Deadly Business: Sam Cummings, Interarms, and the Arms Trade
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983.
First edition, first printing. Association copy signed on the front free endpaper by the subject of the book, Sam Cummings, and inscribed to Pentagon Papers journalist Neil Sheehan, "Alexandria Virginia, May 30, 1990 For Niel [sic] Sheehan with warmest + personal regards and greatest professional respect. Stick to your guns! Samuel Cummings." 384pp. Bound in publisher's red cloth and gray paper, silver stamping to spine. Fine in a fine, unclipped dust jacket with one light crease to the front flap. Samuel Cummings was a weapons expert working for the CIA who bought the controlling interest in the gun surplus firm Interarmco in 1958 (note the Alexandria, Virginia location boldly referenced in the inscription) and became one of the world's foremost arms dealers. According to a 2004 New York Times article about Cummings he "neither smokes nor drinks and confines his extravagance to collecting rare old weapons. He is also fond of Iranian caviar."
Price: $750