South by Thunderbird: 1937 First Edition with DJ, Map & N.T.C. Letter (Hudson Strode)

1937 first NTC edition, National Travel Club (New York), 6 1/2 x 9 inches tall black cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, gilt design to front cover, gilt lettering to spine, blue map endpapers, copiously illustrated with black-and-white photographs, xxix, 388 pp. plus NTC letter and folding maps (of South America and Alaska). Very slight edgewear to covers. Minor foxing to endpapers. Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a soiled, chipped and edgeworn dust jacket whose spine is age toned but which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. Slight age toning to NTC letter and maps. Overall, a spectacular collector's copy, complete with the original 1937 National Travel Club presentation letter and the folding Rand McNally map of South America in its stamped glassine envelope. Note: A previous owner also laid in a vintage NTC / Rand McNally folding map of Alaska in glassine, which is included here as a bonus but is not original to this publication. ~SP14~ [3.0P] An acclaimed 1930s travelogue chronicling a pioneering aerial tour of the South American continent. Traveling via the legendary Pan American Airways 'Clipper' flying boats?referred to as 'Thunderbirds' by indigenous populations?the author offers vivid pre-WWII descriptions of Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, capturing the political, economic, and social landscapes of the era. Hudson Strode (1892?1976) was a prominent American author and long-time professor of creative writing at the University of Alabama, widely respected for his immersive travel literature and historical biographies that uniquely blended literary prose with keen geopolitical observation.…