National Maritime Museum Catalogue of the Library | Voyages and Travel; [Volume 1 of 3] [from Steve Fossett Collection]

London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1968. First Edition. Near Fine/Very Good. Eyre and Spottiswoode Ltd. [10x7.5in]; xi. 403 pp., 8 B/W plates and 2 fold out B/W maps; Dark blue cloth with gilt lettered spine and debossed gilt flying fish on front; Dark blue-gray dust jacket with black and white lettering on front and spine, illustration of early explorers and soldiers in the arrest of Columbus on front; Minor shelf wear with some wear to dust jacket surface, edges and corners, closed tear and wrinkles on back, priced clipped. Voyages & Travels is Volume 1 of the Library of the National Maritime Museum Catalogue [subsequent volumes deal with biography, atlases and piracy ] Bibliographical details and annotations for 1,204 entries arranged chronologically areas of interest - circumnavigations, Africa, America, Europe, Far East, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and includes a general index and index of ships. A well laid out bibliography of the holdings of the Library to complement other voyages and travels bibliographies.

This copy has a tipped in card "Presented for Review" advising the reviewer not to issue any review prior to "16.Jul.1968" This copy was also part of the Steve Fossett Collection auctioned in 2019, 12 years after his death. Steve Fossett (1944-2007) was a successful commodities trader and an adventurer that set world records in balloons, sailboats, gliders and unique powered aircraft. In 2002, he was the first person to solo circumnavigate the world in a balloon, uninterrupted and unrefueled, and, in 2005, made a solo nonstop unrefueled flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer sponsored by Richard Branson. In the 1980's Fossett began developing a library collection of books on adventure and exploration. He enlisted the services of an experienced bookseller to assist in building an over 2,000 volume collection focusing on significant and authoritative accounts of aeronautics, polar, Asia, Australasia, circumnavigation's, mountaineering and others. In September, 2007, Fossett disappeared on a solo flight in a light aircraft over the eastern Sierra Mountains along the California and Nevada border. After an extensive search, the wreckage was found by hikers a year later along the rugged Mt. Ritter range, about 10 miles east of Yosemite National Park.