1935, ISBN: c8f0387b49e76cfc30996666ef71b080

Hardcover

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1935. Stated first edition. Blue full cloth boards, gilt embossed cover and spine titles, fine. Cover features gilt border w/silhouette of plane from … More...

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1935. Stated first edition. Blue full cloth boards, gilt embossed cover and spine titles, fine. Cover features gilt border w/silhouette of plane from above. Deckled pages fine, no writing. Ice blue top edge. Frontispiece portrait plate of Admiral Byrd. Pictorial endpapers of the operations map of the second Byrd Antarctica Expedition including Little America, Ross Ice Shelf, Marie Byrd Land, and the Rockefeller Plateau. Bind good; hinges intact. Dust wrapper, moderate wear, rub; unclipped 3.75, protected in new clear sleeve. Classic wrap-around jacket design of plane flying over the antarctic plateau at night w/moon in b.g. Illustrated with over fifty amazing photos, images and maps, etc. Near fine first edition in near very good wrapper. From the moment Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr. first left Anarctica, he knew he would return. Both the scope of the strange land and the uncharted scientific promise it held were too much to leave behind forever. Launched during the Great Depression amid great public skepticism, and with funding at its toughest to secure, this second Antarctic journey proved as daring, eventful, and inspiring as any Byrd embarked upon. Admiral Byrd’s classic explorations by land, air, and sea transport us to the farthest reaches of the earth. As companions on Byrd’s journeys, readers experience the polar landscape through Byrd’s own struggles, doubts, revelations, and triumphs and share the excitement of these timeless adventures. Byrd proves to be an honest, sensitive, eloquent writer, humbled by the vast dangerous world of the Antarctic. The challenges of leading men, the difficulties of planning and preparation atop the great frozen mountains and ice pack are sympathetically described. Byrd was an American naval officer who specialized in feats of exploration. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. Aircraft flights in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean, and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau. Byrd's expeditions were the first to reach both the North and South Pole by air. Manufactured in the United States of America at the Van Rees Press. 405 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1935, 4, quarto, 4 pages, short splits along horizontal folds, neatly inscribed in ink, very good, clean condition.Fessenden writes:"Mr. Hunt Dear Sir, When I received your first Letter, I had no less than four different works in the printer's press, to wit The New England Farmer, The Horticultural Register, The Silk Manual, and a new edition, with additions etc. of a work which I wrote many years ago, and which was first published in England, entitled Tractoration etc. I was, besides, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, having been chosen Representative from Boston. Besides all that, my partner in business, Mr. Barrett, who owned the New England Farmer, of which I am the Editor, was soon taken sick, and died in about a fortnight I have also been confined for a fortnight past nearly all the time to my chamber, by a complaint in my head. I am better, however, and hope to go out this day. Now with regard to my land, I wish you to manage it as you would if it was your own. I am particularly anxious that the timber should not be destroyed, nor the young growth of trees, if there is any, be injured by cattle browsing on it, nor by any other means. You will be so good as to see to the making of such fences as may be necessary to secure the wood lot, which you wrote about in your first letter, and such other outside fences as you may think advisable. You may have the use of the land for the sum you mentioned, 50 dollars a year You cannot be more anxious to see me in Illinois than I am to come and make you a visit. But I cannot leave Boston this year without not only sacrificing much of my little property but violating several engagements which I have entered into with printers and others. I hope, however, though I cannot at this time promise certainly I would not be understood as making any positive engagement to make my appearance in Illinois next spring You may be assured that I shall not make sale of my land in Illinois without your advice and concurrence and in fact have no intention of parting with it at any rate at present. I perceive by some newspapers, that lands in Illinois when the owners live out of the state are sometimes sold for taxes without his knowledge. I hope you will see that such a ting does not happen to me "[His wife then adds family news]: " Mr. Fessenden has had a pretty severe attack of his old head complaint but is now about again without a [?] for about ten days he could not walk alone across the chamber. The addition of nursing to that of housekeeping has been almost too much. I thought last night I was going to be sick, I was obliged to go to bed by the middle of the afternoon but took a dose of physic and today I am about again " Fessenden likely never journeyed to Illinois, where he planned to retire as a small farmer; he died of a brain tumor the following year. His good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne was moved to write a eulogy and brief biography of the New England poet, editor and politician he called "a man of genius like no other worthy to be remembered both in the literary and political annals of our country" Apart from being constantly drawn, at financial cost, to "schemers of all sorts", investing in patents, inventions of bizarre machines, Fessenden was a practicing lawyer, founder and editor of several agricultural and horticultural magazines, a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and a prolific author of poetry and prose, his published works including "terrible Tractoration", which he mentions in this letter, a satire in verse, first published in England, which Hawthorne called "a work of strange and grotesque ideas aptly expressed"; "The New American Gardener", which gave instructions on growing fruits, vegetables and grapevines, and "The Husbandman and Housewife, a Collection of Valuable Recipes and Directions", now valued in the antiquarian book market as an early book of American gastronomy.Fessenden's letters are uncommon. None have been sold at auction in recent years and a scattered few appear in the holdings of Dartmouth, Brown, and the University of Virginia., 0, Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1783. 24pp. 12mo. Dbd. Occasional light foxing, some age- toning. A good copy. Scarce later American printing of this parable advising young gentlemen on how to select a wife, composed as an allegory regarding the choice of a travelling companion on the journey from Babylon to the Promised Land. At the end of the tale, the narrator observes "these two happy companions pursuing their journey: and here I saw verified an ancient counsel; (an help-meet). For they were sincere friends, pleasant companions, faithful partners, and useful assistants, to each other...Then I was convinced, that two are better than one; and yet it was very manifest, that they were no more twain." A good copy of a scarce pamphlet, NAIP lists five locations for this printing. In all, NAIP records eleven editions published between 1757 and 1797. The titlepage of this printing describes this as the seventh edition, but NAIP also notes another twenty- four-page Philadelphia "seventh edition" printed in 1764. Adding to the confusion of editions, NAIP also reports two separate "sixth editions" and the earliest printing recorded in NAIP, published in Boston in 1757, is described as the third edition. There were earlier edition printed in England, which may account for the various edition statements for the American editions. The titlepage has the further interesting imprint line, "Sold also by Lot Tripp, near New-Milford, Connecticut." EVANS 17989. ESTC W10130. HILDEBURN 4308., Joseph Crukshank, 1783, 0<