Question 7: Are copies with a pink cover authentic?Īnswer: No. These were professionally done books with slick covers and glued binding reinforced with staples, not do-it-yourself pamphlets put together by hand in James Lee’s garage. He used an actual publishing company to create all his books. Is that true?Īnswer: No, the thought of Bruce Lee sitting in James Lee’s garage at 3039 Monticello in Oakland CA carefully stapling each and every book by hand is laughable. James Lee had published several books previously beginning in 1957. Question 6: Rumor is that Bruce Lee stapled the books himself by hand. The earliest for Popular Mechanics was November 1963 and the last January 1964. The earliest appearance I could find in Popular Science was June 1963 and the last November 1967. The following are actual Oriental Book Sales ads referencing the book that appeared from 1963 through 1967. Multiple owners have stated they purchased via ads in the backs of magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics in the 60’s. The book was for sale for nearly five years.

It’s likely the popularity of the Green Hornet television show moved more than just a few hundred copies of the book.

The book was advertised for sale in the backs of magazines in the 60’s as late as 1967.

Bruce felt that being a published author added significant credibility to his status as a gung fu master.

Bruce gave numerous copies away - to friends, students and fellow martial artists like Ed Parker, Wally Jay, Ralph Castro and others.

If only 500 were printed this would mean only 400 remained for sale and that's just too few to be realistic. Bruce made sure that once his book was printed businesses in the Seattle Chinatown area stocked it as well. This included several businesses in the Oakland Chinatown area.

Being an established author James Lee already had a distribution system in place.

James Lee published several books. In 'The Dragon and the Tiger Vol 2' Greglon states that his father would sometimes have another 'batch' of one of his books printed whenever supplies ran low.

This is three times the number typically quoted when discussing the scarcity of the book.

In the book “The Dragon and the Tiger Vol 2: The Oakland Years” by Sid Campbell and Greglon Yimm Lee (James Yimm Lee’s son) it is stated 1,500 copies of the book were printed at a cost of $612.

There are several facts that support well more than 500 were printed : No one knows exactly how many were printed but it was probably at least 1,500 copies. Question 3: Were there only 500 copies of the book printed?Īnswer: No, this is totally false. Some authentic copies have the James Lee book ad on page 98 and some have an ad for the Bruce Lee essay, “Tao of Gung Fu”. Question 2: What is the significance of page 98?Īnswer: For a long time, collectors said that all authentic copies had an ad for a James Lee book on page 98 and that if your book had anything else on that page it was a fake. He lived in Studio City, CA at the time and had become aware of Bruce Lee via The Green Hornet television series. I purchased it from a gentleman who provided a signed affidavit that he acquired it in 1967 by ordering it from the back of a magazine (he didn’t recall which one but it was likely Popular Science). Add what is essentially your own.Question 1: Do you have an authentic copy of the book?Īnswer: Yes, I have an authentic copy. Jeet Kune Do celebrates the cultivation and honest self expression of the individual over any organized style. Jeet Kune Do consists of physical techniques and applied philosophies and requires the individual to train him or herself to their most cultivated state of being-ness so that when faced with a combat situation or a challenging personal situation, the tools needed are available in the moment and can be executed without thought. The techniques and philosophies of JKD can be applied to real combat as well as challenging life situations. The basic guiding principles are: simplicity, directness and freedom (the form of no form). The idea of intercepting is key to jkd, whether it be the interception of your opponent’s technique or his intent. Lee wrestled with putting a name to his art as he constantly veered away from any type of crystallization (and thereby limitation) of its essence, however, the simple need to refer to it in some concrete way won out and jeet kune do was born.

The term jeet kune do was coined and put into use in 1967 by Bruce Lee in an attempt to put a name to his martial expression. The art has as its symbolic representation what we call Bruce Lee’s Core Symbol and uses as its main tenet: Using no way as way having no limitation as limitation.

Bruce Lee developed an expression of martial arts that was personal to him called Jeet Kune Do (translated: Way of the Intercepting Fist).

Tao of jeet kune do autographed