An Old Memory of a Book

A long time ago my brother in law (my sister's husband) had this wonderful hobby and habit of buying old issues of Life magazine from a street side book seller, ridiculously cheap. I would read them as and when I got a chance. I still remember a few images. Monsoon in India which had some wonderful images by Raghubir Singh. There was an issue on Bjorn Borg - my hero at that time. 

In one such issue, I read a book extract. It was an autobiography of some black American photographer (in those days the word "black" used to be used to mean African American). Fighting abject poverty he picked up a knife and decided to do a burglary. He held the knife on the neck of a bus conductor late at night. His plan was to snatch his day's earning. The conductor understood it was possibly his first crime. He advised him against choosing this path in life. He felt embarrassed and dropped the idea of going down the path of violence. Later he picked up a camera and started shooting arbitrary images to ultimately become the first black photographer of Life magazine and possibly its photo editor as well.

I really loved reading whatever I could in that short extract. But in those days of late 70s and early 80s we did not have the luxury of buying any and every book in the world. Such books were unheard of in the local market. For a book to be available here it had to be either a classic or a bestseller or the subject had to be something very popular. This book wouldn't fall in any of the categories. Gradually I forgot the name of the author/photographer and also the title of the book. I thought it was "I picked up my weapon" or "I chose my weapon". 

After a long time gap when internet happened, among other things I started looking for this book. I found the website of Life magazine and wrote them a mail asking them about this book. The mail bounced back and I realised that Life had actually shut down. But I kept my hunt on. I hunted for many other such long lost things and friends too. 

Finally I found the book. I do not remember when exactly. The man's name was Gordon Parks and the book was called "A Choice of Weapons". I read about him. I found he had written many other books. He had even made films. But the book was possibly not available then. Or even if it was, it was unrealistically high priced and certainly not available in India. Once again the book was lost within the oblivion of my mind. 

A couple of days ago, as I was telling my daughter about various renowned photographers whose photographs are worth seeing, I remembered the story. But once again I had forgotten the name Parks or even the name of the book. But this time finding it out was rather easy. And for a pleasant change I found the book had been printed again in 2010 and it is available in India now from Amazon. 

Needless to say, I placed an order for the book. I hope I finish reading it when it comes. I did not buy it to read but to give vent to that original craving I had for the book. Let me see what happens when it comes. They will take a few weeks to deliver it. But it will come for sure.