FRENCH, Evangeline; Mildred CABLE; Francesca FRENCH ~ A Desert Journal

FIRST ISSUE. Constable & Co Ltd, London: 1934.

8vo., bright blue cloth lettered in black with author's names calligraphically printed to upper board; printed in black to backstrip with publisher's device to foot; together in the mottled green dustwrapper, printed in black; with frontis and a further 15 captioned photographs throughout, as well as a large folding map to rear showing Siberia, Outer Mongolia and Tibet, printed in red and black; THE BOOK a very good copy, with some dents boards, particularly at the upper edge; spine tips lightly bruised; some spotting to the outer edges of text block; endpapers offset; with previous ownership inscription dated 1941 to the front free endpaper; the near-fine DUSTWRAPPER just a little darkened along spine and folds, lightly creased to the upper edge. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First issue, in the second state binding. The dustwrapper is in its second state. A series of letters by Mildred Cable, Francesca French and her sister Evangeline, sent home between the years of 1928 to 1932, and recounting their respective experiences in Central Asia to China, Tibet, Kashmir, Mongolia and Turkestan. Sometimes written "in the shade of a Tibetan Lamasery", others "in the Palace of a Mongol Khan", and occasionally "from the sand hills of the Edzin Gol and often in a mud shelter of the great desert", the companions write of their experiences, the people and places they encounter, and their living space, a small tent in which "by night the floor space is covered with bed bags, but during the daytime we pile these up to make a divan and a respectable reception-room is evolved". A fascinating account of group later known as 'the trio', whose pioneering travels, often alone and in remote regions, remain inspirational today. Increasingly hard to find with the dustwrapper in such nice condition.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Near Fine