Signed first edition of the author's first travel book

THUBRON, Colin ~ Mirror to Damascus. Signed by the author.

First edition, Heinemann, London: 1967

Large 8vo., red publisher’s cloth, lettered and decorated in gilt to spine; printed in gilt with ‘Jack Hood School Supplies’ stamp to foot of lower board; upper edge red; matching red endpapers; in the clipped photographic dust wrapper featuring a wraparound image in full colour across both panels and spine; proliferated throughout with numerous black and white photographs; as well as three double-page maps drawn by Joan Emerson, printed on green paper; THE BOOK a near-fine copy, the cloth slightly rubbed at edges with minimal pushing to the spine tips; Ex Libris of Walter H. Jones to the front paste-down; occasionally underlined in pencil throughout; rear endpaper with two vertical creases; else an excellent, near-fine copy in the very good DUST WRAPPER, slightly creased and sunned along folds; with associate rubbing; one small scratch to upper edge of rear panel; with light nicking/creasing to spine ends, and one chip to foot (no more than 1.5cm in depth); benefiting from a couple of discrete internal tape repairs. The wrapper is protected in a removeable Brodart archival cover. First edition of the author’s first travel book, signed to the title page with a photograph from the signing loosely inserted. A portrait of Syria’s capital city, and described by the author simply as a 'a work of love'. Published in 1967, it was the first work of its kind on the subject of the city for over a century, and was written in the aftermath of a period of several months in the 1960s, during which time Thurbron had spent time living with a Christian Arab family on the biblical Straight Street in the centre of the city. Part history, part travelogue, the author follows the settlement of early Damascus, through to the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, Biblical times (when St Paul, according to the Acts of the Apostles, lived on Straight Street and was cured of his blindness), the mediaeval era (during which time the city was frequented by Saladin), and the fall to the Ottoman Turks. As well as the city’s history, the artistic, social and religious inheritance of its people is also explored, and the book is proliferated with stories about travellers to the city throughout its history, such as Sigoli, a Tuscan pilgrim who wrote, in 1384, of the objects available in Damascus: “such rich and noble and delicate works of every kind that if you had money in the bone of your leg, without fail you would break it to buy of these things”. Proliferated with biblical references, Thubron’s work is interspersed with personal diary entries as well as stories and personal experiences, which include his visit to a convent, and developing friendships with people and families within Damascus and the surrounding areas. “It began as history”, Thubron writes in his introduction, “but soon grew personal, as seems inevitable in a city so compounded of the virtues and debilities of gods and men.” A fascinating portrait of Damascus during the 1960s, and a city poised on the cusp of irretrievable change. Increasingly scarce signed.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good