About this Item
First impression of the true first edition, published in 1934 - this being in the first state - published by Constable & Co. Ltd., as stated on the title page and the spine of the book. The book was transferred to Hodder & Stoughton shortly after first publication, and many copies have the new publisher on the spine. ***With the folding map at the back of the book, as called for, along with 16 photographic plates - collated as present. ***Very good in blue cloth-covered boards, with white titles to the spine and white titles and facsimile signatures of the three authors on the front board. The boards are beautifully clean and unmarked. The thin boards are nice and straight (not warped as is sometimes found). Slight creasing to the head and tail of the spine and rubbing to the corner tips - otherwise no bumps or creases. Corners sharp. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Light sporadic foxing to the page block edges. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. Light foxing to the first and last few pages, otherwise pages clean. There is slight splitting at the gutter between pp.6-7 but the binding is still firm. The folding map has a short closed tear to the margin at the lower edge, not affecting the map itself, and has quite a lot of foxing. With the erratum slip also tipped in next to the map (please see scans). No dustwrapper. ***ix prelim-pages plus 261 pages of text, with folding map at the back showing: 'Map of Sinkiang (Chinese Turkestan)marking each oasis on the trade route across the Gobi Desert'. 194mm x 130mm. ***'Alice Mildred Cable (21 Feb 1878 - 30 Apr 1952) was a British Protestant Christian missionary in China, serving with the China Inland Mission. Cable was part of an inseparable "trio" of missionaries along with sisters Francesca and Eva French. The trio is best known for their missionary efforts along remote caravan routes in Central Asia and the Gobi Desert. In 1913, the trio travelled to Gansu Province, Xinjiang and the Gobi Desert, and a few years later they adopted a young Tartar girl, a deaf mute, who remained with them when they returned to Britain. For most of the next thirteen years, in the words of Mildred Cable: "From Etzingol to Turpan, from Spring of Wine to Chuguchak, we --- spent long years in following trade-routes, tracing faint caravan tracks, searching out innumerable by-paths and exploring the most hidden oases. --- Five times we traversed the whole length of the desert, and in the process we had become part of its life". A reviewer said of Cable and Francesca French's book, "The Gobi Desert", that "this may be the best of many good books about Central Asia.' (Wiki) ***'These Desert Journals are personal letters sent home during a period of years spent on missionary journeys in Central Asia. They were written in unusual places and in diverse circumstances. Sometimes in the shade of a Tibetan lamasery, sometimes in the Palace of a Mongol Khan, occasionally from the sand hills of the Edzin Gol and often in a mud shelter of the great desert of Gobi. The dispatch of almost each letter was a problem, for only occasionally was normal postal service available, and sometimes a travelling merchant has carried a packet to post in some distant town. When brigands controlled the area and censored all letters, the journals were cut into strange patterns to be brought together again by the friend who received and circulated them.' (Quote taken from the Foreword) ***A first impression of the true first edition (in the first state), complete with the folding map in very good condition. Of interest to collectors of travel books on Central Asia. A book rarely found in the first state, with Constable & Co. as the publisher on the spine. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.
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