[David R. Glier]

Bah! NOT everything is on the internet.
And Google is not yet the repository of all human knowledge. Even thought it *is* getting close.

The original Cassius Clay -a white abolitionist, politician and famous duelist from Kentucky wrote a book which was essentialy a "how-to" on killing your opponent with a bowie knife. This book is proving trickier to find than I originaly would have thought! I've found excerpts -tantalizing excerpts!- like his advice to turn aside your opponets blade and grab him in a headlock, then hammer your knife in behind the clavicle. I fount that every time he got up to speak, he pulled out his pistol and his bowie knife and set it on the podium before talking. It was a standing invitation that if you had a problem with what he said, he was willing to fight over it afterwords. AND I found that in his nineties, he not only fell in love with and married his 16-year old maid, but he was spry enough to fall upon a band of intruders, killed two with a pistol and bowie knife and wounded the last! There's a man who deserves a movie!

But after all that, I can't. find. his book! I can't even find the *title* of the book!
I know there's a goodly number of forumites here who are interested in more recent periods, so I'm hoping there's an ACW buff or two who happens to know the book I'm talking about.

*sigh* If only we could have a few interesting politicians again.

[Steve Fabert]

Check out the used book search engine at http://used.addall.com/ If the book is for sale by a commercial source, you will find it there.

You will find more than one 19th Century book about Mr. Clay, but some of the prices will take your breath away. Plan on spending at least $100 to own a readable copy of Mr. Clay's biography, "The History of His Thirty Years of Contention for Constitutional Liberty and Equal Rights Under the Law for All the People of America, As Presented in the Memoirs, Writings, and Speeches of Cassius Marcellus Clay of Kentucky"' and much more if you want a volume in better condition. And "LETTERS OF CASSIUS M. CLAY" will cost you $250. For $325 you can own a signed copy of all 19 pages of "Oration of Cassius Marcellus Clay Before the Maumee Valley Historical and Monumental Association of Toledo, Ohio." The 24 page "SPEECH BEFORE THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY" goes for $150 or more.

You need to search for his full name with middle initial, in quotes, "Cassius M. Clay" to locate information about him via Google. without being swamped by Muhammad Ali references.

[David R. Glier]

and the M. is for Marcellus, yes, I know. I've found both those books, and several other modern titles also. BUT, I know he wrote a fighting book (and as far as I know, the title's something simple like "Bowie knife fighting") and it's just not showing up on websearches.

[EDIT] Never mind, I found the title! God bless you, search function and Bladeforums. "Techniques of Knife Fighting"
Now all I need is to find an archived copy somewhere. [/edit]

[Steve Fabert]

How about this site?
http://ahfaa.org/clay.htm

The author suggests that the Bowie knife book is a legend, and that it never existed at all.

[David R. Glier]

Unbelieveable. The site I found, the one with the "tantalizing excerpts" I mentioned, was a complete rip-off of that site! They cut out about half of the text, and pasted the rest -including the pictures!


...well, thanks. lol. I'll have to chat with a few archivist friends tomorrow.

[Thomas Jason]

Looks a lot like some Kali/Silat techniques!

[Allen Reed]