“BRILLIANT AND AMUSING”: SIGNED LIMITED FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF ALONG THE ROAD, SIGNED BY ALDOUS HUXLEY, ONE OF ONLY 250 COPIES

HUXLEY, Aldous. Along the Road Notes and Essays of a Tourist. New York: George H. Doran, (1925). Octavo, original three-quarter ivory vellum and brown paper boards, brown morocco spine label, top edge gilt, uncut and largely unopened. $450.

Signed limited first American edition, large paper, of Huxley’s first travel book, a “winning combination of travel pieces and artistic criticism,” preceded the same year by the English trade edition, number 75 of only 250 copies signed by Huxley, a beautiful copy.

“Along the Road was written between October 1924 and January 1925 (published in September). Its winning combination of travel pieces and artistic criticism develops Huxley’s theory of the importance of different, incompatible, yet equally legitimate points of view… Along the Road is not restricted to musings on travel and art, however. Huxley’s characteristic social concern and futurology constantly feature. He describes popular music and low culture, and wonders how the rapid improvements in technology will affect the balance between work and leisure” (O’Hara, Aldous Huxley, 25-26). “It was not only his first travel book; it was at the same time his first out of 12 regular collections of essays. Moreover, from Along the Road onwards, Huxley the essayist started to compete more and more successfully with Huxley the novelist” (Sexton et al., Aldous Huxley Annual IX:150). On publication the London Sunday Times praised Along the Road as “brilliant and amusing.” Containing 22 essays arranged in four sections: “Travel in General,” “Places,” “Works of Art” and “By the Way.” Issued the same year as Huxley’s third novel, Those Barren Leaves, and seven years before Brave New World. Without extremely scarce dust jacket, slipcase. Preceded the same year by the English trade edition. Eschelbach & Shober 3. Early owner inscription.

Interior fine, only light toning to spine. A highly desirable copy, uncut and largely unopened, in fine condition.