"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. "
— Oscar Wilde
Travel & Topography
The Holy War In Tripoli.
London: Edward Arnold, 1912. [Military History/Travel] FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.333; [1], blank; [2], advertisements; 8, Catalogue. Illustrated throughout with photographic plates. Publisher's green cloth pictorially blocked in black and gilt, edges untrimmed, printed dust-wrapper priced at 15s. Edges slightly dusty, spine of jacket a touch sunned... More
Arctic Island Hunter.
London: George Ronald, 1961. INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.136. With 12 black and white photographic plates and two maps. Warmly INSCRIBED by the author in blue ink to front free endpaper: 'To Mary, / with the warmest Baha'; / greetings / Paul Adams'. In publisher's light blue cloth with red... More
Warlords of Oman.
London: Robert Hale, 1967. [Arabian Travel] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.191; [1]. With four double-sided photographic plates and a map. Publisher's orange cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the dust-jacket illustrated by C.W. Bacon, priced at 25s. Textblock unevenly toned. Jacket a little bruised to edges, some... More
Farthest East, and South and West. Notes of a Journey Home through Japan, Australia and America.
London: W. H. Allen, 1892. FIRST EDITION. Octavo. pp. xii, 343. With 12 photographic plates including frontispiece. In publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board, as well as black/white illustrations. Navy end-papers. Black ink prize inscription to verso of front free end-paper. Reading lean. Clean and... More
Pictures of Sweden.
London: Richard Bentley, 1852. [Scandinavian Travel] SECOND EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.iv; 324. Publisher's green blind stamped cloth, gilt titles to spine, yellow coated endpapers. All edges untrimmed. Neatly rebacked with the original cloth laid on. Textblock lightly toned throughout, some marking and a small area of loss to... More
The Okavango River: A Narrative of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure.
London: Hurst and Blackett, 1861. [Colonial Exploration] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xxii; 364. With 17 wood engravings by Zwecker and Pearson, including a frontispiece and vignette title page. Contemporary red full calf with raised bands, gilt titles to a navy label on spine, further gilt decoration to spine... More
A Lady's Diary of The Siege of Lucknow. Written for The Perusal of Friends at Home.
London: John Murray. 1858. Second, "New" revised edition with additions. 8vo. Publisher's brown embossed cloth, some marking and mottling, light bumping and fraying to spine ends and extremities, minor shelfwear, very good indeed, strong, pretty and robust. Glazed yellow endpapers, with some unattractive glue seepage to the margins of the... More
Neues Panorama Des Rheins Von Mannheim Bis Coln; and, The Rhine From Maynece To Cologne.
Mainz: Verlag von D Kapp, and Mainz: Joseph Halenza, n.d. [c.1880]. Leporello, or concertina map, in tall octavo boards (30 x 17.5cm; map extends to 242cm). In stiff paperboards with recent red cloth spine, decorative foliate border with titles in black to front board, reproduced to rear board with alternative... More
Coney Island and Brooklyn, N.Y., Illustrated.
New York, NY: Manhattan Post Card Co., no date [circa 1900]. [Coney Island] EARLY POSTCARD IMAGES. Octavo pamphlet. Dichromatic printing on clay paper, with colour-illustrated card covers, stapled. 16 double-sided black and white photographic plates, totalling 64 individual images. Some small losses to edges of first and last leaves. Rubbing... More
K.K.K. Sketches. Humorous and Didactic. Treating the more important events of the Ku-Klux-Klan movement in the South. With a Discussion of the Causes which gave rise to it, and the Social and Political Issues emanating from it.
Philadelphia, PA: Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger, 1877. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.[2] 192 [2]. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine and a monogram to upper; brown end papers. Lightly browned as expected. Front free endpaper brittle and nearly detached. Heavy rubbing to outer edges, especially spine head and tail. Good. More
The Desert and the Sown.
London: William Heinemann, 1907. [Travel] FIRST EDITION. Tall octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.347; [1], blank. Printed on clay paper with black and white photographs throughout, large folding map at rear. Elegantly bound in tan half calf over original decorative cloth sides, gilt-lettered title labels to spine, fore and tail edges... More
A Residence in France, During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795; Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: With General and Incidental Remarks of the French Character and Manners.
London: T.N. Longman, 1797. SECOND EDITION. In two volumes. Crown Octavo. pp. xxxiv, 448; 464. In contemporary full mottled calf with gilt titles to red morocco labels on spines. Upper joints split; corners bumped, with heavy wear to edges. Head and tail bands loose or damaged. Front free end-paper to... More
Boswell in Holland 1763-1764, Including his Correspondence with Belle de Zuylen (Zelide).
London: William Heinemann, 1952. DELUXE LIMITED EDITION. Large Octavo, pp.xxii; 428; [2]. With 12 full page lithographic plates including a frontispiece, and a folding map. No. 1035 of 1050 copies produced by the Windmill Press. In original quarter vellum, with gilt titles to navy label on spine. Blue cloth boards... More
A Voyage In The 'Sunbeam.' Our Home On The Ocean For Eleven Months.
London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1884. [Voyages / Exploration]. FINE PRIZE BINDING. Octavo (19 x 14 cm), pp.[2]; xx; 492; [2]. With 66 wood engravings including a frontispiece of the ship, and a coloured folding map of the voyage. In contemporary red full calf with gilt titles to green labels... More
Simla: Past and Present.
Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1904. RARE FIRST EDITION. Large Octavo, pp.xiv, 270 [2]. With 51 b/w illustrated plates including frontispiece (actually facing p.1), and a folding map to prelims. In publisher's brown cloth (formerly green) with b/w stamped illustrations to upper board. Vestiges of stamping to spine. Decorative textured end-papers. Cloth... More
Lonely Challenge.
New York, NY: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1956. [Mountaineering] FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Octavo (22 xx 15cm), pp.318; [2]. With eight double-sided black and white photographic plates. Publisher's navy blue cloth with silver titles to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket designed by Paul Galdone, priced at $5.00. Some offsetting to... More
The Search for the Western Sea. The Story of the Exploration of North-Western America.
London: Alston Rivers, Ltd., 1908. FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Illustrated with 51 plates and 6 folding maps. Publisher's green cloth with bright gilt titles to spine and upper, top edge gilt. Rubbing to extremities, wear to corners, bookplate, faint yellowing to pages, first free end paper's edge frayed, archival repair to... More
The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton. With numerous portraits, illustrations, and maps.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1893. [Travel Biography] FIRST EDITION. Two volumes. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xxvi; 606; pp.x; 664. With 36 illustrated plates, including a frontispiece to each volume and five maps. Publisher's dark green cloth, recently re-backed with the original cloth laid over spines. Gilt titles to spines; yellow... More
Etruscan Bologna: A Study.
Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1876. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.xii, 275. Illustrated with folding pullout frontispiece, sepia tone lithograph illustration: Synoptical Table of the Paleo-Ethnological Remains of Central Italy', wood block illustrations throughout text. Bound in Publisher's blue cloth with decorative friezes in black relief to top... More
The Highlands of the Brazil.
London: Tinsley Brothers, 1869. First Edition. 2 volumes. Octavo, pp.xii; 443, pp.viii; 478. 2 frontispiece plates and title page vignettes, folding map in volume two. Bound in contemporary tan half calf over marbled boards, black and dark brown title squares to spine, gilt titles and decoration to spine. All edges... More
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah.
London: Longman, 1855-56. FIRST EDITION. In three volumes. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[2]; xvi; 388; pp.[2]; iv; 426; pp.[2]; x; 448. With four maps and plans, three folding; and 13 lithographic plates, five coloured. Recently re-bound without adverts in burgundy full morocco with raised bands and gilt titles to spines... More
Sindh, and the Races That Inhabit the Valley of the Indus.
London: William H. Allen and Co., 1851. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.vii; 422. With fold-out frontispiece map on pale blue paper as issued. In an exquisite later binding of half polished calf with full gilt back over marbled sides, edges untrimmed. Some expected toning to paper and uncut edges, light and... More
The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California.
London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862. [American Travel]. SECOND EDITION, identical to the First. Octavo (23 x 16cm), pp.xii; 707. With 10 wood engraved plates including a frontispiece and two folding maps. Nine further illustrations in-text. In publisher's blue pebble grained cloth, re-backed during the twentieth century, with original... More
The Road To Oxiana.
London: John Lehmann, 1950. [Travel] SECOND EDITION, (the first edition was published by Macmillan in 1937). Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xvii; 18-292. Publisher's red cloth, gilt titles to spine, map endpapers, dust-jacket designed by Keith Vaughan with printed price of 15s. net. Illustrated with thirteen black and white plates. Neat... More
The Martyr of Erromanga. Or, the Philosophy of Missions, Illustrated from the Labours, Death and Character of the Late Rev. John Williams.
London: John Snow, 1842. [South Pacific Missionary] FINELY BOUND, the Second Edition. Octavo (21 x 13cm), pp.[4] xii; 526 [2]. With a hand coloured frontispiece and a wood engraved title page vignette. Contemporary brown full calf with raised bands and gilt titles to black label, and further gilt decoration to... More