PHOTOGRAPHS AND NOTEBOOKS (First edition, first impression - lavishly illustrated)

First impression of the true first edition, with the full number string: 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 on the printer's page. The book was published in 1993 as a large landscape-format hardcover. Lavishly illustrated throughout with colour photographs by the author. With an Introduction by Francis Wyndham. ***Near fine in blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the flat spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. No creases or bumps. Corners sharp. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Page block edges clean. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Interior pages clean. No foxing. No creases or tears. ***In a near fine colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £20.00 net. The dustwrapper is complete, with just a little rubbing at the edges. No creases, chips or tears. The wide foldover flaps are slightly curled at the top edge. Dustwrapper bright. ***306mm x 270mm. 160 pages. ***'"Gone to Patagonia for six months." With this telegram Bruce Chatwin left the Sunday Times and embarked on the first of a series of extraordinary journeys which were to lead to even more extraordinary books: "In Patagonia", "The Viceroy of Ouidah", "On the Black Hill", "The Songlines", "Utz" and "What Am I Doing Here". From South America to West Africa, Australia to Eastern Europe, he captured, in vivid prose, words of intellectual richness and comic possibility, filled with the strange and the exotic. Throughout his travels Chatwin took thousands of photographs and completed a number of notebooks, the springboard and inspiration for his books. They are startling documents -- the notebooks are trenchant, learned, humane, witty; the photographs show an unparalleled sense of colour and visual imagery, and a deep feeling for beauty in all its forms. Here a selection of these are published for the first time, with an introduction by Francis Wyndham, and designed by David King. They re breathtaking, hugely imaginative and, like all of Chatwin's work, wholly original.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***The book is divided into four parts - Introduction; In Mauritania; The Road to Ouidah; From Hell to Heaven: Four weeks in Afghanistan. ***A very well preserved copy of this first impression of the true first edition of "Photographs and Notebooks" by Bruce Chatwin - a beautifully produced book with some striking photography. A selection of Chatwin's diary entries and photographs from his travels firstly in West Africa & Mauritania, Niger & Benin and then in Afghanistan. The trips were made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ***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.…