Signed by the author

Morris, James ~ Coast to Coast : Signed By The Author

First UK printing : Faber and Faber, London : 1956

8vo., bright red cloth, lettered with decorative star borders in yellow to backstrip; original unclipped pictorial wrapper (21s net) with two black and white photographs and lettered in white and red; frontis photograph and a further five within text, as well as a double-page map showing journeys relevant to the narrative (p.264-265); The BOOK a near Fine copy, ever-so-slight pushing and rubbing to the spine ends and corners; endpapers mildly offset, otherwise a clean, bright example; the Very Good+ WRAPPER with just some creasing to folds, and some nicks/chips and creases, mostly affecting the upper edge and especially so to the head of spine; with a couple of closed tears (maximum 4cm) extending into front panel, and a 1cm chip to the front flap fold; internally reinforced with two pieces of tape. No fading of red lettering to the spine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, first UK printing, boldly signed by the author in black felt pen to the title page. An eventticket to the 2013 Literary Festival is also loosely inserted, at which Morris gave a talk “Contact! A Book of Glimpses”, and where this copy was signed. As The Times Special Correspondent, Jan Morris (identifying as ‘James’ when this book was published), was the only journalist to accompany the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, climbing with the team 22,000 feet over a period of 16 days. Using a prearranged code to send news of the successful ascent, (announced in The Times on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation), she thereafter undertook a tour of the USA, travelling across all 48 states by car, train, ship and aeroplane over a distance of some 70,000 miles. This book is the culmination of those experiences, and Morris’s first work of literature, capturing an America at a critical period of post-war development, at the very beginning of the civil rights movement, and at a time in which television was still in its infancy. “I did not know it then, and nor did America, but chance had brought me across the Atlantic at the very apex of American happiness”, Morris wrote in a later introduction. It was to be the birth of one of the greatest travel writers of our time, with a further 18 published travel works to follow over a period of some 50 years, including the hugely successful Venice, which won the 1961 Heinemann Award and which is widely hailed as being one of the best travel books ever written. Coast to Coast was the winner of the 1957 Cafe Royal Prize, and was published in the US as As I Saw the USA; 1956. “There is still a splendid variety to the life of the Americans; much sprightly individualism and homely kindness; much brashness, violence and hocus-pocus; and much of that bold personal initiative”. Scarce with such attributes.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good+