Adventure, Travel & Exploration from Louise Aird

This is the fourth printing of Rails to the Tableland, The Story of the Cairns Railway, published by the Australian Railway Historical Society in 1976 and a best-seller for many years. It is the fascinating story of the history, construction and operation of the Cairns Railway, both main and branch lines. It includes detailed descriptions of the sections, including the Chillagoe… Read more about this item

This is a first edition of Great Maritime Museums of the World, a very high-quality coffee table book. Each museum covered has case histories and descriptions written by their curators. The museums covered are: Australian Maritime National Museum, Sydney, Australia Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada Vancouver Maritime Museum, British Columbia, Canada Viking… Read more about this item

This is a first edition (1967) of The Search for Speed Under Sail 1700-1855, by Howard Chapelle (1901-1975), a naval architect and curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian. It is considered an important work on the development of the fast sailing ship; it uses a new method of comparing the speed of sailing vessels built at different dates. It is… Read more about this item

This is a first edition of Anatomy of the Titanic, a thorough tour of the ship which includes 250 photographs, plans and drawings of the vessel's details and mechanics. It was written by Tom McCluskie, the Archive Manager for the ship's builders. He was also the firm's liaison to the producers of the film. The book was published in London in… Read more about this item

This is a First Edition of the Foulsham Henty Library's publication of With Clive in India: The Beginnings of an Empire, written in 1884 by the English novelist and war correspondent George Henty (1832-1902). Henty popularized the genre of Juvenile Adventure Fiction--he was the first to write very successful books about war-time adventures for boys. Through the 1950s, the publisher… Read more about this item

This is a boxed set of non-fiction travel books written by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was published by the Folio Society in 2004; these copies have clearly not been read, or even opened. They are pristine. All have illustrated covers and some illustrations inside, by the English artist Nick Hardcastle. As would be expected from the Folio Society, they are… Read more about this item

This is a first edition of Grosset & Dunlap's printing of The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, the 2nd book of the the classic children's series written and illustrated by the English writer Hugh Lofting (1886-1947). It is about a physician who communicates with animals. This copy was illustrated by the American illustrator Sonja Lamut. There is no evidence that anyone read this… Read more about this item

This is the first edition, first printing, of The Spycatcher Omnibus, the first collection of the works of Lt. Col. Oreste Pinto (1889-1961), the Dutch counter-intelligent agent who worked for MI5. He was very successful and his activities led to the capture of at least 8 spies. His books were made into a radio series, then a TV series, of… Read more about this item

This is a first edition, 14th printing, of Mutiny on the Bounty, the famous tale of the takeover, from Captain Bligh, of the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty by the mutineer Fletcher Christian. This is a novel, a fictionalized account of the story, which occurred in 1789. The novel was originally published in 1932 and was a runaway best-seller. This copy… Read more about this item

This is a mint-condition copy of English Eccentrics, written in 1933 by the English poet and critic Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964). It is a series of mini-bios about the great English eccentrics--hermits, quacks, mariners and men of learning. This is the Folio Society's edition of the book, which is illustrated by the English artist Roland Pym. It comes in a slipcase which… Read more about this item

This is a copy of Bartholomew's Clan Map, produced in 1975 by the Scots genealogist Sir Iain Moncreiffe of That Ilk (1919-1985). It was produced from an original painting by the Scottish artist Don Pottinger (1919-1986). The map features 'The Lands', 'The Arms', and 'The Crests'. The central map delineates the clan territories and is framed by an array of 170… Read more about this item

This is a pristine copy, and first printing, of The Folio Society's version of Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, a book known for its excellent portrayal of British society in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is the memoir of the English lawyer William Hickey (1749-1830); it was written in 1810 but not published until 1913. The Folio Society published… Read more about this item

This is a hard-to-find copy of Raj: A Scrapbook of British India 1877-1947, written by the British historian Charles Allen, best known for his famous book Plain Tales of the Raj. It is an 8" x 10" soft cover collection of rare photographs depicting the life of the British in India, along with lots of explanatory text. This copy has a crease… Read more about this item

This is a collection of three books, two of which are by the Canadian engineer and railway historian Robert Legget (1904-1994). The first is Railways of Canada, a best-seller, originally published in 1973, which tells the story of railways in Canada from the 1830s. This is a heavily illustrated 255-page trade paperback from 1980. Aside from a spot on the side… Read more about this item

This is three books about the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway published by The Calgary Group of the British Railway Modellers of North America. Each one is black and white, glossy, 11" x 8 1/2", soft cover. 1. Canadian Pacific's Bill Hill, by Floyd Yeats. Fourth printing 1995, 52 pages. Perfect condition except for a pencil mark on the cover and… Read more about this item

This is a first edition of The Far Lands, by the American writer James Normal Hall (1887-1951), who is best known for the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy. It was published in 1950. It is the fictional re-telling of the settlement of Hawaii seen through the eyes of the legendary figures found in Hawaiian mythology. A group of Tongans are in… Read more about this item

This is a stated first edition, and first US printing, of Last Essays, by Joseph Conrad. It was published in 1926 and includes 'Legends', the essay he was working on when he died (of a heart attack). It also includes a photo of the hand-written text of 'Legends'; these are the last words he wrote. As you can see, this book… Read more about this item

This is a first edition of With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D., by the British author Rudyard Kipling. In 1905, Kipling began serializing this science fiction novella in the American monthly McClure's Magazine. The story follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling foul weather, while a planet-wide Aerial Board of Control enforces a rigid system of… Read more about this item

This is a pristine copy of The Jungle Books, Volume II, the classic stories of animals in India written in 1894 by Rudyard Kipling. This is the 1948 edition published by Doubleday and illustrated by Aldren Watson. This is a beautiful copy. It is 7 stories, plus poems, with 6 color illustrations and several black and white illustrations. 201 pages, all clean and… Read more about this item

This is a stated First American Printing (1927) of Revolt in the Desert, by the British soldier T. E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1925). It was published in the UK in 1926 and is Lawrence's shortened version of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which is the account of his experiences while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces… Read more about this item