Wilkins' headgear book

[George Stimson]

I just got a copy of Gary Wilkins' The Collector's Guide To Cloth Third Reich Military Headgear and I'd have to say that it is a very impressive and informative volume. But I would also have to say that I feel it has some major omissions, particularly since those omissions happen to be of some of the Wehrmacht headgear that I'm most interested in -- KM "Donald Duck" caps and the field gray visor caps which were worn by KM land units.
Does anybody know why these caps were excluded from this otherwise superb book?
And does anybody know of a good reference source on these types of KM headgear?
Thanks!

George

[Ralph Heinz]

Gary Wilkins

You might try contacting Gary Wilkins himself (send me a private email and I'll send you his email address) and see if he plans this for his next volume which I know he at least has planned. Perhaps he'll include the KM caps.

[Michel]

Hi George,

Wait the next Gordon's book.

Regards

Michel

[Michel]

Marine Artillerie Officer Cap

[Gary Wilkins]

Headgear Book - Missing Cap Types

Hello

After reading your message I decided that your questions are very reasonable and probably wondered at by others as well. In fact, Gordon Williamson asked me some time ago essentially the same question regarding the lack of coverage of the Schlöffelmütze (Donald Duck cap). Your curiousity certainly deserves a response from me, so I will try to answer. Hope everyone will forgive the length of this post!

When I originally submitted my book proposal to Schiffer, my intent was a brief description of cap construction materials, with some insight into the history of the craft and the industry that grew out of it, then a detailed list of makers and accompanying histories for every one of those on which I could dig up verifiable information for, from at least two separate sources (including authentic product examples). I estimated about 220 pages. My editor at Schiffer traveled up form Pennsylvania to discuss the project with me; he liked it, and the contract was signed. Schiffer then advertised the book in a catalog, and at an estimated price based off the projection of 220 pages. Once heavily into the project, I realized that if I intended to cover construction at all, I really could not avoid presenting each service and each cap model, together with some comparisons with modified contemporary pieces, etc., since my goal was to write a book of practical use for every collector. But this, together with the fact that I found there were more makers than I had ever really suspected, meant that the number of pages had suddenly jumped by nearly 100%, and this meant I had to secure permission from my publisher for such a radical change – and the delay in preparation that it would entail. Fortunately, Schiffer agreed, since my editor felt the finished product would be worth the investment. As it turned out, there was in fact, a lot of confusion among book distributors who had already commenced placing orders based on the original, smaller book description and price that had already been put out). The large jump in page number and photography requirements were already forcing Schiffer into a significant increase over the original retail price. I realized that I would have to sacrifice something, and leave those items for another day, else the price might exceed anyone’s interest in the book. So, I made several difficult decisions. The first was not to go into camouflage headgear at all, or captured materials. In addition, since I had no available photographs of either coastal Arty visors or any Donald Duck caps (I don’t collect these, personally, and knew of no one at the time who had examples in their collections) - and given the fact that the coastal Arty visors at least, are relatively rare in any case, I opted for these as the two other things I could sacrifice – much to some folks’ disappointment. As it was, I myself had to spend the month after the book’s release surfing around to every internet site around the planet that sells the book, asking them to correct the number of pages in their book descriptions to 416, since Schiffer had never sent out any update notice.

I have recently been discussing options with my editor on how to address the missing items – whether to include that material in a second edition (if there is one) together with info on new makers, and some info on makers covered in the first edition that arrived too late for that manuscript (e.g. some fantastic new stuff on Robert Lubstein); A better idea in my opinion, is a supplement (less expensive, much thinner, but same size format), with the missing - as well as the new - info.
My editor and several collectors have already asked if I will do a companion volume on non-military headgear, but I do not know how much interest there would be in such a volume and it would involve a massive amount of work (the first book took every minute of my free time for nearly three years), and I have not made any decision yet.

At any rate, thanks for your comments on the book, and for asking questions on the missing items – which I hope I have answered to everyone's satisfaction who also may have wondered.
You may be interested to know, that a copy of the very same book you own (but with a personal dedication), is in Berlin... the only real return on a project like this is the satisfaction gained from learning that you have achieved your purpose and people do find the book a very useful tool in their collecting pursuits - and the satisfaction of receiving a request for a signed copy (along with a return gift of some new info) from the grandson of the greatest cap maker of all time...

Gary Wilkins

[Perry Floyd]

I want to thank you Gary for coming here and replying to the questions and I would also like to welcome you to the forum. Visors are not a strong area for me and would welcome your participation.

[Gary Wilkins]

Welcome - Wilkins' Headgear book

Hi Perry,

Thanks, my first time being in a forum per se, though I've been a member of the Militaria Collector's Network for a couple of years. I steered in here after hearing about it from several members - Bill Diena, Mike Heuer and Ralph Heinz, who had found other ways to contact me, originally.

Don't have a lot of time free to monitor the forum, but will check in from time to time; on the other hand, you can email me anytime.

Thanks again for the welcome, Perry!

By the way, my original message was a response to George, sorry - forgot to put in your name, George.

Gary Wilkins

p.s. - I found it humorous that "Mark Schroeder" started a thread titled "Book list project" in this Headgear forum, asking for a list of headgear references and presenting what he had so far; it was amusing, since he overlooked my book even though the thread right below his new one read: "wilkins' headgear book"... guess he was simply not curious!

[George Stimson]

Gary,

Thanks very much for your detailed response. (I have been on the road for several weeks and have just now seen it!)
Best regards,

George