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Down the River - Signed - Edward Abbey

1982 - E. P. Dutton, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition, signed ‘Edmund Abbey, SLC, May 10, 1984’. An important collection of insightful, powerful and punchy essays, illustrated by Abbey.

From the front cover –
"Be of good cheer," our favorite war-horse advises, "the military-industrial state will soon collapse." This sparkling book, which takes us up and down rivers and across mountains and deserts, is the perfect antidote to despair. Along the way, Ed Abbey makes time for Henry David Thoreau while he takes a hard look at the Air Force's MX missile system, currently slated for the American West.

Ed writes: "For twenty-three years now I've been floating rivers. Always downstream, the easy and natural way. The way Huck Finn and Jim did it, La Salle and Marquette, the mountain men, and Major Powell..."’
 
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Price HK$ 4,500



Abbey's Road - Inscribed - Edward Abbey, Jean Pruchnik (illustrator)

1979 - E. P. Dutton, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition, illustrated by Jean Pruchnik, signed and inscribed ‘all the best! Edward Abbey Santa Fe 11/56/88

‘In the spirit of
Desert Solitaire and The Journey Home, Abbey's Road is a personal odyssey. Edward Abbey's explorations include the familiar territory of the Rio Grande in Texas and Canyonlands National Park and Lake Powell in Utah. He also takes us to such varied places as Scotland, the interior of Australia, and the Sierra Madre and Isla de la Sombra in Mexico.’

‘I've been along a few of Mr. Abbey's roads. He sees much more than I did. Indeed, reading him is often better than being there was.’ – John Leonard.

‘Abbey's the original fly in the ointment. Give him money and prizes. Don't let anything happen to him.’ – Thomas McGuane.
 
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Price HK$ 6,000



The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West - Signed - Edward Abbey, Jim Stiles (illustrator)

1977 - Dutton, New York - First Edition
A bright fresh first edition of Abbey’s first major non-fiction work since Desert Solitaire, signed by him to the title page, and illustrated by Jim Stiles.

‘Alive with ranchers, dam builders, kissing bugs and mountain lions. In a voice edged with inner chagrin, he offers a portrait of the American West what we'll not soon forget, offering us the observations of a man who left the urban world behind to think about the natural world and the myths buried therein’.
 
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Price HK$ 3,000



A Voyage Round the World, In the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. - George Anson, Richard Walter

1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition
A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of this beautifully illustrated work which ‘has long occupied a distinguished position as a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill), and ‘a model of what such literature should be’ (Cox).

Containing forty-two copper-engraved maps, charts, views, and coastal profiles, all but one folding, including views of Brazilian harbours and cities, Acapulco, Tenian, Port St. Julian, Magellan’s Straits, the Bay of Manila, Saipan, Lama, Lantau, Chinese junks, and others, and large folding maps of South America, the Philippines, and the Pacific Ocean, as well as a twelve-page subscriber list, and the two-page instructions to the binder.

England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. Seven ships were lost and of 900 men 600 perished. As usual, scurvy took an appalling toll.

The Spanish fleet sent to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary objective of the expedition was not attained. Anson, however, continued taking prizes off the Pacific coast during 1741-42, and in June 1743, near the Philippines, he captured the Spanish galleon
Nostra Seigniora de Cabadonga and its treasure of £400,000 sterling, which allowed Anson and the surviving members of his crew to reach England much the richer. 
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Price HK$ 59,000



The Splendid Idle Forties. Stories of Old California - Gertrude Atherton, Harrison Fisher (illustrator)

1902 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First Edition
‘Perhaps the best known collection of stories of that romantic period of California history when the incoming Americans were first intermingling with the Californians of rancho and presidio...’ – The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club.

A fine bright example, of this collection of short stories, illustrated with eight plates by Harrison Fisher.

‘The finest stories ever written about early California’ – Phil Townsend Hanna.

The stories are:
The Pearls of Loreto; The Ears of Twenty Americans; The Washtub Mail; The Conquest of Dona Jacoba; A Ramble with Eulogia; The Isle of Skulls; The Head of a Priest; La Perdida; Lukari's Story; Natalie Ivanhoff: A Memory of Fort Ross; The Vengeance of Padre Arroyo; The Bells of San Gabriel; and When the Devil was Well. 
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Price HK$ 3,500



1928 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition, Second Issue
Finely bound copy of Boyd’s epic novel of the American Revolution, finely bound, and highlighted by N. C. Wyeth’s iconic illustrations, black and white pen drawings, colour title page and fourteen full-page colour plates.

One of
Life magazine’s 100 most outstanding books for 1924-1944. 
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Price HK$ 4,000



Sick Heart River - John Buchan

1941 - Hodder Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Buchan’s last book, published posthumously.

The review in the April 1941 edition of Punch sums it up nicely:-

‘"
If thou hast a woe, tell it not to the weakling, tell it to thy saddle-bow, and ride singing forth." John Buchan took this Proverb of Alfred as text for his book Sick Heart River (Hodder and Stoughton, 8/3) which is as good a sermon to lift the downhearted as has ever been given in the form of a novel. When Sir Edward Leithen, a former British Attorney-General, received his notice of death from a specialist, "his memory sprawled over places he had seen" and he decided to go to Quebec to make his soul and to "die standing". One journey led to another in quest of a famous French-Canadian who, in a mood of mental sickness, had suddenly left his wife and important office in New York; and was "wanted" by American people because of his genius over international affairs. The tale that follows of two white men, their half-breed guides and some "Hare Indians", their fight with and against Nature in a lonely place is soul-stirring in more than one way and makes as brave a book as the late Governor-General of Canada ever gave us.’

The fictional Sick Heart River is in the real region of the Nahanni River in Canada's Northwest Territories. It is in some of the most rugged terrain in Canada. The area was only just being mapped when Buchan, as Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, passed nearby during his voyage down the Mackenzie River in the summer of 1937. Having heard much about the mysterious South Nahanni, Buchan was fascinated by it and wanted to go there, but did not make it before he died in February, 1940. [Galbraith, 2001]
 
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Price HK$ 3,500



The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook, with "The Death of Captain Cook" Plate - James Cook, John Hawkesworth, James King

1773 - Strahan, London - Second Edition, First Edition, Second Edition
A complete set of the best possible editions, superbly bound in full tree calf and with the additional ‘Death of Captain Cook’ drawn by the John Weber who witnessed the dispute and ensuing fight. Eight quarto volumes and the elephant folio volume of plates. Magnificently illustrated with two hundred and five engraved charts and plates, many of which are double page or larger.

There is no greater set of travel works, Cook was the first scientific navigator, these three voyages made great contributions to numerous fields of knowledge,, and did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than his predecessors had done together [Hill].

The first voyage is in its second and best edition, complete with the ‘
Directions for placing the cuts’ and the ‘Chart of the Straights of Magellan’, and with the new Preface containing Hawkesworth's virulent eight-page reply to Dalrymple's whining reviews of the first edition, and the whole volume revised by the voyage's astronomer William Wales.

The third voyage is in its second and best edition, with the printing by Hughs (rather than Strahan who printed the first edition) with the text itself entirely re-set. Isaac Smith presenting a set on behalf of Cook's widow in 1821 noted that '
I am desired by Mrs Cook to request your acceptance of the 4 books sent herewith being her Husbands last Voyage round the World, as a mark of her respect the letter press of the second edition being much superior to the first both in paper & letter press' (quoted by Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, 85). King George III's copy of the official account, preserved in the British Library, is also an example of this second edition. This particular set with variant title pages, dated correctly, but without edition statement or vignette of Royal Society medal. 
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Price HK$ 430,000



 
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