Travels Through the Alps

large 8vo [24 x 17.5 cm]; xxxviii, [ii], 572 pp, engraved frontis (port), numerous illus, 6 maps including 2 folding maps in rear pocket, one being colored, 9 topographical sketches, bibliog, index. original cloth, gilt title lettering on front cover and spine, gilt ruled, top edge gilted, expertly rebacked preserving original boards and most of spine, rubbed, bookplate of Orace Nerreshoff on endpaper, very good solid copy. A picture of this book is Neate 274: 'Forbes was a Scottish scientist and traveler. He made many observations and mountain expeditions in the Alps, Norway and Dauphine. . . His books are the first English accounts of systematic Alpine exploration and description of various regions.' He made the fourth (first British) ascent of the Jungfrau and the first British ascent of the Stockhorn. This work consists of all of his Alpine works including Travels Through the Alps of Savoy (first published in 1843), Journals of Excursions in the High Alps of Dauphine, Berne and Savoy, Pedestrianism in Switzerland and Topography of the Chain of Mont Blanc. Abbey Travel 62 lists the first work. The introduction by Coolidge, an American mountaineer and former editor of the Alpine Journal, provides a good historical overview. Cox, Classics in the Literature of Mountaineering 9: 'Regarded as the father of British mountaineering, the distinguished Scottish scientist was the first British mountaineer to engage in a series of expeditions in the Alps. Travels Through the Alps was the first book in English which described a series of Alpine climbs'.

Edizione: first complete edition of forbes' alpine works, annotated by w. a. b. coolidge.