In the scarce dustwrapper.

CABLE, Mildred & Francesca FRENCH ~ Through Jade Gate and Central Asia.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Constable & Co Ltd, London: 1927

8vo., sage green cloth lettered in contrasting green to upper board and spine; upper edge stained green; together in the unclipped photographic dustwrapper (10s. net); with frontis, folding map showing Tibet, Mongolia and Turkistan, and a further 12 captioned illustrations throughout text; THE BOOK a very good plus copy, slightly sunned at spine tips with some associate pushing; endpapers offset but otherwise excellent; THE DUSTWRAPPER good, but seldom found at all, darkened in places with some creasing and marking, loss to panels at edges, particularly lower edge of front panel and upper edge approaching the spine, resulting in a little loss of title lettering; with no evidence of tape repair or restoration. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This copy comes together with ephemeral advertisement for other titles by French and Cable, a lecture which was held on the 23rd March 1933, and a photograph of the women alongside a review from 'The Spectator'. The true account of Mildred Cable and Francesca French who, together with French's sister Eva, undertook the hazardous journey across the largely untracked spaces of North-Western China and Central Asia, across the Gobi Desert. Cable joined the China Inland Mission in 1901, where she met Eva French and later, in 1910, her sister Francesca. Stationed for 20 years in Huozhou, Shanxi, the women, who by that time had become known as 'the trio' applied to work in Western China, and for the following twelve years they travelled across the continent, evangelising, building churches, handing out bibles and, on one occasion, controversially giving communion. Pioneering for their travels as independent women without guides or guards, they were the first Western women to traverse that part of the world. They left China in 1936, and retired in Dorset. 'Through Jade Gate' was one of a huge number of titles Cable published during this time, in conjunction with French, in which they wrote extensively on the landscapes, people, and natural phenomena they encountered during their travels. It remains a record of great hardship and danger, but also of "the courage of conviction evidenced in the life of pioneer missionaries." Scarce in the dustwrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good +
JACKET: Good