The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne

London: Bickers and Son, 1880. Third Edition. Leather_bound. Good. Third Edition. Leather_bound. This foundational book in the history of environmentalism is the work of parson-naturalist and birdwatching pioneer Gilbert White (1720-1793), referred to by many as the first environmentalist, and Selborne was the community he called home. Selborne is a small village in Hampshire, England. The Natural History of Selborne is an extraordinary work due precisely to its ordinary character. Rather than venture to the world's farthest reaches, the book blazed a different path for aspiring naturalists—a path toward home, revealing the value of digging deep and observing the world that lies right outside your door. The observations and correspondence of a humble parson of a country parish, Gilbert White's Selborne won the admiration of such titans as Virginia Woolf, who praised its near-novelistic prose, and Charles Dickens, who after reading it as young man, wondered "why every gentleman did not become an ornithologist." This handsome Victorian-era edition is bound in full gilt-decorated leather, with marbled edges and endpapers, and comes illustrated in engravings by Thomas Bewick and others throughout. This third edition also offers ten letters not included in any previous edition.

8 3/4" X 5 3/4". xxii, 568pp. Presents nicely in protective archival jacket. Bound in full red calf over boards, with armorial insignia and device of Sherborne School in Dorset stamped in gilt to gilt-ruled boards and spine lettered in gilt over a green leather title label with five gilt-decorated compartments and five raised bands. All edges marbled, with matching marbled endpapers. Inner gilt dentelles faded. Moderate to heavy wear to binding, with tears to leather at edges and extremities, scuffing and scattered rubbing, indentations to boards, wear to exterior hinges, and shallow losses to head and tail of spine. Binding is sound. Ownership inscription of C. J. Hill, dated Summer 1883, to flyleaf. 4" neat tear to fold-out plate facsimile from White's journal facing page 383. Very occasional spot of foxing to pages, else clean and unmarked. An admittedly worn but sound and still very handsome leatherbound 1880 edition of this foundational book in the history of environmentalism.