Clearwater Books

P.S.ALLFREE. Hawks of the Hadhramaut. Robert Hale, London, 1967. First edition. 8vo. 192pp. Illustrated with twenty photographs and a map. A lovely crisp copy in very lightly chafed, stained and edge worn dust wrapper, just a little spotted at rear panel and internally. The author's second book, an account of the year and a half he spent as political officer amongst the Bedouin in Arabia's 'Empty Quarter'. £35

HILAIRE BELLOC. The Cruise of The “Nona”. Constable & Company Ltd., London 1925. First edition. 8vo. xiv, 347pp. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A touch of bruising to the backstrip ends, and just a trace of wear to the tips of several corners. Free endpapers very slightly toned and spotted. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, toned at the spine panel, with some considerable spotting, several internally repaired tears, and a single fraction of enclosed loss. The author’s celebrated account of his early 1920 sailing voyages around the coast of Britain, with a lengthy printed dedication to Maruice Baring. Cahill 86. £125

CHRIS BONINGTON. Everest. The Hard Way. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1976. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 4to. 239pp. With photographic endpapers, a colour frontispiece, and scores of colour and black and white photographs throughout including full-page and double-spread presentations, plus various maps in the text. Trace of partially erased former owner pencilled details to the tip of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. An account of the 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition (the first successful effort to climb Everest by ascending one of its faces. Bonington led the party and four men reached the summit, but BBC cameraman Mick Burke died in the attempt). £100

ROBERT BYRON. Europe in the Looking-Glass. Reflections of a Motor Drive from Grimsby to Athens. George Routledge & Sons Ltd., London 1926. First edition. 8vo. 229pp. The backstrip faded and with a touch of much lighter uneven fading to the margins of the rear board and a small area of light soiling to the base of the upper board. Top edge dust soiled and with a touch of spotting, also to the fore edge and, very lightly, to half a dozen preliminary leaves. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. The author’s first book, a splendid travelogue with the increasingly relevant closing lines: “The world seemed larger now than it had done in 1909. Private school, public school, university; intermittent trips abroad, intermittent Wiltshire; and last of all this tour, had all intervened. Leaning forward to warm my hands over the logs, I experienced a new price of race: the pride of being, as well as English, European”. £325

ROBERT BYRON. The Road to Oxiana. Macmillan, London 1937. First edition in the first state binding of dark blue smooth-weave cloth, lettered in gold at the spine and with the publisher’s blue top edge stain, which is a little faded. 8vo. ix, 341pp + [ii] publisher’s advertisements. With a photographic frontispiece, fifteen photographic plates and five maps. The cloth at the backstrip a little darkened, and with a touch of bruising to the backstrip ends and to several corner tips. The plate margins lightly toned and soiled. A very good copy of the author’s most celebrated book and one of the all-time great travelogues: an account of Byron’s travels in Persia and Afghanistan. Lacking the most fugitive dust wrapper. £375

DONALD CAMERON. Sons of El Dorado. Venezuelan Adventure. With drawings by Peter Edwards. Longmans, London 1968. First edition. 8vo. 215pp. A little light spotting to top edge and just a hint of light partial browning to endpapers. A very good copy in fine pictorial dust wrapper. The author’s second book, an account of several month period he spent teaching English in Caracas, followed by just under a year of diamond prospecting in the steaming forests of the Interior. £15

BRUCE CHATWIN. In Patagonia. Jonathan Cape, London 1977. First edition of Chatwin's desirable first book. 8vo. 204pp. Map-illustrated endpapers with a frontispiece map and fourteen captioned photographs by the author. Contemporary former owner gift inscription inked to the head of the half-title. Very good indeed, but lacking the dust wrapper. The author's first book – an account of his six-month travels in Patagonia beginning in December 1974. Winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the E.M.Forster Award. £50

CHARLES M.DOUGHTY. Wanderings in Arabia. Being an Abridgement of Travels in Arabia Deserta. Arranged and introduced by Edward Garnett. Duckworth & Co., London 1908. First edition, complete in two volumes. 8vo. xx, 309 and x, 297pp. Top edges gilt. With a tissue-protected portrait frontispiece to the first volume, and a frontispiece drawing to the second. Backstrip ends gently bruised, and with a little toning to the free endpapers and spotting to several preliminary leaves. The binding a fraction tender at the first text leaf of volume one. Tiny dealer plates to the base of the front pastedowns. A very good set of this abridgement of Doughty’s important 1888 travelogue, which recounts just under two years spent exploring Western and Central Arabia. Travels in Arabia Deserta was rejected by four publishing houses and went largely unnoticed until the full text was reissued in 1921 accompanied by a glowing T.E.Lawrence introduction. £350

HENNY HARALD HANSEN. Daughters of Allah. Among Moslem Women in Kurdistan. Translated from the Dutch of Allah’s Døtre by Reginald Spink. George Allen & Unwin, London 1960.  The first English edition. 8vo. 191pp. With a portrait frontispiece, twelve captioned photographs, two maps and various chapter header line drawings. A lovely crisp copy in dust wrapper, marred by a little dust soiling to the white rear panel, and with a touch of chafing and fraying to the spine ends. An account of the author’s experiences living amongst the Moslem women of “the most turbulent tribes of the Middle East”. £30

HEINRICH HARRER. Seven Years in Tibet. Translated from the German by Richard Graves and with an introduction by Peter Fleming. Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1953. The First English edition. 8vo. xiii, 288pp. With a colour frontispiece, one double-spread map and twenty-fine black and white photographs, mostly full-page or double-spread. A little fading to the publisher’s top edge stain, and a little spotting to the edges and endpapers. A very good copy in dust wrapper, a little spotted and chafed at the natural folds, and with some nicks, creasing and several tiny fractions of loss from the upper edge. £175

THOR HEYERDAHL. The Tigris Expedition. In Search for Our Beginnings. George Allen & Unwin Ltd.,  London 1980. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the half-title and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 333pp. With colour map-illustrated endpapers and scores of colour photographs. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. An account of the author’s five-month Red Sea voyage in a reed boat, initiated to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization. Uncommon with the author’s signature. £95

KENNETH HOPKINS. A Trip to Texas. Macdonald, London 1962. First edition. 8vo. 214pp. With a frontispiece and 25 plates of photographs and illustrations. A strip of moisture marking to the head of the boards, and some spotting to the free endpapers. A good copy in lightly spotted, rubbed and dust marked dust wrapper. An account of the author’s US travels and adventures (“from New York to The Panhandle and back again”), whilst on a six-month secondment to the University of Texas in Austin. £10

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS. Travels in China and Japan. Translated from the Greek by George C.Pappageotes and with an epilogue by Helen Kazantzakis. Bruno Cassirer, Oxford 1964. First UK edition. 8vo. 382pp. Just a trace of light spotting to the top edge, and a retailer’s sticker to the base of the front free endpaper. Very good indeed in very slightly rubbed and dust soiled price-clipped dust wrapper. The author’s posthumously published diaries of his 1935 and 1957 journeys to China and Japan. £30

THOMAS KENEALLY. The Place Where Souls are Born. A Journey to the Southwest [of America]. With an introduction by Jan Morris. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1992. The first UK edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the title page to an un-named recipient and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 249pp. Cloth-backed paper boards. Illustrated with a double-spread map. Front pastedown lifting in one small area, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. An account of Keneally’s travels from the Rocky Mountains to the Mexican border. £25

MARY H.KINGSLEY. Travels in West Africa. Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons. Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London 1897. First edition (“Third Thousand”). Tall 8vo. xvi, 743pp + [iv] advertisements. Red cloth lettered and ruled in gold at the spine with blind-stamped double rules to the upper and lower boards. With a tissue-protected photographic frontispiece, two plates, fifteen full-page photographs and reproductions, and twenty-nine further illustrations in the text. Some slight discolouration to the cloth at the margins of the upper board, and some bruising and wear to the backstrip ends. Some quite light fox spotting throughout. Rear hinge just a fraction tender. Contemporary (1897) former owner name and date inked to the head of the half-title, alongside those of a later (1961) owner. A good copy of the author’s first book, a celebrated account of her travels in West Africa. No dust wrapper, probably as issued. £50

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. The Traveller's Tree. A Journey through the Caribbean Islands. John Murray, London 1950. First edition. Large 8vo. 403pp + 50 pages of unpaginated photographic plates. With an illustrated frontispiece and sixty-one photographs by A.Costa [i.e. Costa Achillopoulos], plus a double-spread sketch-map by H.W.Hawes. Edges lightly spotted. A very good copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, chafed with a little loss to spine ends and corner tips and with two short tears and several light accompanying creases. Former owner bookplate and accompanying inked inscription to the front free endpaper. £350

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. The Traveller's Tree. A Journey through the Caribbean Islands. John Murray, London 1950. First edition. Large 8vo. 403pp + 50 pages of unpaginated photographic plates. With an illustrated frontispiece and sixty-one photographs by A.Costa [i.e. Costa Achillopoulos], plus a double-spread sketch-map by H.W.Hawes. Cloth lightly marked in one or two places and with just a touch of spotting to several preliminary leaves. A very good copy of Fermor's celebrated debut, housed in a price-clipped dust wrapper with several short jagged tears and a little accompanying creasing, and several small portions of loss from the head of the spine panel, and a larger area of loss from the base. £250

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. Between the Woods and the Water. On Foot to Constantinople from The Hook of Holland: The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates. John Murray, London 1986. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the front free endpaper. 8vo. 248pp. With a double-spread map printed on green paper. Some light off-set browning to front free endpaper where a newspaper clipping was once stored, but otherwise a fine copy in the delightful John Craxton dust wrapper with just the tiniest hint of wear to the head of the spine panel. The second part of Fermor's celebrated trilogy, following A Time of Gifts (1977) and preceding the posthumously published The Broken Road (2013). £200

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. Three Letters from the Andes. With illustrations and a dust wrapper design by John Craxton. John Murray, London 1991. First edition. 8vo. 118pp. With a map, several illustrations and a small title-page design by John Craxton who also contributes a splendid dust wrapper illustration. A fine copy with very good pictorial dust wrapper, with some fading to the publisher’s red spine panel lettering. "This was a private account of an Andean journey organised and led by Robin Fedden in 1971. As I had no particular task during the journey, except looking after the Primus stove, I wrote down a rough and ready description of our doings in the form of three long letters to my wife" - Leigh Fermor. £15

ROBIN MAUGHAM. Nomad. Chapman & Hall, London 1947. First edition. This copy humorously inscribed by the author on the half-title: “For Andy, once again to get his - - sideburns CUT. With love from Robin 23 Nov 1957”. 8vo. 243pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. Printed on lesser quality economy wartime paperstock, yet still a very crisp copy in toned, rubbed and lightly spotted dust wrapper, with a short internally repaired snag to the rear panel.  The author’s second book, an account of his travels in the Levant, and including encounters with Glubb Pasha and Ernest Altounyan (the basis for the “Swallow’s” father in Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons, and a close friend of T.E.Lawrence). £50

PAUL MORAND. Hester Sainsbury. Earth Girdled. Translated from the French of Rien que la Terre by Charles-Emile Roche and with woodcuts by Hester Sainsbury. Alfred A.Knopf, London 1928.  First English edition. 8vo. 175pp. Quarter cloth with marbled paper sides. With a small title page decoration in red, six full-page woodcuts and one chapter header decoration, all by Hester Sainsbury. Several text leaves uncut. Free endpapers lightly and partially browned and with just a hint of wear to the corner tips. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. With ten instances of light pencilled marginalia, and two more in ink. A very good copy in dust wrapper, nicked at the upper edge with several tiny fractions of loss and with some careful internal repair. Both wrapper flaps have been neatly severed from the main body of the wrapper, and each reattached with a single tiny piece of tape. A series of travel essays from the noted Modernist and Imagist (and later Nazi collaborator), original published in France in 1926.  £50

REDMOND O’HANLON. Congo Journey. Hamish Hamilton, London 1996. First edition of the author’s third travelogue; an account of his trip across Congo-Brazzaville in search of a legendary Congo dinosaur. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author: “To David Stewart, a real traveller and scholar and bibliophile, with a big thank you. From Redmond, July 1997”. 8vo. 472pp. Illustrated with twenty-eight monochrome photographs and three maps. Boards very lightly marked and with a minor slant to the binding. A very good copy in fine dust wrapper. £35

F.D.OMMANNEY. South Latitude. Longmans Green, London 1938. First edition - this copy signed by the author. 8vo. 308pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. With a frontispiece and fifteen photographic plates. Binding cocked. Covers slightly grubby and bumped at one corner. Former owner bookplate to half-title. No jacket. £30

RICHARD A.VAN ORMAN. The Explorers. Nineteenth Century Expeditions in Africa and the American West. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1984. First edition. 8vo. 243pp. A tiny strip of narrow browning to endpapers, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. An authoritative account of the travels of numerous celebrated nineteenth century explorers, with chapters devoted to David Livingstone, Richard Burton, Lewis and Clark, Mungo Park, Jedediah Smith, John Charles Frémont and others, drawn primarily from contemporary sources. £15

STEWART PEROWNE. The One Remains. [A Report from Jerusalem]. Hodder & Stoughton,  London 1954. First edition. 8vo. 192pp. With map-illustrated endpapers, one map and thirty-five captioned black and white photographs and reproductions. Some spotting to the edges, preliminary leaves and to some text leaf margins (mostly) throughout. A good sound copy in dust wrapper, a little rubbed, chafed and dust soiled with some internal taped repair.  A personal reflection on the “Eternal City”. £10

POLAR EXPLORATION. Roald Amundsen. The Amundsen Photographs. Edited with an introduction by Roland Huntford. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1987. First edition. 4to. 199pp. With a frontispiece and over 125 photographs documenting The Northwest Passage Expedition (1903-06), The South Pole Expedition (1910-12) and the Maud Expedition (1918-23). A bump to the head of the rear board, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, very slightly creased to several edges. £15

POLAR EXPLORATION. S.A.Andrée. The Andrée Diaries. Being the Diaries and Records of S.A.Andrée, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel, Written during their Balloon Expedition to the North Pole in 1897 and Discovered on White Island in 1930, Together with a Complete Record of the Expedition and Discovery. Translated from the Swedish by Edward Adams-Ray. John Lane, The Bodley Head, London 1931. First English edition, issued a year after the original Swedish edition. 8vo. xx, 471pp. The title page printed in black and red. With a photographic portrait frontispiece and over one hundred photographs, maps, plans and diagrams including one multi-panel folding colour map. Top- and fore edges spotted, encroaching to occasional leaf margins, and with some further spotting to perhaps a score of preliminary leaves. A narrow strip of toning to the free endpapers. Indications of moisture marking to the rear board with areas of offsetting from the board dye to the endpapers and pastedowns. A nice crisp copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, which is lightly rubbed, toned and soiled, and which also exhibits some moisture marking and a small area of dye offsetting. £125

POLAR EXPLORATION. William Barr. Searching for Franklin: The Land Arctic Searching Expedition. James Anderson’s and James Stewart’s Expedition via the Black River 1855. Edited by William Barr. The Hakluyt Society, London 1999. First edition. Tall 8vo. xv, 292pp. Illustrated with maps and several black and white photographs. The tiniest hint of spotting to the top edge, and a contemporary former owner acquisition date stamp to the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, just fractionally toned at the spine panel. £15

POLAR EXPLORATION. James Calvert. Surface at the Pole. The Story of USS Skate. Hutchinson, London 1961. First UK edition, issued a year after the US edition. 8vo. viii, 220pp. With colour map- and plan-illustrated endpapers, and various plans and photographs. Top- and fore edge fractionally spotted. Very good indeed in lightly rubbed and dust soiled dust wrapper. An account of the two voyages (1958 and 1959) of the USS Skate, the first atomic submarine to reach and surface at the North Pole, penned by her commanding officer. £15

POLAR EXPLORATION. Robert Randolph Carter. Searching for the Franklin Expedition. The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter. Edited by Harold B.Gill Jr. and Joanne Young. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1998. First edition (“first printing” stated, but with a number line starting in ‘2’). 8vo. 201pp. With a frontispiece reproducing the title page of Carter’s original journal, and a number of maps, photographs and reproductions. A virtually fine copy. No dust wrapper called for, but with probably the original unprinted acetate protector, lightly dust soiled. £20

POLAR EXPLORATION. Walter E.Gilbert. Arctic Pilot. Life and Work on North Canadian Air Routes. The Experiences of Walter E.Gilbert as told to Kathleen Shackleton. Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., London 1940. First edition. 8vo. xiv, 256pp. With map-illustrated endpapers, a photographic frontispiece, twenty-three photographs and reproductions, and one map. Top- and fore edge very lightly spotted, and with a little wear to the cloth at several extremities, and a small area of wear to the upper gutter. A nice crisp copy. No dust wrapper. £15

V.S.PRITCHETT. Marching Spain. Ernest Benn, London 1928. First edition, in apparently a later state binding with the spine lettering in gilt not black. 8vo. xiii, 224pp. With eight black and white photographs and one map in the text. Fore edge untrimmed. A strip of partial toning to one blank preliminary leaf, and also to the final text leaf. Very good indeed in the uncommon dust wrapper, with some toning, a little wear to the upper edge, a small splash of staining, and two inches of loss from the base of the spine panel. The author’s first book, recounting his three-hundred mile tramp through Spain. £150

JOHN RUSKIN. The Stones of Venice. Introductory Chapters and Local Indices for the use of Travellers while Staying in Venice and Verona. Complete in two volumes. Bernard Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1906. A new edition, utilizing Ruskin’s edited and abridged text from the ‘Traveller’s Edition’. 8vo. 333pp & 302pp. Presented in a handsome half-binding with decorated paper sides and gilt lettering and rule. Illustrated with seven plates. A lovely crisp set of Ruskin’s celebrated treatise on Venetian art and architecture, seen here as volumes 3870 and 3871 in the Tauchnitz ‘Collection of British Authors’ series. £35

V.SACKVILLE-WEST. Passenger to Teheran. The Hogarth Press, London 1926. First edition. Tall 8vo. viii, 181pp. Two-tone patterned cloth. Illustrated with thirty-two photographic plates, most of which were taken by the author. A trace of bruising to the backstrip ends, and some spotting to the edges and throughout. The free endpapers browned and the binding cracked and a little tender at the half-title. Neat former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. Quite a good copy, lacking the fugitive dust wrapper. The author’s first travelogue, detailing explorations in Egypt, India, Iraq and Persia. Now really quite uncommon. Woolmer 107 / Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A14. £300

TIM SEVERIN. In Search of Genghis Khan. With photographs by Paul Harris. Hutchinson, London 1993. Reprint, issued in the same year as the first edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 276pp. With map-illustrated endpapers, two double-spread maps and fifty-two captioned colour photographs. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with just a touch of rubbing to the spine panel ends. An account of the author’s autumn 1989 exploits riding across Mongolia in the company of a band of Mongolia horsemen, re-enacting the feat of Genghis Khan’s courier riders. £20

ANTHONY SMITH. A Persian Quarter Century. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1979. First edition. 8vo. 192pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. With thirty-seven photographs. Minor scuff to front board, else a virtually fine copy in very good dust wrapper with a single tiny tear to upper rear panel. Neat inked name of former owner to front endpaper. £5

HENRY M.STANLEY. Through the Dark Continent; or The Sources of the Nile Around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and Down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London 1878. First edition, complete in two volumes. 8vo. xv, 522pp and ix, 566pp + xxxii publisher’s advertisements (dated April 1878). Original publisher’s brown cloth, gilt- and black lettered at the spine and upper boards with a double rule and brown and gilt stamped topographical design. With a different portrait frontispiece to each volume, 34 plates, 115 illustrations, and 10 maps including two large folding examples in pockets to the rear boards (one of which is a facsimile, and the other exhibiting some careful taped repair to some of the natural folds). Some bruising to the backstrip ends. Edges spotted and with a little discolouration to the rear board of the first volume. The protective frontispiece tissue absent from both volumes, resulting in some off-set browning from the plates to the adjacent title pages, and some spotting to the preliminary leaves and to very occasional leaves throughout. The outer rear hinge of the second volume slightly split (a result of the facsimile map being on slightly thicker paperstock). Some unsightly creasing to the final page of the publisher’s catalogue. A nice sound set of Stanley's account of his 1874-77 Central African expedition: a 7,000 mile trek exploring Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, and the Lualaba and Congo rivers, and ultimately determining the source of the Nile. £500

LAURENCE STERNE. A Sentimental Journey – Through France and Italy. Designed by Eric Gill (and printed in a type he composed specially for this book) with etchings by Denis Tegetmeier. The Limited Editions Club, High Wycombe 1936. The first edition with these illustrations, limited to 1,500 numbered copies, signed by Gill and Tegetmeier (this being #605). 4to. 136pp. Original publisher's decorated cloth with bevelled edges. Backstrip darkened, and with a touch of occasional marking to the boards. A little light browning to the endpapers. Neat former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. A very good copy in the original cloth-covered slipcase, chafed and a little marked in places and with a tanned, faded and slightly chipped paper spine label. No dust wrapper called for. £200

PAUL THEROUX. Fresh-Air Fiend. Travel Writings 1985-2000. Hamish Hamilton, London 2000. First edition. 8vo. 453pp. Leaf margins lightly tanned. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, with several tiny closed tears to the head of the spine panel. Over fifty of the author’s shorter travel pieces, the majority of which were hitherto unpublished in the UK. £15

WILFRED THESIGER. The Marsh Arabs. HarperCollins, London 2000. Reprint – this copy inscribed by the author on the half-title in a rather shaky hand and dated the year of publication. 8vo. Illustrated with three maps and fifty-four photographs by the author. Paperstock a little tanned, else a fine copy in lightly rubbed and fractionally dust marked dust wrapper. A scarce inscribed re-issue of Thesiger’s second book, an account of the eight years the author spent living with the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. Sadly, this re-issue omits about half of Thesiger’s superb photographs which appeared in the original 1964 edition. £150

WILFRED THESIGER. Visions of a Nomad. Collins, London 1987. First edition. 4to. 224pp. A little uneven offset browning to the front free endpaper where a newspaper clipping was once stored, and a trace of very light spotting to the top edge. A very good copy in fractionally rubbed price-clipped dust wrapper. Over one hundred and sixty of Thesiger’s superb photographs, predominantly full-page or double-spread and with many hitherto unpublished; plus a series of short introductory essays by the author. £35

WILFRED THESIGER. My Kenya Days. HarperCollins, London 1994. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. Small 4to. xiv + 224pp. Illustrated with nearly 150 of the author’s monochrome photographs, plus one full-page map. In fine state with very good dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel and with a touch of further uneven fading to the upper margin of the rear panel. A record of Thesiger’s thirty years living and travelling in Kenya. £125

WILFRED THESIGER. The Danakil Diary. Journeys Through Abyssinia 1930-1934. HarperCollins, London 1996. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. xvii, 214pp. 8vo. Illustrated with two colour maps, forty-six photographs by the author, many hitherto unpublished, and with several of the author's sketch maps in the text. Some toning to the paperstock, as is invariably the case, but thereafter a fine copy in virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper. £125

WILFRED THESIGER. The Danakil Diary. Journeys Through Abyssinia 1930-1934. HarperCollins, London 1996. First edition. 8vo. xvii, 214pp. 8vo. Illustrated with two colour maps, forty-six photographs by the author, many hitherto unpublished, and with several of the author’s sketch maps in the text. A touch of tanning to paperstock and a tiny hint of spotting to the top edge. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, lightly toned at the spine panel. £35

WILFRED THESIGER. Wilfred Thesiger in Africa. Edited by Christopher Morton and Philip N.Grover. HarperPress, London 2010. First edition, published to accompany a centenary exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum. 4to. 280pp. Illustrated with nearly two hundred photographs from Thesiger’s personal collection, many hitherto unpublished, and with essays by Alexander Maitland, Sir David Attenborough, Benedict Allen, Jeremy Coote, Elizabeth Edwards and Schuyler Jones. Two tiny indentations to the upper board else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £20

H.W.TILMAN. The Eight Sailing / Mountain-Exploration Books. Diadem Books Ltd., London 1987. First edition thus. 8vo. 956pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs, including some in colour. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, just fractionally rubbed at the upper edge. A nine-page introduction by Colin Putt precedes this omnibus edition of Tilman’s six Mischief books (Mischief in Patagonia, Mischief among the Penguins, Mischief in Greenland, Mostly Mischief, Mischief Goes South, and In Mischief's Wake) plus Ice With Everything and Triumph and Tribulation which recount subsequent seafaring adventures in Sea Breeze and Baroque following the loss of Mischief of the east Greenland coast. £30

MARK TWAIN. Life on the Mississippi. Chatto & Windus, London 1883. First edition in the correct first state binding, this UK issue preceding the American edition by a matter of days. 8vo. xxv, 561pp + xxxii publisher’s (first state) catalogue dated March 1883. Pictorial red cloth, gilt lettered at the spine and upper board. Patterned endpapers. With a tissue-protected frontispiece, and title page decoration and over three hundred illustrations as plates and in the text. The backstrip cloth very slightly faded. Some wear to the spine ends and just a touch more to the corner tips, and a strip of discolouration to the fore edge of the upper board. Fore edge lightly spotted, and with some spotting to several preliminary and concluding leaves. A good copy, really very crisp internally.  The author’s memoirs of his life as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War, plus an account of his post-war river trip from New Orleans and Saint Paul. £225

EVELYN WAUGH. Labels. A Mediterranean Journal. Duckworth, London 1930. First edition of the author’s fourth book. 8vo. 206pp. With a frontispiece (drawn by the author), three pages of plates, a double-spread map and another map in the text. Cloth a little faded at the backstrip and at the margins of the rear board, and with a little marking and chafing to the upper board. Edges spotted and the endpapers browned, with a little more quite light spotting to preliminary and concluding leaves. Quite a crisp and bright copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, somewhat tanned, worn, chafed and nicked with some loss to the spine ends and the upper edge. Book Society Recommendation label affixed to the front panel, fitting in quite splendidly with the wrapper design. £300

EVELYN WAUGH. Remote People. Duckworth, London 1931. First edition. 8vo. 240pp. With a frontispiece, six plates and two folding maps. A near-invisible sliver of fading to the cloth at the head of the upper board. Free endpapers lightly toned, and with some creasing to the edge of one of the folding maps, a result of the book being carelessly closed. Handsome former owner armorial bookplate to the front pastedown. A very good copy, lacking the most uncommon dust wrapper. The author’s fifth book, and his second collection of travel writing, recounting reportage in Ethiopia and throughout the British Empire. £75

RICHARD WRIGHT. Pagan Spain. The Bodley Head, London 1960. First UK edition. 8vo. 191pp. Just a hint of soiling to the top edge. Very good indeed in very lightly rubbed and dust soiled dust wrapper.  An account of the author’s two visits to Spain, recording encounters with aristocrats, intellectuals, priests, flamenco dancers, clerks, bull-fighters, pimps and prostitutes. £35

GAVIN YOUNG. Slow Boats to China. With illustrations by Salim. Hutchinson, London 1981. First edition. This copy inscribed by the author on the title page: “For Fred – (who?) – sorry, John – a memento of our talks about sea travel and its demise – and an appalling error. But even so – All best wishes from Gavin Young” (the ‘appalling error’ in question presumably being the mis-naming of the recipient). 8vo. 489pp. With map-illustrated powder-blue endpapers and various maps and drawings in the text. A virtually fine copy in fractionally marked dust wrapper, with a single tiny tear to one natural fold and a touch of very light accompanying creasing. An account of the author’s journeys from Greece to China using a variety of local waterborne transport, twenty-three vessels in all. £35

GAVIN YOUNG. In Search of Conrad. With illustrations by Salim. Hutchinson, London 1991. First edition. 8vo. xi, 304pp. With map-illustrated endpapers, and various maps and illustrations in the text. Half a dozen pinpricks of spotting to the top edge, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel. A travelogue which retraces the steps of Joseph Conrad by sea, land and river. £10

GAVIN YOUNG. From Sea to Shining Sea. A Present-Day Journey into America's Past. With illustrations by Jack McCarthy. Hutchinson, London 1995. First edition. 8vo. 297pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper. Former owner book plate to front pastedown. £10