The Home of the Blizzard

inscribed by Mawson to family relative

inscribed on the first blank: Mr. Delprat / With kind regards from / Douglas Mawson / 1916. The recipient, C.C. Delprat (1853-1934) was the paternal uncle of Mawson's wife Francisca Adriana ('Paquita') Delprat. She married Mawson in 1914, shortly after his return from his Antarctic Expedition.

rare inscribed copy of the first edition of Mawson's 'classic account of 'heroic age' exploits' with 'stunning photography' (Taurus). Sir Douglas Mawson (1882-1958), a former companion of Shackleton on the Nimrod expedition, visited the almost unexplored regions of King George V Land and Adelie Land, charting about two thousand miles of coastline from 1911 to 1913.

With sales diminished by the ongoing war in Europe, Heinemann soon abridged and republished The Home of the Blizzard in a popular edition. None the less, the first, two-volume edition is 'handsome, and all aspects of the expedition are thoroughly covered', and accompanied by 'beautiful, softly toned, color paintings' and 'superbly prepared' maps (Rosove).

First edition; 2 vols, 8vo; inscribed by Mawson on first blank, with numerous illustrations and charts in text, photographic frontispiece portraits (captioned on tissue guards) and 218 plates (many with multiple illustrations), of which 9 double-page and 18 printed in colour (each captioned on a tissue guard), 3 large folding maps with printed colour loosely inserted in pocket end vol. II, bookplates to front endpapers; original blue cloth gilt, silver pictorial vignettes to upper covers, spines professionally restored, a very good set; xxx, 349; xiii, 338 pp.