The Worst Journey in the World.

presentation copy

Signed to front free endpaper 'Inscribed to Dorothy Kent Williams / Apsley Cherry-Garrard. / December. 8. 1937.'

After the publication of Edward Wilson's biography in 1933, recounting the extraordinary life of Scott's right hand man, there was a renewed interest in Cherry-Garrard's account, the two-volume editions of which were getting harder and harder to procure. At the urging of Wilson's widow Oriana, Cherry-Garrard put together this single volume edition with a new preface. It became the standard on which all further reprints were based and solidified the work's reputation as the best narrative of the Polar age.

'The best written and most enduring account of exploits in the Antarctic' (Taurus). 'It was perhaps the only real stroke of luck in Scott's ill-fated [Terra Nova] expedition that Cherry-Garrard, the one survivor of the winter journey, happened to be able to describe it so effectively that the reader forgets how comfortable he is in his arm-chair, and remembers the tale with a shiver as if he had been through it himself' (George Bernard Shaw).

First single volume edition; 8vo (23 x 16 cm); inscribed to the front free endpaper, unsigned bookplate to pastedown, 10 plates, 4 folding maps, fore- and bottom-edges uncut; publisher's light blue cloth, front board and title lettered in black, spine faded, cloth a little soiled, publisher's dust-jacket from 4th printing costing 8s. 6d., faded with one small tear to upper panel without loss and minor chips to spine, a good presentable copy; lxiv, 585 pp.

Taurus 84; Books on Ice, 6.12; Conrad p173; Rosove 71.E1; Spence 283.