Farthest North by Fridtjof Nansen. London: Archibald Constable & Co, 1897.
AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF NANSEN'S FARTHEST NORTH, PRECEDING THE NORWEGIAN EDITION.
LIKELY SIR EDUMUND HILLARY'S COPY, RECEIVED IN 1946 PRIOR TO HIS FAMOUS EXPEDITIONS TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST.
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Provenance:
With loose ephemera including a note from "P+M" saying "A Happy Easter to [Edmund] Hillary" with "Vol II sent later" written at the bottom, thus implying these two books were a gift given to Sir Edmund Hillary with the second volume arriving later.
Another loose piece of paper reading "With Dr. Lauder Thomson's Compliments." followed by an address.
With a tipped in letter in the second volume addressed to Sir Edmund Hillary dated (?) 7th 1946 sent from the same address as the loose bit of paper from Dr Lauder Thomson. The letter reads:
"Mr dear Hillary, Thank you very much for your letter from Keland (or Zealand?). I hope you enjoyed your holiday there and now it is your birthday again. You are getting quite 'antique' what is it this time 10 years? I (?) a few (?) the unused Indian ones are two of the victory issued as also the green one of New Zealand. and you will find 3 of the american Roosevelt issue of the others some are Colonial + some from this Block are Swedish. Today is actually fine. The first fine day for weeks. Yesterday when it didn't rain, I was working hard - the (?) Lauderdale Salden hit it must like the old Lauderdale one. the Salden in (?) an old one piece of field full of weeds. It will take years to get it going and free from Bullinant(?) and grass. Love to you all and a happy birthday, (?) (?) Grandad, (illegible signature)."
This letter, being written in 1946, is just after Hillary was badly burnt in an accident after being in Fiji and the Solomon Islands in 1945. It precedes his ascent of the southern ridge of New Zealand's highest peak (Mount Cook) in January 1948 and of course his famous expeditions to climb Mt Everest between 1951 and 1953, with the news of his famous ascent of Everest reaching Britain on the same day as Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
We of course cannot say with certainty that this is Sir Edmund Hillary's copy as he did not sign it, but given the evidence, it seems more likely than not. It remains nonetheless a fantastic example of the first edition of Nansen's Farthest North.
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Size: 177 x 246 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
[i-xiii, (1), 510pp., (1), 2 plates]; [i-xiii, (1), 671pp., 2 plates]
Spines with very minor rubbing and marks. Minor wear to heads and bottoms of spines. Spine of volume one warped. All boards securely attached with very minor wear to joints and hinges. Boards with very minor scuffing and marks. Minor shelf and edge wear. Toning and foxing to page edges. Endpapers foxed. Text blocks clean sporadic very minor foxing. Small number of pages with more prominent foxing. Handwritten note bound at the beginning of volume two. Small tear to the inner left side of the first map in volume two (only affecting white space). Text block cracked in a few places with pages remaining attached.
[MMSID 9929675153804341; OCLC 5360046].
