Scarce book: Boy Scouts of America: The Official Handbook for Boys. First edition. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1911. Softcover bound in maroon wrappers, 5 x 7.25, 404 pages. In good to very good condition, with significant wear to covers, creasing to pages, and cracks and losses to spine; the binding remains tight. This is the first edition of the first issue of the Boy Scout handbook, the Boy Scouts of America having been founded a year earlier in 1910. Approximately 100,000 copies were issued in olive drab wrappers, while a scant 5,250 were released in maroon. This is a generally well-preserved example of a very condition-sensitive book.
