Hey all, What Maserati books do you cherish? My faves are the older Bora & Merak title by Jan Norbye, and one can't go without Marc's 'Maserati, the Citroen Years' for the era that most holds my interest.. Viale Ciro Menotti are an indispensible part too.. I was hooked in my teens by the 'Great Marques' series - Alfa, Lambo, Bugatti, but oddly enough they didn't publish a title for Maserati... Cheers, - Art
I was just thinking we needed a thread about this! For years nothing new was ever published to the point where some of the older Maseratisti, particularly in the US were not at all ready to consider fresh primary research as possible. One said oh I bought your book but it is in my garage, I haven't read it. .....?! First one was Maserati road cars by Richard Crump and Rob Box, I was a teenage kid when my parents offered me that. Then Norbye Bora, Merak, then those booklets with many article reprints etc, then in the 1990's I decided to push Ferrari aside and focus on The Trident, that felt soooo right and good Far too many books on the former, many of them a waste of trees as someone rightly said, whereas there are too few books on Maserati though that has changed in the last decade thanks to Walter, Willem Oesthoek, Michel Bollee and recently Jean Francois Blachette. Will post pics of collection later.
Many books and authors that were already mentioned but also: Illustrated Maserati Buyer’s Guide by Crump and Box Maserati by Jürgen Lewandowski Maserati Retrospektive by Wolfgang Hörner Maserati nel Terzo Millennio by Golinelli Maserati Heritage by Sparrow and Ayre De Tomaso by Wyss (with a Maserati chapter) Racing Maseratis by Reggiani
Ecco my humble stash, far from complete but proud of it, nothing makes me happier than adding to it! There are so few books on the Trident, it is wrong but also what makes the quest so rewarding. Thankfully it is changing for the better. Adolfo Orsi junior wrote a great article about Maser books twenty years ago and that really inspired me to develop a collection. Will post the article in the next few days. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
You are so right about the number of titles available compared to many other brands... but I think the quality of Maserati books is high. Here's a shot of my Maserati "collection".. it's remarkably small for how satisfying it all is.. and most of my Viale Ciro Menottis are elsewhere.. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I did a quick and somewhat superficial count of books I have with some of them the same books in different languages but, probably not counting language duplicates, I have over 120 different Maserati books, in hardback and paperback. I began my collection more than 40 years ago after I bought my first Maserati beginning with the standards back then as have been listed in the previous messages to this subject. After I started, I couldn't stop so I have picked up everything that I can find that deals directly with Maserati rather than books that mention Maserati either in passing or just superficially.
Under construction. Still looking for Walters “Maserati 3500 GT Spyder Vignale”. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I have most of the books that everyone else seems to have, the one that seems to be missing from everyone’s collection and it’s actually probably the best one in understanding Maserati “The Company” not the cars is Ermanno Cozza’s book https://www.amazon.com/Books-Ermanno-Cozza/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AErmanno+Cozza
My first one was Pritchard's in 1976, my aunt had a bookshop and she managed to order me a copy. I mostly had to use a dictionary to understand it, as we only just started having English at school. A year later, I received the Box/Crump book, no problem in understanding, as it is basically a photo boo). I once met Rob de la Rove Box at a fair in Switzerland, he sold car photographs at a small stand. He gave me many photos for free, when he realised whata young Maserati enthousiast I was spending all my pocket money on pics of them, he was a very kind guy. My third book was "Il Tridente, terza edizione." From then on, I stopped counting, but I think I have them all, also the first edition of Il Tridente, the "Vittorie" 1957, plus nearly all Viale Menottis and the German Maserati clubs magazine and the official Maserati magazine, also called Tridente. The only one I'm missing is the "Car for the Connaisseur" by Schwartz from 1976. Not that I would need it, of course ;-)
You can probably fill a lot of gaps in your library with a successful bid on this collection from Road&Track journalist John Lamm's estate... https://bringatrailer.com/listing/john-lamm-library/ ..of the 643 books, I counted 9 titles dedicated to Maserati.. which isn't a fair assessment because that number isn't counting any books mentioning Maserati in competition, design, personalities, etc.. Cheers, - Art
Let me add an enjoyable recent acquisition I didn't notice above: An autographed hardcover of Maserati 5000 GT: A Significant Automobile by Maurice Khawam Image Unavailable, Please Login
Do books like Modena Racing Memories or the French language Lucky Casner Camoradi book count as Maserati books I have alot of Maserati racing books. I will get more when Walter or Marc write more
They do, very much so...and thank you Graham Gauld, Scottish, is a very special interesting person to listen to, he lives in Provence, was a friend of Jim Clark. Michel Bollee has done tremendous work on Maserati and Le Mans, such his Lucky Casner and Tipo 151 books, some with USA based Willem Oesthoek who has done some great Maser books on his own.
I had my Italian language copy signed by him during a meeting at the factory, a very nice monent. I read it in a few days, what a life, what dedication, what memory! No other manufacturer ever had an Ermanno Cozza.
The problem with the early books that featured Maserati is, that they are more or less outdated. In the 1970/80s not much was known about the company from Modena. German Jürgen Lewandowski made his book many moons ago and told -roughly- the general history of Maserati. But he did not go into detail as knowledge was very poor at that time. First who lighted the torch was Joel Finn who made a great book about all Maserati postwar Sports Racing cars and one about the Birdcage. Next were Richard Crump and Rob de la Rive Box. Their 2 books hooked me a lot when I jumped on the Maserati-"train"... Now -beside the 5 books that I wrote- I have 47 books that featured "solo" Maserati and numerous books in which the Trident cars are a very important part.
I was able to build a decent library of primarily Italian car books through Motorbooks International. Each year they would set up tents during the AACA Fall Hershey event with pallets of books they were selling at steeply discounted prices. If you bought a lot you could negotiate even better prices. At those prices you purchase books you never considered buying otherwise. the biggest issue was things weren’t organized so you had to go through every box on every pallet, then after you stuck gold with your newly acquired books. The fun part carrying them back to your car, bringing some type of wheeled transport became a must.