. Harkins appears to have been the Syd Barrett of the operation.

As always it is often possible to pick up copies more reasonably at Ebay - the trouble with citing Ebay prices (apart from the fact that copies are sometimes in poorish condition and badly described) is that you take yourself out of the equation in the result. Once you actually bid, especially on a decent copy, there can be quite a difference in price. The price before was low because you weren't there! With keen bidders prices can exceed the ABE/ Alibris/Biblio price-- sometimes by a country mile.

The book mentioned above 'The Magic Talisman' appeared as a limited edition of 500 copies and seems to sell for $1200 +. It was published by Manuscript in Mountain Home, Tennessee, after Goodwin's death. Again no jacket and again Ebay might yield up a cheaper copy. [ W/Q *** ]

Incredible trivia - everything you need is at Spindrift Island including where and how to find the books. The cool young Indian guy Chadha should have his name pronounced Chowder like the soup corn chowder and in Hindi his name looks like this:-