Seeing Peter Egan at the Legends of Motorsports event in Birmingham a couple of months ago got me thinking about the sports car magazine I read during my misspent youth - Road & Track - and my favorite writer of that era, Henry N. Manney, III.While I would devour each issue, the first page I would flip to would be Henry Manney's "At Large" column to see what his take was on whatever had his attention at the moment. The column was always illustrated with a woodcut image of something completely off the wall (a manacled individual about to get his head sliced off?) and a photo of "Yr Faithful Srvnt", as he referred to himself. One photo that stands out in my memory is of Henry dressed in full knightly armor atop a motorized skateboard, legs akimbo, right hand pointing forward. What did it have to do with the subject of the article? Not much - it was just classic Henry Manney.
I bought a collection of Henry's writings called Henry Manney, At Large and Abroad a few years back and enjoyed laugh out loud reading. I'm not sure if its available any longer, but you might be able to find it on one of the many used booksellers on the Internet.
Henry died in 1988 after battling a long illness.
With all the instantly available information on the web, I am saddened that there is not much out there about Henry Manney. Too bad, really.
No comments:
Post a Comment