lamdha books -
Catalogue of accounts of travel

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210255 Aitken, Maria (Peter King, ed. & illus.) A Girdle Around the Earth Adventuresses Abroad Constable and Company Ltd., London, 1987. Quarto; hardcover, with silver-gilt spine titles; 206pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; slightly rolled; spine extremities softened; mild spotting to the text block edges; previous owners' ink stamp to the flyleaf. Price-clipped dustwrapper is rubbed and edgeworn; sunning along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. A contemporary woman's account of scores of women in other centuries to whom the call of adventure was irresistible. It is about the urge in women to travel and explore, and risk their lives in foreign parts. In pursuit of their own goals they happily ignored conventions: for all of them 'abroad' was where they existed more fully. Aitken allows the women to speak for themselves, quoting from their letters, diaries or memoirs. The feminine spirit is seen in this book at its most engaging: perceptive, amusing, and often disarmingly self-deprecating. Click here to order $22

70154 Barthes, Roland (Andrew Brown, trans.; Foreword by Anne Herschberg Pierrot, ed.) Travels in China Polity Press, Cambridge UK, 2012. Octavo; hardcover; 225pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed. Near fine. A translation of his notebooks from a three-week trip there in 1974 with a delegation from the French literary review Tel Quel. Click here to order $22

72861 Belzoni, Giovanni & Alberto Siliotti (ed.) Belzoni's Travels Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries in Egypt and Nubia British Museum Press, London, 2001. Folio; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling and decorated endpapers; 336pp., with 100 colour & 300 monochrome illustrations. A bump to the bottom edge of the upper board; light spotting to the top edge of the text block. Dustwrapper lightly sunned along the top edge with some minor spotting on the verso; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Circus strongman turned adventurer, explorer and excavator, G B Belzoni was one of the pioneering figures whose achievements led to the creation of the Egyptological collections in the British Museum and other major European museums. Belzoni first went to Egypt in 1841 to sell a new type of waterwheel, but abandoned this venture in favour of a more lucrative trade in the excavation and transportation of ancient monuments. This is the first unabridged edition of Belzoni's travel journal since it as published in London in 1820 and was described by Howard Carter as "the most fascinating book ever written about Egypt". The introduction and the notes by Alberto Siliotti provide a brief survey of the history of the exploration of Egypt, setting Belzoni's exploits in their historical context. Click here to order $180

83836 Berendt, John The City of Falling Angels Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton Ltd./Hodder Headline, London, 2005. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling, decorated endpapers, and a navy blue ribbon; 373pp. Fine in dustwrapper lightly worn at edges (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Click here to order $18

85353 Brett-James, Norman G. Walking in the Welsh Borders W. & R. Chambers, London, 1942. Ex-libris Nancy Phelan. Hardcover, octavo; green cloth boards with black spine titling; 319pp., frontispiece., monochrome maps, plates and illustrations. Owner's name. Minor wear; toned and lightly spotted text block edges; a few scattered, internal spots. White illustrated dustwrapper, unclipped; rubbing, browning to spine and tiny missing segments on spine extremities and corners; wear and chipping to edges. Very good otherwise and protected in archival film with white paper backing. Click here to order $20

92156 Bryson, Bill Down Under Random House, 2000. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; blue boards with gilt spine titling, yellow endpapers; 319pp. Minor wear; lightly browned text block and page edges. Illustrated dustwrapper very slightly worn at edges (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Click here to order $25

98826 Chapman, Spencer (Introduction by Sir Charles Bell) Lhasa The Holy City Chatto & Windus Ltd., London, 1938. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with spine decorations; 342pp., on laid paper, top edges dyed red, with a full-colour frontispiece, 7pp. of plates likewise, 64pp. of monochrome plates and a folding map. Moderate wear; cocked; spine cracked; softening to the spine extremities; a circular mark to the upper board; text block edges heavily spotted; offset to the preliminaries; retailer's bookplate to the flyleaf. Price-clipped dustwrapper rubbed and edgeworn with some moisture damage to the upper panel; spine heavily sunned; chipping to the spine panel extremities and flap-turns; a large chip from the top edge of the lower panel near the spine panel head; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Good to very good. Spencer Chapman (1907-1971) was an English adventurer and mountaineer. He was part of Gino Watkins' Greenland Expedition of 1932-33. Early in 1936, he joined a Himalayan climbing expedition. At the time he met Basil Gould, the Political Officer for Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet. Gould invited Chapman to be his private secretary on his political mission, from July 1936 to February 1937, to persuade the Panchen Lama to return from China and establish permanent British representation in Lhasa. Chapman learned Tibetan well enough to converse. He kept a meteorological log, pressed six hundred plants, dried seeds, and made notes on bird life. He recorded "events" in Lhasa in a diary and took many photographs that were sent to India on a weekly basis. He was allowed to wander and did so in an unshepherded way into the middle of Tibet and around the Holy City. Click here to order $180

43245 Chatwin, Bruce Anatomy of Restlessness Uncollected Writings Jonathan Cape, London, 1996. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; red boards with gilt spine titling; 205pp. A little faint spotting to text block edges and tiny mark; mild rubbing to dustwrapper. Very good to near fine. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $23

45654 Chatwin, Bruce What Am I Doing Here Jonathan Cape, London, 1989. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 367pp. Offset to the endpapers; some light spotting to the text block edges. Dustwrapper is foxed on the flaps; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $30

57491 Curzon, Lord Travels with a Superior Person Edited by Peter King and Introduced by Elizabeth Longford Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1985. Quarto hardcover; brown boards with gilt spine titling, map endpapers; 191pp., monochrome illustrations. Owner's name. Lightly spotted upper text block edges and mildly rubbed dustwrapper. Very good to near fine otherwise. 'My name is George Nathaniel Curzon, I am a most superior person. My cheek is pink, my hair is sleek, I dine at Blenheim twice a week.' - Curzon hated this 'accursed doggerel' penned by a fellow undergraduate during his years at Balliol - but it accurately sums up the man who, in his twenties, visited and conversed with kings, emperors, potentates, and despots and who, in later life, became Viceroy of India, Foreign Secretary and nearly Prime Minister. No traveller of the period had a prose style to match that of Curzon, nor did they have his wit. It is these qualities, coupled with Curzon's fascinating experiences in remote and exotic places, that make Travels with a Superior Person the quintessence of late-Victorian travel writing. Click here to order $20

43479 Forster, E.M. The Hill of Devi Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, 1953. First US edition. Hardcover, octavo, 267pp. Slightly worn lower board edges and corners. Very lightly toned text block edges. Discoloured rear panel of dustwrapper; not price-clipped; minor edge wear; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. The Hill of Devi is an account by E.M. Forster of two visits to India in 1912-1913 and 1921, during which he worked as the private secretary to Tukojirao III, the Maharaja of the state of Dewas Senior. Forster publishes the letters of his early travel without introduction in order to let the reader share his own 'bewilderment and pleasure at plunging into an unknown world and at meeting an unknown and possibly unknowable character'. This character, the central figure of the whole book, is the Maharajah himself. He is witty, complex, sensitive and religious, 'certainly a genius, and possibly a saint, and he had to be king'. As his private secretary, 'Forster was privileged to ride elephants, to receive an Official Insult, and to attend the strange eight-day festival of Gokul Ashtami'. The early essays are followed by an explanatory text on "The State and its Ruler." Then comes the main section, containing the letters of 1921, which are extensively commented by Forster. In the last part of the book, he describes the 'Catastrophe,' the descent of the Maharaja and the state. Forster closes his recollections with a meditation upon death and memory: 'One of the puzzling things about the dead is that it is impossible to think of them evenly. They all go out of sight and are forgotten, they all go into silence, yet we cannot help assigning some of them a tune. Most of those whom I have known leave no sound behind them, I cannot evoke them though I would like to. He (the Maharajah) has a rare quality of evoking himself, and I do not believe that he is here doing it for the last time'. In the preface, E. M. Forster describes his time in India as 'the great opportunity of (... his) life'. Click here to order $50

94173 Golding, William An Egyptian Journal Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 1985. First edition. Hardcover; octavo; black boards with gilt spine titling and yellow endpapers; 207pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; toned and spotted text block and page edges. Very good to near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $20

78660 Hadjidimitriou, Tzeli (photos.) 39 Coffee Houses & A Barber's Shop Crete University Press, 2001. Softcover quarto, 141pp., colour illustrations. Dustwrapper. New. "The Coffee Houses which Tzeli Hadjidimitriou photographed in Mytilene are like old pieces of china kept in the dresser with the glass panes and the mirrors. Bright and shiny. Their architecture and their spontaneous beauty represent facets of a dying culture. They give the impression that they have always existed. There is a certain timeless quality about them. They belong to a far-removed past as well as to yesterday ... Their patrons' faces are illuminated by a sacred light. There is a feeling of serenity about them. They stand there, before the arrival of the messenger. They will soon be demolished and replaced by new multistorey buildings. They have not yet lived through the various unidentified departures - death, migration, illness. Glasses of water, spoonfuls of syrupy sweets, countless cups of coffee - those are their weapons. Their chairs are like those in the paintings by Theofilos or Tsarouchis. Their tables are like those in the poems by Elytis or Ritsos." - Yorgos Chronas Click here to order $35

94989 Hsieh, Pei-ni Beatrice (ed.) John Thomson - Window to the East The Journey to Formosa, China and Southeast Asia, 1865-1871 Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung Taiwan, 2012. Quarto; paperback, six stitched signatures without a wrapper, with a DVD on a spindle mounted on the last page; unpaginated (230pp.), bilingual text (Chinese and English), with many monochrome illustrations. Minimal wear. Fine in a printed folding slipcase with a printed ribbon tie. One of only 1200 copies printed John Thomson (1837-1921) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was one of the most important photographers in the 19th century and also a topographer, explorer and writer. As one of the earliest Western photographers travelling to the Far East, Thomson faithfully recorded what he saw of the Eastern world in the 19th century through his lens. His photographic works have become the most important social and cultural records and made Thomson one of the pioneers of documentary photography. The 19th century is a period of history marked with frequent exchanges and interactions between West and East. It is also a period full of surprises, excitement and shocks amidst cultural collisions. Each photograph taken by Thomson illustrates how a Westerner back then perceived and interpreted the mysterious Oriental world. Demonstrating his keen observations and unique interpretations of social and geographic characteristics of a place, Thomson's photographs mix the different aesthetics of Western and Eastern portraits, while combining the perspective and composition in Eastern landscape paintings. On his glass plate negatives, Thomson captured micro specimens of the tranquillity and profoundness of the Oriental world cultivated over thousands of years. Click here to order $180

36341 Hughes, Robert Barcelona Harvill/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., London, 1992. First UK edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 573pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Owner's name. Minor wear; spotted text block edges. Slightly edgeworn dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

78339 Hurley, Frank The Holy City A Camera Study of Jerusalem and its Borderlands Angus & Robertson, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 1949. First edition: quarto; hardcover; pale yellow boards with gilt spine and upper board titling and endpaper maps; unpaginated (200pp.), with many monochrome and chromolithographic photographic illustrations. Previous owner's ink inscription on front endpaper; some scuffs to the boards with minor corner-bumping; insect damage to front endpaper, tape marks and some spotting to endpapers and prelims; toned and spotted text block edges. Rubbed dustwrapper with scraping to spine panel extremities and corners, two tiny tears to edges. Wrapper now backed by archival quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive film. Good to very good. Click here to order $40

200142 Hutton, Edward (illus. O.F.M. Ward) Siena and Southern Tuscany Methuen, London, 1911. Second edition. Hardcover, octavo; brown boards with gilt spine titling and map endpapers; 360pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Owner's name. Mild foxing to early pages; toned and spotted text block edges; wear to board edges, corners frayed and bumped. Very good. No dustwrapper. Edward Hutton was a British author of travel books and various Italian subjects. He resided there for many years and became friends with other expatriate residents including Bernard Berenson and Norman Douglas. In 1917 he was instrumental in establishing the British Institute of Florence. This is one of his nine illustrated books on different regions of Italy, Click here to order $32

86741 Levi, Peter The Light Garden of the Angel King Journeys in Afghanistan Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1972. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; tan boards with gilt spine titling and map endpapers; 287pp., b/w plates. Minor wear; text block edges lightly toned. Orange illustrated dustwrapper with light foxing to edges; scraping and wear to spine extremities and corners. Else very good to near fine and now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $22

208489 Maclean, Fitzroy To Caucasus, The End of all the Earth An Illustrated Companion to the Caucasus and Transcaucasia Jonathan Cape, London, 1976. First edition. Royal octavo hardcover; green boards with gilt spine titling; photographic endpapers; 203pp., colour & b&w plates, top edges dyed blue. Owner's name elided. Faded and slightly worn board edges and corners; foxed endpapers, prelims and title page; mildly spotted text block edges; dustwrapper spine panel mildly sunned and very slight wear to edges (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. Click here to order $25

61446 Michaud, Roland and Sabina with Olivier Germain-Thomas India: Journey Through the Heart of a Continent Abbeville, New York, NY, USA, 2005. Quarto; hardcover; black cloth boards with red gilt spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 310pp., colour illustrations. Dustwrapper. Small scrape on lower front corner. Remainder. New. From 1965 to 2001, Roland and Sabina Michaud traveled throughout India on a series of lengthy expeditions, dedicating over thirty five years to photographing the landscape and people. India: Journey through the Heart of a Continent is their intimate view of this remarkable country, designed to illuminate the country's complexities and contradictions. The beauty and mysteries of India's many competing religions and ways of life provided the inspiration for the 150 carefully selected photographs in this volume, telling the story of a remarkable country caught between old traditions and modern dilemmas. The variety of the photographs is astounding, reflecting the depth of understanding of the photojournalists; the breathtaking images range from India's austere, mountainous landscapes and diverse architectural tradition to intimate portraits of the men, women and children who inhabit these places. From beachside bonfires and traditional fishing boats to details of intricate stone carvings and sweeping panoramas of the cities' crowded streets, India: Journey through the Heart of a Continent provides an unparalleled look into the lives of the Indian people and the multifaceted worlds they live in. India is currently one of the top five destinations in the world and it inspires extreme and passionate responses from its many visitors; while some see it as an enchanted island, the poverty and difficulties of daily life are impossible to ignore. From the Himalayas to the Dravidian lands, India contains the variety of an entire continent. Through their fascinating text and images, Roland and Sabina Michaud have sought to capture the reality of Indian life in this gorgeous, expansive tribute to the real India. Click here to order $45

83448 Michaud, Roland and Sabrina Afghanistan Thames & Hudson, London, 1980. Oblong quarto hardcover; light brown cloth boards with black spine titling and publishers upper board insignia; 98pp., colour illustrations. Minor wear; light offsetting to endpapers and spotting to preliminaries with toned and faintly spotted upper text block edges. Very good to near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $45

83449 Michaud, Roland and Sabrina Caravans to Tartary Viking Press, New York, 1978. Oblong quarto hardcover; light brown cloth boards with gilt spine titling; 77pp., mainly colour illustrations. Minor wear; light offsetting to endpapers and spotting to preliminaries with mildly toned and faintly spotted upper text block edges. Very good to near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $45

83447 Michaud, Roland and Sabrina (intro. Daniel Farson) Turkey Thames & Hudson, London, 1986. Oblong quarto hardcover; dark red cloth boards with gilt spine titling and publishers upper board gilt insignia; 83pp., colour illustrations. Minor wear; fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $35

39391 Miller, Charles Early Travellers in North America Eyewitness Reports from the First Visitors to the New World Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 1994. Quarto; hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine-titling; 202pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor shelf wear, otherwise very good in like dustwrapper (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). This collection of writings by British travellers to Nineteenth Century America. is a glorious insight, not only to the state of affairs in that country, but also of the preoccupations of the British themselves. Here we have Fanny Trollope deploring the general table manners of the Americans while Louis Stevenson and Marryat become endlessly fascinated in trying to pin down the spoken idiom of the Wild West. Together with over 50 delightful photographic illustrations of the period, this is a wonderful mirror turned upon the America of yesteryear. Click here to order $20

214242 Morris, Jan Hong Kong Xianggang Viking/Penguin Books (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Ringwood Vic., 1988. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 320pp., with a map and 16pp. of monochrome plates. Moderate wear; slightly cocked; spine head mildly softened; text block and page edges toned. Dustwrapper is lightly rubbed and edgeworn; spine panel sunned; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $20

217883 Munthe, Axel (intro. Tim Burnet) The Story of San Michele - Folio Society edition Folio Society, London, 1993. Second printing. Octavo hardcover; umber cloth decorated boards with gilt spine titling, pale green endpapers; 360pp., monochrome photographic illustrations, top edges dyed brown. A few scattered spots on spine panel and mild rubbing to brown slipcase. Otherwise very good to near fine. Click here to order $30

63129 Murphy, Dervla Muddling Through in Madagascar John Murray Ltd., London, 1985. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 274pp., with maps monochrome illustrations and 16pp. of plates likewise. Mild wear; lightly shaken; spine extremities softened; text block top edge dusted. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed and edgeworn. Very good. Click here to order $22

215477 Murray, Nicholas A Corkscrew is Most Useful The Travellers of Empire Little Brown/Little Brown Book Group, London, 2008. Octavo; hardcover, with endpaper maps; 532pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates and many other illustrations likewise. Minor wear; some very mild insect damage to the upper board; light spotting to the text block edges. Dustwrapper. Very good. In the early 19th century there was a huge surge forward in travel of all kinds. Queen Victoria's accession in 1837 came barely a year after John Murray's first guidebook was published. Then in 1838 Bradshaw's famous portable railway timetable appeared. In 1841 Thomas Cook, the world's first travel agent, organised its first tour (from London to Leicester and back by train). The age of mass tourism had arrived. Side by side with it another phenomenon began to develop: exploration to wilder shores and uncharted lands. This is the focus of Nicholas Murray's fascinating book which draws upon the extraordinary stories of Livingstone's journey across Africa; Burton and Speke reaching Lake Tanganyika; John Stuart crossing Australia from south to north; Livingstone reaching the Zambezi; Richard Burton's travels across Arabia, and countless others' extraordinary and brave expeditions. Click here to order $30

8701 Newby, Eric On the Shores of the Mediterranean Harvill Press, London, 1984. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; green boards with gilt spine titling; 448pp., b&w line drawings. Mild toning and faint spotting to text block edges; tiny tear on lower spine panel of dustwrapper. Otherwise very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $25

97973 Newby, Eric Round Ireland in Low Gear Collins, London, 1987. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; green boards with gilt spine titling; 308pp., monochrome drawings. Binding slightly rolled; scattered spotting to endpapers and early pages; browned and spotted text block edges; mild wear to dustwrapper edges with tiny tear on upper front corner. Very good with wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $24

92191 Newby, Eric (ed.) A Book of Lands and Peoples HarperCollins, London, 2003. Hardcover, octavo; black boards with gilt spine titling; 620pp., monochrome maps and illustrations. Minor wear; browned and spotted text block and page edges; mildly rubbed dustwrapper with faded spine. Otherwise very good to near fine and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. "This anthology of writing by travellers takes us back to the days of exploration when the going was rough. It provides an absorbing record of discovery and derring-do in countries as far-flung as Albania and Borneo. Thankfully there are no syrupy tales of vineyards in the south of France or elephant trekking in Nepal. But neither is this a very contemporary reference book. Alex Garland and hipsters with a taste for druggy tourism in the Far East are absent. Instead the book is biased towards Victorian expeditions and old-fashioned travellers in the Redmond O'Hanlon school. (O'Hanlon, with his bushy side-whiskers, could well be a Victorian squire-naturalist as he carries on up equatorial Africa, far from the featherbed of civilisation.) The collection has been edited by Eric Newby with the help of his daughter, Sonia Ashmore. As well as providing eye-witness accounts of Aztec Mexico under the conquistadors or 1700s Italy under the Bourbons, Newby has included some choice pieces of advice to travellers. Sir Francis Galton, the Victorian scientist, recommends breaking raw eggs into one's boots to prevent blisters. His book, The Art of Travel, kindly tells us what to do in the event of shipwreck: 'A half-drowned man must be put to bed in dry, heated clothes... All rough treatment is not only ridiculous but full of harm.' This sort of silliness can be quite endearing. An English clergyman cautions seafarers in 1923: 'Should you have the bad luck, when at sea, to fall overboard, get your boots off and turn the coat pockets inside out.' The cleric adds helpfully: 'But do not take off your clothes, because they keep you warm.' ...There is much to gawp at in this anthology. Ernest Giles, an English explorer, celebrates Christmas 1873 in the Australian outback with fried wallaby (it was either that or kangaroo). Captain Cook, spreadeagled on the earth like a tropical crucifixion, is hacked to pieces by Hawaiian tribesmen after a small misunderstanding over a stolen boat. Cook's death in 1779 at the age of 50 still has a shocking appeal. In reprisal for petty thieving, the English navigator had ordered Pacific islanders to be flogged and their ears cut off; his cruelty and failure to understand non-Christian morals eventually cost him his life. ..Newby is to be congratulated on this engaging collection." - Ian Thomson Click here to order $25

90198 Raby, Peter Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific Travellers Chatto & Windus, London, 1996. Hardcover, octavo; green boards with gilt spine titling, black endpapers; 276pp., monochrome illustrations. Toned text block and page edges; dustwrapper spine slightly faded. Very good to near fine and dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. 'A fabulously rich, anecdotal and gripping account of those men and women who ventured out from Britain into the swamps and jungles of the tropics in search, knowingly or not, of the missing link. Through their stoical-sometimes crack-brained-voyages, the shape of the world, geographically and biologically, was elucidated. Never have more significant journeys been made... Enthusiastic, informed and racy, this is one of the most invigorating accounts of the exploits of people from an age whose intrepidity is staggering. Peter Raby's book follows a disparate crew of botanists, scientists and collectors, who tried to order the earthly paradise which unfolded around them. Entrepreneurs they may have been - many were dependent on selling their specimens to finance their trips - but they were also scrupulous and sensitive observers... Raby finds some shimmering, personalities... His book is excellent. ' - Daily Telegraph Click here to order $22

14254 Robb, Peter A Death in Brazil A book of omissions Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney, 2003. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; green boards with silver gilt spine titling and map endpapers; 372pp. Pages and text block edges toned; a little rubbing to lower spine edge; else near fine in dustwrapper with small tear to upper corner of rear panel (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Click here to order $22

92210 Romanelli, Samuel (Introduction by Yedida K. & Norman Stillman, trans. & ed.) Travail in an Arab Land The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa AL, 1989. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in leather with a cloth spine and speckled endpapers; 222pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; some very mild spotting and dusting to the text block edges. Dustwrapper is lightly rubbed and sunned along the spine panel. Very good to near fine. Romanelli was a son of the Enlightenment who spent most of his life travelling in search of adventure, knowledge and patrons for his literary endeavours. An Italian born in 1757 into a family of rabbinical scholars, physicians and men of letters he received an excellent education not only in traditional Hebrew curriculum, but also in Italian, arithmetic and the classics. Fluent in ten languages, he was a poet and translator of classical and contemporary literature into Hebrew and apparently he earned a good living. During a return voyage to Italy in 1786 he became stranded in Gibraltar for an extended period of time that depleted his funds such that he was forced to join a merchant travelling to Morocco. Through misadventure, he lost his passport and was obliged to remain there for four years. This book is the story of that experience. This is a unique account of the life and culture of Jews in 18th century Morocco. His ethnographic interest extended to native Moroccan customs and rituals, but because of his broad background, he was able to draw parallels with more widely known cultures. His vivid descriptions of native dress, marketplaces, medicinal practices and detailed analysis of the linguistic variants of Moroccan dialect provide a wealth of original source material. Click here to order $22

217355 Ruthven, Malise Freya Stark in Persia Garnet Publishing, Reading, 1994. Quarto hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine titling; 118pp., b&w photographic illustrations and a map. Mild rubbing to board corners; mild spotting on upper text block edge. Near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Unlike Syria and Iraq, where Europeans were well protected, Persia in 1930 was an independent country only recently recovering from years of lawlessness. Despite its apparent dangers, Freya Stark's romantic soul found an affinity with people who seemed to prefer poverty with freedom to sub-colonial affluence. Before venturing into Mazanderan Dame Freya spent a month in Hamadan. She set out for Alamut in the middle of May heading for the castle of Hassan-i-Sabbah. She returned to the valleys the following year in August 1931, to explore the castle of Lamasur, one of the last of the Ismaili strongholds. She sojourned briefly in Tehran in September 1931 before the prospect of buried treasure took her to Luristan. Freya Stark's qualities as improviser, entrepreneur (her highly irregular selling of her official car at a 500 percent profit earned her few friends in Foreign Office circles) and adventurer could never be doubted; this volume of her own photographs of Persia admirably serves to illustrate a singular and fascinating life. Click here to order $30

10984 Shipton, Diana The Antique Land Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1950. First edition. Hardcover, octavo, 219pp., monochrome plates. Foxed preliminaries, lightly spotted text block edges, binding slightly turned; good to very good in dustwrapper worn at edges, chipped at head and tail of spine panel. Not price-clipped. Dustwrapper professionally protected by superior non-adhesive archival film and white paper backing. Diana Shipton, wife of Eric (of Everest fame), here produces a narrative of her engaging impressions of an ancient, isolated and enchanting land; central Asia - Kashgar in the distant province of Sinkiang. A country then of fantasy and intrigue. Click here to order $100

83430 Singh, Raghubir (Foreword by Satyajit Ray) Rajasthan India's Enchanted Land Thames & Hudson, London, 1981. Landscape octavo; hardcover, red cloth boards with gilt spine-titling; 32pp, & 80 full-colour photographic illustrations. Faint spotting to upper text block edges and tiny tear on head of dustwrapper spine; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Raghubir Singh was one of India's leading photographers. His photographs are in the permanent collection of museums and galleries such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. Since 1974, he has published 12 books on India, including Rajasthan, his home state. Singh belongs to a tradition of small-format street photography, pioneered by photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, whom he met in 1966 and observed for a week while the latter was working in Jaipur, and who, with Robert Frank, was to have a lasting impact of his work; however, unlike them, he chose to work in colour, as for him this represented the intrinsic value of Indian aesthetics. In time Singh was acknowledged with William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld as one of the finest photographers of his generation and a leading pioneer of colour photography. He travelled across India with the American photographer Lee Friedlander who, according to him, 'was often looking for the abject as subject'; in the end Singh found Friedlander's approach of 'beauty as seen in abjection' fundamentally western, which suited neither him nor India; thus, he built his own style and aesthetic imprint, which according to his 2004 retrospective created 'a documentary style vision was neither sugarcoated, nor abject, nor controllingly omniscient'. 'Because he was obsessed with authenticity, his pictures have a vividness and immediacy that convey the essence of numerous aspects of Indian life. As other critics have noted, his real passion was for portraying people so that it is rare to see a shot that does not have a living person within it.' - Bruce Palling. Click here to order $35

78659 Stark, Freya The Lycian Shore John Murray, London, 1956. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with upper board title; 204pp., with an engraved and decorated title page, many line drawings and 21pp. of monochrome photographic plates. Some light spotting and toning to text block edges, foxed preliminaries and further scattered; else very good in price-clipped dustwrapper a little worn at edges and with some smudging to rear panel. Very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $45

59795 Theroux, Paul The Old Patagonian Express By Train Through the Americas Hamish Hamilton, London, 1979. First edition. Hardcover, octavo, illustrated endpapers, 340pp. Small stain to upper block edge; else near fine in lightly worn dustwrapper. Click here to order $25

37756 Thubron, Colin In Siberia Chatto & Windus, London, 1999. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with silver gilt spine titling and endpaper maps; 286pp. Mild wear; binding a little cocked; mild spotting to upper text block edge. Dustwrapper; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $30

95379 Watson, Don The Bush: Travels in the Heart of Australia Hamish Hamilton, Melbourne, 2014. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; red boards with white upper board and spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 427pp., colour and monochrome plates. Minor wear only; near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $25

65150 Wevers, Lydia (ed.) Travelling to New Zealand An Oxford Anthology Oxford, 2000. Quarto hardcover; green boards with white spine titling, green endpapers; 281pp., monochrome illustrations. Owner's name. Minor wear only; dustwrapper with very mild edgewear. Near fine. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Humorous and descriptive accounts of travel on and off New Zealand roads are included, as are those of sojourns in hotels and bush inns, and travel by ship in settler ships and tourist ships from the 1880s to the 1930s. Particularly engrossing are accounts of the cultural encounter with the Maori and the Grand Tours of the 1880s taking in the astounding beauty of New Zealand scenery. Click here to order $25

46218 Young, Gavin Worlds Apart: Travels in War and Peace Hutchinson, London, 1987. First edition. Octavo hardcover; red boards with gilt spine titling; xxiv + 344pp., b&w maps and illustrations. Owner's name. Toning and spotting to text block edges with a few small marks; a few scattered spots on preliminaries; mild sunning to dustwrapper spine panel and adjacent, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. A frontline observer of people and places in crisis. Click here to order $25