Walkabout Books

London: Geo. Goulding, 1789. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. large 4to, xxix, 360, 47 pp + 17 engraved plates, 5 folding maps and charts. Contemporary calf boards (rubbed through at corners), rebacked with new spine, original marbled endpapers retained. Armorial bookplate of John Bridge on front pastedown, Bridge's name and 1827 date written at head of title page, along with "This book belonged to H.R.H. the Duke of York." We believe this is the John Bridge of the firm Rundell and Bridge, jewelers to the royal family. A few plates and one chart with foxing, but overall a very clean copy. Hill 117: "Dixon’s voyage is important as a supplement to Captain Cook and for its contributions to the natural history of the Pacific Northwest. The purpose of the expedition was to establish a trade in furs in North America, but the itinerary also included the Isle of Guernsey, Cape Verde Islands, Falkland Islands, Cape Horn, Sandwich Islands (three times), Cook’s River, King George’s Sound, Prince William Soun…Read more

New York: Little, Brown, 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/very good. 308 pp, with illustrations from photographs. Some uneven toning to cloth, light dust soiling to top edge, pale stain at margin of title page. Otherwise claan and sound. In the scarce original dust jacket, which has some short tears and small losses, but is well-preserved and attractive overall, with the original $2.50 price present. The first biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright. As described on the dust jacket: "Basing his book on the unpublished letters and diaries of the two men, and on data obtained from Orville and his family, the author has laid strong stress on the personal and human side. It is a charming and sympathetic picture of an unusually devoted family life...and of the steady pursuit of an ideal through all sorts of difficulties and setbacks.

New York: Great American Tea Company, 1886. Near fine. Original chromolithograph advertising poster, 22 x 32 inches. A stunning print with exceptionally rich color, archivally backed. Professional restoration to edges and a few small spots on the printed area. Near fine. "Ten minutes for refreshments!" was the well-known cry of railroad conductors across the United States before dining cars became common on trains. Hungry and thirsty passengers would rush off the train and into the depot, where they scrambled to order and then bolt down their lunch under the watchful eye of conductor determined to keep the train on schedule. In this advertising print for the Great American Tea Company, the conductor stands in the doorway with pocket watch in hand, calming observing the chaos as customers (all white men served by Black waiters) frantically consume their food and beverages, some leaving smashed crockery in their wake as they rush to re-board the train. Coffee is dispensed from urns advertising the company's S…Read more

San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1966. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. Revised edition. 155 pp, with index, photographs, maps. Near fine copy in original pictorial cloth, slight spotting to top edge. Dust jacket has a few minor chips and tears. Edwards, who spent nine years as a seasonal ranger and naturalist at Glacier, provides descriptions of numerous peaks and routes, supplemented by general and area maps and 48 pages of photographs by Ansel Adams, Philip Hyde, Cedric Wright, Bob and Ira Spring, and others.

Washington, 1849. Very good. Lithograph map in seven sections, with each sheet measuring approximately 15.5 x 25 inches. Not bound. Second issue of this monumental and important map of the Oregon Trail, described by Wheat as "a road guide for Oregon emigrants such as had never previously existed." The second issue is nearly identical to the first (which appeared in 1846), but the lithographer's name has been omitted and the numbering of sheets III and VI is reversed. An exceptionally clean set, with no splits or repairs, and almost none of the toning often seen along the folds. Charles Preuss was a Prussian-born surveyor and cartographer who accompanied John C. Fremont on three of his five exploratory expeditions in the American West. His first great map, illustrating Fremont's explorations of 1842 to the Rocky Mountains and of 1843-44 to Oregon and California, was published in 1845. Fremont set off on his third expedition later that year, but Preuss remained behind, using information compiled during the pr…Read more

Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1846. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Title continues: "With a Description of the Countries Passed Through, Including their Geography, Geology, Resources, Present Condition, and the Different Nations Inhabiting Them." 7.5" x 4.5", 303 pp, bound in three-quarter leather and marbled boards; rebacked, with new endpapers, earlier spine laid down. The large folding map is supplied in facsimile. Light foxing to title page, stain affecting margin and a small amount of text on last ca. 20 leaves, otherwise quite clean. First edition, first issue (with page numbers 77-88, 270-271, and 302 placed in the inner margin) of one of the most important overland narratives, with considerable detail on the fur trade. Sage (1817-1893) was a self-taught newspaper printer and editor from Ohio with a strong impulse to travel and explore. Eager to learn more about the vast region beyond the Missouri frontier, in 1841 he organized a small party and headed west. His travels brought him into close ass…Read more

London: W.C. Such, Printer and Publisher. Very good. Broadside. Undated, ca. 1922. 25 x 19 cm (ca. 9.75" x 7.5"), on newsprint or similar stock. Old folding creased, closed tear with archival repair on verso; very good. Although this song--a lament for England's poor and unemployed--may have been written as early as the 1890s, this edition, with its plea to "Please buy a copy from an unemployed ex-service man," was printed in the aftermath of World War I. Unemployment in England became a significant problem around 1920, as the country's economy slowed, trade decreased, and debts incurred by the war loomed large. Reincorporating the demobilized troops into the civilian workforce and providing sufficient resources for those disabled during the war proved particularly challenging. We locate copies of this song sheet at the British Library, Bodleian (Ballad-Roud # V20673), and the University of Warwick.

Kobe, Japan: Mitsumura Printing Company, 1909. Hardcover. Good. 11 x 14.25 inches, oblong. String-tied decorative cloth boards. Six pages of text, followed by 16 full-page collotype plates and one double-page folding panorama. Light soiling and wear to boards, final leaf with a repair to the margin (not affecting image). National Association of Cotton Manufacturers bookplate on front pastedown and ink stamp on title page call number at lower right corner of front board, otherwise unmarked and internally quite clean. This edition is undated, and we have not been able to determine whether it is earlier or later than another edition that is dated 1909 and credited to Kobe-based photographer S. Ichida (Ichida Sota, 1843-1896). In 1909, the Kanegafuchi Spinning Company employeed more than 14,000 workers and was the largest cotton spinning company in Japan. The company was uncommonly committed to the welfare of its laborers, providing schooling for both adult workers and their children, and offering them affordab…Read more

Grenoble: Imp. F. Dardelet. Softcover. Very good. Undated, ca. 1920. 8.5 x 5.25 inches, [32] pp. Moderate handling wear; very good. Text in French. Timetables, rates, and itineraries for a variety of chauffer-driven routes stretching from the Alpine heights of Chamonix down to the Mediterranean shores of Nice and Marseille. The company's six-cylinder automobiles were specially built by Delahaye and could seat up to 14 passengers. Many ads for hotels and restaurants.

London: T.Cadell and W. Davies, 1804. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Quarto. pp. ix, [3], 632, with 8 plates (including frontispiece), five of which are hand-colored. Recent full calf with new endpapers, original red spine label preserved, three armorial ink stamps on the top edge of the text block. Tissue repair to first page of table of contents, ocasional foxing and minor soiling in the margins; overall quite clean and sound. "Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney's mission to the court of China in 1792 as his private secretary, and the present account...is one of the best illustrated English travels on China. The eight plates are from drawings by William Alexander, who also accompanied the embassy and later published his own work. The strict exclusion of Europeans by the Chinese emperors had left China very much terra incognita to the western world well into the nineteenth century. Barrow was an excellent observer, and the text contains a number of descriptions and illustrations of Chinese artifacts a…Read more

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1862. First American Edition. Hardcover. good. 8vo, xii, [4], 574+ [2] ads. Illustrated with engravings; 3 maps on one folding sheet. Blue cloth stamped in blind and gilt. Spine darkened, fraying to spine ends, corners rubbed, front hinge partially cracked. Embossed library stamp on a few pages, bookplate on front pastedown; otherwise unmarked. Provenance: From the collection of Burton scholar and bibliographer James Casada. Written a few years after Burton's celebrated account of his journey to Mecca and Medina, this book describes the explorer's 1860 visit to Salt Lake City. Burton, who met Brigham Young on the trip, applied his characteristic ethnographic eye to Mormon ways, and his work offers a detailed and sympathetic portrait. The appendix contains a number of Mormon documents and a Mormon chronology. Wagner-Camp 370:2; Howes B1033; Flake 1029.